Word and Excel as Qualitative Data Analytic Software

Word and Excel provide the qualitative data analyst basic software tools for small-scale projects. This presentation reviews how the Office software was employed for analyzing a quantitative and qualitative data base derived from an e-mail survey. Software features and functions such as FONT SIZE, TEXT BOX, and CONCATENATE provide fundamental assistance with data analysis. This presentation is appropriate for beginning qualitative researchers with no access to sophisticated CAQDAS software

Researcher, Analyze Thyself

This article attempts to answer the phenomenological question, “What does it mean to be a qualitative researcher?” and an ancillary question, “What does ‘making meaning’ mean?” The author, in collaboration with selected participants at the 2018 The Qualitative Report and the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology’s Qualitative Research Methods conferences, proposes that research is devotion. Three major categories or components of devotion are purpose (personal and professional validation), belonging (communal grounding), and meaning (an enriched life). Ten subcategories or “elements of style” as qualitative researchers include: meticulous vigilance of details, unyielding resiliency, visionary reinvention, social savvy, humble vulnerability, representational responsibility, finding your methodological tribes, emotional immersion, gifting your ideas, and knowing and understanding yourself

Patient safety in dentistry: development of a candidate 'never event' list for primary care

Introduction The 'never event' concept is often used in secondary care and refers to an agreed list of patient safety incidents that 'should not happen if the necessary preventative measures are in place'. Such an intervention may raise awareness of patient safety issues and inform team learning and system improvements in primary care dentistry. Objective To identify and develop a candidate never event list for primary care dentistry. Methods A literature review, eight workshops with dental practitioners and a modified Delphi with 'expert' groups were used to identify and agree candidate never events. Results Two-hundred and fifty dental practitioners suggested 507 never events, reduced to 27 distinct possibilities grouped across seven themes. Most frequently occurring themes were: 'checking medical history and prescribing' (119, 23.5%) and 'infection control and decontamination' (71, 14%). 'Experts' endorsed nine candidate never event statements with one graded as 'extreme risk' (failure to check past medical history) and four as 'high risk' (for example, extracting wrong tooth). Conclusion Consensus on a preliminary list of never events was developed. This is the first known attempt to develop this approach and an important step in determining its value to patient safety. Further work is necessary to develop the utility of this method

Proceedings of the 3rd Biennial Conference of the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC) 2015: advancing efficient methodologies through community partnerships and team science

It is well documented that the majority of adults, children and families in need of evidence-based behavioral health interventionsi do not receive them [1, 2] and that few robust empirically supported methods for implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs) exist. The Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC) represents a burgeoning effort to advance the innovation and rigor of implementation research and is uniquely focused on bringing together researchers and stakeholders committed to evaluating the implementation of complex evidence-based behavioral health interventions. Through its diverse activities and membership, SIRC aims to foster the promise of implementation research to better serve the behavioral health needs of the population by identifying rigorous, relevant, and efficient strategies that successfully transfer scientific evidence to clinical knowledge for use in real world settings [3]. SIRC began as a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded conference series in 2010 (previously titled the “Seattle Implementation Research Conference”; $150,000 USD for 3 conferences in 2011, 2013, and 2015) with the recognition that there were multiple researchers and stakeholdersi working in parallel on innovative implementation science projects in behavioral health, but that formal channels for communicating and collaborating with one another were relatively unavailable. There was a significant need for a forum within which implementation researchers and stakeholders could learn from one another, refine approaches to science and practice, and develop an implementation research agenda using common measures, methods, and research principles to improve both the frequency and quality with which behavioral health treatment implementation is evaluated. SIRC’s membership growth is a testament to this identified need with more than 1000 members from 2011 to the present.ii SIRC’s primary objectives are to: (1) foster communication and collaboration across diverse groups, including implementation researchers, intermediariesi, as well as community stakeholders (SIRC uses the term “EBP champions” for these groups) – and to do so across multiple career levels (e.g., students, early career faculty, established investigators); and (2) enhance and disseminate rigorous measures and methodologies for implementing EBPs and evaluating EBP implementation efforts. These objectives are well aligned with Glasgow and colleagues’ [4] five core tenets deemed critical for advancing implementation science: collaboration, efficiency and speed, rigor and relevance, improved capacity, and cumulative knowledge. SIRC advances these objectives and tenets through in-person conferences, which bring together multidisciplinary implementation researchers and those implementing evidence-based behavioral health interventions in the community to share their work and create professional connections and collaborations

