Qualitative Research methodology in healthcare/hospitals

Practical Challenges a researcher encounters for Qualitative Research is a crucial aspect in the healthcare sector.

Now many questions naturally strike the mind once we hear the term Qualitative research. What is qualitative research in healthcare sector? How to accomplish it? What are the reasons to choose qualitative research? What are the challenges researchers have to face?

Let us take one by one.

Qualitative research doesn’t follow a particular technique rather it’s a phenomenon to conceptualize the practical view.

Once the research question is set, research procedures will start.It includes appropriate method selection, designing the method to get the answers to the research questions. It is a social view of a particular context and interpretation of the relationship between patients and health professionals.

Qualitative research methods involves

• Systematic collection,
• Organizing, and interpretation of material in textual form derived from talks and observations

We can summerise the significant reasons for choosing this area of research as follows

• Through this research, the emotions, perceptions and actions of people who are suffering a medical condition can be understood
• Through personal interaction between health professionals and patients, healthcare professionals can realize the true meaning of their professions.
• In these interactions,  patients are considered as  whole human beings. Patient’s behavioral changes that are observed during such interactions can help to develop effective  health or educational policies.

Qualitative research is a significant tool for the perception of health phenomena and to understand the major gaps in research where the invasion is needed.

Challenges faced by researchers in qualitative research

• First of all there is no such set of rules to accomplish the research work, It depends on interaction with participants, conceptualize the overview followed by interpretation and explanation.
• No security and safety backup for any mistakes.
• Though the Qualitative Research Methods have been persuaded through systematic collection, organization and interpretation of derived data from personal interaction and putting that in textual format still health community are skeptic about the adequacy of appropriate fact. According to Corbin, general interest in qualitative method and particular grounded theory has escalated in the last 10 years..
• Identification of the research problem and selection of appropriate methodology are the preliminary challenges of researchers.
• Some important challenges faced by researchers are inconsistency between research question and methods adopted, insufficiency of methodological knowledge and lack of attentiveness.

As a researcher one should have proper information about interview, knowledge of data sampling  or Qualitative Data Analysis to understand the phenomena of study so that it will be interesting otherwise their methodology will fail to develop the research question and the ontological and epidemiological assumptions.

The aim of qualitative researchers is to set the question of what exactly they intend to get answer through interaction with patients

Questions can take you to focus on a project that was not addressed earlier.

Normally we find the following problems out of the research questions:

• Deciding what research topic to choose among the wide range of problems that fall under your domain of interest.
•  Often focus on an interesting part of the topic is missed as we tend to give more importance to a major part of the work.
• It is a challenge to know which area you want to focus on.
• It is also a difficult job to find out what specific areas and topics are hard to articulate a clear question.

Researchers often face problems in finding the right topics in their field of interest because they do not perform a broad literature review to find the gaps and problems suitable to be investigated.

Sometimes their domain of interest is distinct from their supervisors or there are no experts to help them in this regard.

Researches normally get confused to find the accurate topic of their field of interest that sometimes differ from their supervisors. Researchers have to identify the topic through literature review, personal and professional experience and also by expert’ s opinion. After the selection of topic, the Questionnaire has to be framed in such a way that the intention of research can be viewed clearly. Both the theoretical assumption and practical experience must go hand in hand. It includes five of the following six-  who, when, where, what, how and, why and the entire set should be devised by the sixth.

 Research questions are the most crucial part of the whole process as the end result depends on these. So researchers should give more time discussing with experts, gaining knowledge for making questions.

How to choose the proper methodology and research design

Selection of the best methodology like enthography or grounded theory is vital once you have identified the initial question for research. Most of the newbies fail to find out the most suitable design to carry out the research. They also fail to discover the right methodology that will hold the answer to the question. Therefore, researchers need to do their homework here like planning for the qualitative research and selection of methodology.

Students or researchers often chose qualitative research as they find it easier than the other methodologies available. But they should remember that qualitative research is only the initial stage. Moreover, it is by no means a simple methodology as it involves processes like data collection or data analysis which can throw you a lot of challenges. Therefore, well thought out plans are required in every phase of the research process, starting from preparing the question to the final research write-up that will be published.

Conclusion

Qualitative research is basically a social tool to carry out research on health-related phenomena. Of course there are challenges involved in doing such projects like recognizing the actual problem, preparing the question, choosing the right methodology and research design. One has to have proper planning and arrangements in every cycle of the process and make sure to have a right understanding of the nature and character of the inquiries.