How patients react when confronted with negative test result
Qualitative Research Designs
You have focused on the features and considerations of quantitative research
designs. However, quantitative designs are not appropriate for all research
questions. Perhaps you are concerned with how patients react when confronted
with negative test results, or you wish to study how views on a certain health
topic change over time. In each of these cases, the emphasis is more on
understanding the thinking and experiences of an individual or group than on
numerical measurements. For these types of questions, a qualitative or mixed
methods research design is the most appropriate.
For this Discussion, you focus on the different types of qualitative research
designs, when they are used, and why they are important.
To prepare:
Reflect on the comments made by Dr. Mauk in this week’s media presentation on
the value of qualitative research in nursing.
Locate the journal Qualitative Health Research in the Sage Premier database in
the Walden Library.
From this journal, select an article of interest to you that was published
within the last 3 years.
Review the information on different qualitative research designs in Chapter 20
of your course text.
Determine what qualitative research design was used in your selected article
and evaluate whether it was the best choice.
Consider ethical issues involved in the study and how the researchers
addressed them.
Think about how using a quantitative design would have affected the type of
data gathered.