Teaching Qualitative Research Methods Principles through Popular Film Clips

Media instruction has a longstanding tradition in Grade K-12 classrooms, and the power of “edutainment” in our visually oriented, electronically mediated, and performative culture should not be underestimated or dismissed by university professors for their masters- and doctoral-level classrooms. Excerpts from strategically selected popular films introduce qualitative research topics, illustrate basic principles and techniques of inquiry, generate classroom discussion and reflection, clarify misunderstood concepts, function as referential mnemonics, and teach selected principles more effectively than traditional classroom pedagogy. This workshop qua mini-film festival showcases an array of brief film clips useful for demonstrating topics such as: qualitative research genres, ontology/epistemology, ethics, participant observation, interviewing, and data analysis. Workshop participants will view the film clips and discuss their applications for supporting the instruction of qualitative research methods

Embodying Analysis

Qualitative data analysis employs various traditional methods such as coding, both manually and through software, and other heuristics such as theme and assertion development. A more contemporary approach to data analysis is embodiment, the physicalization of in vivo codes and concepts through still and moving images. Rather than keeping analytic processes exclusively in the mind or on a monitor screen, the researcher’s body and voice are used as instruments for exploring the states and processes of human experience. The “Embodying Analysis” workshop will take participants through a series of physical activities to explore data related to addiction, recovery, and relapse. Image, movement, and vocal exercises from the canons of improvisational drama, Viola Spolin, and Augusto Boal will be facilitated to demonstrate how to “dramatize the data.” Reflection and experiential learnings will be documented through analytic memo writing, drawing, and discussion. Theatre artists use their bodies, voices, and stage devices to convey to audiences their interpretations of scripted characters in dramatic action. Qualitative researchers can utilize these same techniques to analyze the meanings and significance of participant data

Gaming in the Qualitative Research Methods Studio

Classroom questions, discussion, and oral reflection are certainly important components for a course in human inquiry, but talk alone does not maximize learning. A classic teaching proverb goes, “I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand.” If the greatest learning comes from doing (and educational research supports this), then the research methods classroom should be as physically active as possible. We cannot assume that all upper-division and graduate students are intrinsically motivated to give their full, focused attention during a sit-down seminar that demands higher-order thinking skills. The instructor is responsible for making learning participatory and, if possible, even joyous for learners of all ages. The workshop facilitator refers to his qualitative methods classroom space as a research studio, meaning a place to experiment mentally, physically, and creatively with inquiry processes. Participants will experience selected gaming and movement techniques used by the presenter to teach principles of qualitative inquiry such as pattern-making, categorization, concept development, properties and dimensions, and basics of grounded theory

Changing Lives Through Art: A Book Review of Stephen Snow’s Ethnodramatherapy

This book review introduces qualitative researchers to a specialized art form: ethnodramatherapy, the production of a play based on the study of the actions and thoughts of a group of people which aims to have a therapeutic effect on the individuals in the group. Stephen Snow’s Ethnodramatherapy: Integrating Research, Therapy, Theatre and Social Activism into One Method documents his decades-long work and expertise as a Registered Drama Therapist. Ethnodramatherapy is a multidisciplinary blend of qualitative research, mixed methods evaluation, arts-based research, dramatic improvisation for devised theatrical production, autoethnographic introspection, and—most notably—strategic therapeutic goals with selected participants from various populations. Ethnodramatherapy is a genre of applied theatre that utilizes the art form for individual, community, and social change

The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers

xix, 303 p. : Ill.; 24 cm