Qualitative Research in Nursing Practice

To prepare:

Consider your readings about and understanding of quantitative and qualitative research. If you had to choose, which type of research (quantitative or qualitative) do you think is more rigorous and why? Do you think it is useful to make such generalizations and comparisons?

Locate an article describing a qualitative research study related to a health care topic.

Formulate a research question to address the problem and that would lead you to employ correlational statistics.

With information from the Learning Resources in mind, critically analyze your selected study. Ask yourself: How rigorous was the study in terms of the researchers’ efforts, the data collected, and the conclusions drawn? What might the researchers have done to improve the rigor?

Post 1-2 pages cohesive response that addresses the following:

1. Do you think there is one type of research (quantitative or qualitative) that is inherently more rigorous than the other? If so, identify which one and why. If not, discuss your reasoning.

2. Post a brief summary of your research article analysis and the correct APA citation for the article.

3. Outline how the study’s qualitative data collection and analysis did, or did not, promote rigor, provide scientific or systematic scaffolding, and/or generate a more thorough analysis of the research topic.

References

Required Media

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011). Research methods for evidence-based practice: Qualitative research. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Required Readings

Gray, J.R., Grove, S.K., & Sutherland, S. (2017). Burns and Grove’s the practice of nursing research: Appraisal, synthesis, and generation of evidence (8th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Saunders Elsevier.

Chapter 12, “Qualitative Research Methods” (pp. 251-274)

Articles

Bradley, E. H., Curry, L. A., & Devers, K. J. (2007). Qualitative data analysis for health services research: Developing taxonomy, themes, and theory. Health Services Research, 42(4), 1758–1772. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6773.2006.00684.x

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

Smith, J., & Firth, J. (2011). Qualitative data analysis: The framework approach. Nurse Researcher, 18(2), 52–62.

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.