Discussion Instructions: this discussion is divided in two parts
1. Main discussion
2. Respond to two of your colleagues with a comment that asks for clarification, provides support for, or contributes additional information.
BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
As a nursing professional, you will likely engage in research for your health care setting. Depending on the research question you seek to address, you might choose to use a qualitative research design. Understanding when and why it is appropriate to choose a qualitative research design will be important as you develop research skills for nursing practice. As you continue throughout this course, think about what considerations you should keep in mind when choosing to engage in qualitative research. In what ways might qualitative research be more preferred than quantitative research for informing nursing practice?
For this Discussion, be sure to review the qualitative article by Vretare and Anderzen-Carlsson (2020). Then, view this week’s Qualitative Research Design PowerPoint webinar that describes each step of the qualitative research process and different approaches used to conduct qualitative research.
RESOURCES:
· Vretare, L. L, & Anderzen-Carlsson, A. (2020).
The critical care nurse’s perception of handover: A phenomenographic study Links to an external site.
.
Intensive & Critical Care Nursing, 58.
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.iccn.2020.102807
Walden University, LLC. (2015).
Qualitative research design
Links to an external site.
[Video]. Walden University Canvas. https://waldenu.instructure.com
Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 11 minutes.
https://cdn-media.waldenu.edu/2dett4d/Walden/NURS/3150/CH/mm/qualitative_research/index.html
You will need to prepare and post a 350-word response that addresses the following:
· Qualitative research often is viewed as not having the same rigor and adherence to objective standards as quantitative studies. Using the references provided to assist you, prepare an argument to either support or refute this claim and post it to the Discussion. In your response, explain if qualitative research does or does not have the controls needed to generate the results that contribute to the nursing knowledge base.
· Then, explain if qualitative research could be used to investigate the patient safety problem you identified in Week 1.
Respond to two of your colleagues with a comment that asks for clarification, provides support for, or contributes additional information.
Tiffany Shinton-Truitt
Qualitative research looks at a more in-depth response from participants. Gray and Grove (2021), point out that with qualitative research the researchers are looking at what was of value or what did the participants take away from the experience. Qualitative data is considered subjective information compared to objective quantitative data. One area that differs compared to quantitative studies is the rigor the study goes through. In qualitative studies, open-ended questions allow patterns to be identified. Based on the methodology of the study the researcher may alter questions in a focus group to align with the patterns the researcher is recognizing (Gray & Grove, 2021).
Time is another aspect that Gray and Grove (2021), mentioned with not only needing a relationship with the participants to be established but also the audit trail for qualitative studies. Interpretation of qualitative studies requires several procedures such as how are codes going to be created, whether is software going to be used, intercoder, and bias. The validity and reliability of qualitative studies are also different than that of qualitative studies (Gray & Grove, 2021).
Qualitative studies have different controls than quantitative studies, but I feel still contribute to nursing. Medication errors is a big topic within nursing since it can cause patient harm or death. Castaldo, et al. (2022), completed a qualitative study looking at the experience student nurses had during clinicals with medication errors. The aim of the study was to look at the different discouraging factors that the students felt to reporting medical errors. The data analysis stated that no software was used and that the interviews from the focus groups were transcribed word for word. Rigor is another section to show validity, credibility, and reliability. Castaldo, et al. (2022), stated how each author contributed to the rigor, and the triangulation they took to strengthen trustworthiness and validity. The results from the focus groups quoted what some of the students stated happened and why the medication errors were made (Castaldo, et al., 2022).
While quantitative studies have their own strengths with statistics there is also a weakness as I feel qualitative studies can give more in-depth answers as to what the participant was feeling at the time. An example with Castaldo, et al. (2022), is the participants were able to indicate what stresses they were feeling, what the distractions were, and what other factors may have contributed to the medication error that may not be able to be seen statistically with quantitative analysis.
References
Castaldo, A., Ferrentino, M., Ferrario, E., Papini, M., & Lusignani, M. (2022). Factors contributing to medication errors: A descriptive qualitative study of Italian nursing students.
Nurse Education Today,
118, 105511. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2022.105511
Gray, J. R., & Grove, S. K. (2021).
The practice of nursing research appraisal, synthesis, and generation of evidence (9th ed., pp. 75-100, 314-357). Elsevier.
Respond to two of your colleagues with a comment that asks for clarification, provides support for, or contributes additional information.
Zandra Harrold
Qualitative and quantitative research designs are often compared based on their characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses in clinical research. Proponents of quantitative designs argue that quantitative studies are better due to their rigor, unlike qualitative investigations, which lack the same attribute. However, this discussion will illustrate that qualitative studies are rigorous because they can be assessed for accuracy, dependability, transferability, credibility, and confirmability. Thus, qualitative designs are reliable in clinical experiments because they dwell on patients’ experiences while implementing useful research designs to produce accurate, measurable, and confirmable evidence.
Qualitative research findings are as rigorous as quantitative studies because they are characterized by strong research designs and can provide accurate, measurable, and confirmable answers to research questions. Although proponents of quantitative research might argue that qualitative research lacks the same rigor as quantitative investigations, qualitative research equally serves the same benefits in nursing practice. Rigor in qualitative research refers to the strength of the research design and the method’s ability to answer the research question (Cypress, 2017). Rigor in qualitative studies could also mean the state of accuracy, exactness, and precision in research findings to enhance the trustworthiness of an investigation. Vretare et al. (2020) confirm that the reliability of qualitative studies is proven by an investigation’s credibility, transferability, confirmability, and dependability. These are examples of controls that would enhance the rigor and reliability of a nursing experiment. For example, the credibility of the study could be assessed through analysis and evaluation of research findings to ascertain the validity of the responses or the methods used to collect data. Evaluation and analysis are implemented to confirm that the evidence collected is valid, true, accurate and unbiased. Notably, the rigor of a qualitative study could be proven through the transferability of the research findings. Transferability is synonymous with generalizability, meaning research findings’ applicability in different contexts (Vretare et al., 2020). Accordingly, qualitative research is rigorous enough to facilitate evidence-based practice due to the confirmability of research findings. The confidence of a study is determined by the degree to which other experiments could approve research findings. Indeed, when the results and inferences do not contradict other scholarly materials, then the rigor of a qualitative study is determined since researchers have confidence that their findings are accurate, authoritative, and dependable for evidence-based practice. Henceforth, the trustworthiness of a qualitative study is the evidence of rigor in research, which guarantees the credibility and dependability of qualitative investigations in clinical research.
The trustworthiness of qualitative research in clinical research guarantees the suitability of these research methods for investigating nursing and practice factors leading to increased medical errors. Qualitative research in clinical contexts concerns patients’ experiences and the applicability of research findings to improve such experiences. Concerning the problem of increasing medical errors, qualitative research would help determine causal effects and factors to consider when addressing the identified challenge. Busetto et al. (2020) note that qualitative studies assess complex multi-component interventions or systems of change, addressing questions beyond “what works” towards “what works for whom when, how, and why” and focusing on intervention improvement rather than accreditation (p.2). This assertion implies that the chosen qualitative design would help find more answers regarding the source of medication errors while enabling clinicians to determine which solutions work and which do not suit the identified research problem. Therefore, the ability to choose the causal relationship between variables and find multiple solutions to the identified issue makes qualitative research design the ideal investigation method for the patient safety program I identified in week 1.
References
Busetto, L., Wick, W., & Gumbinger, C. (2020). How to use and assess qualitative research methods.
Neurological Research and Practice,
2(1), 1-10.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s42466-020-00059-zLinks to an external site.
Cypress, B. S. (2017). Rigor or reliability and validity in qualitative research: Perspectives, strategies, reconceptualization, and recommendations.
Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing,
36(4), 253-263.
https://doi.org/10.1097/DCC.0000000000000253Links to an external site.
Vretare, L. L., & Anderzen-Carlsson, A. (2020). The critical care nurse’s perception of handover: a phenomenographic study.
Intensive and Critical Care Nursing,
58(1), 1-7.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iccn.2020.102807
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