Sketchnotes as an Analytical Tool in a Large Qualitative Study

I will discuss using a technique called sketchnotes to render concepts pictorially and keep track of emerging themes in a dataset of 3 million words from discussions with more than 850 participants. I will show samples of sketchnotes from the project and discuss their value in working with a large set of complex qualitative data

Participatory Qualitative Research Methodologies in Health: A Review

Participatory Qualitative Research Methodologies in Health is an edited collection of essays on the methodologies, challenges, and opportunities of participatory research. It provides guidance in designing and executing participatory studies, and thoughtful examinations of the ethical and practical issues of research partnerships, with particular attention to marginalized or vulnerable people

“Just let those crack babies die!”: Reflections on the usefulness of distressing statements in qualitative research

Distressing statements arise often in health care research. Study participants share stories that are distressing to hear or express views that seem offensive. As a rookie researcher, I found these events difficult and epoché seemed beyond reach. Distressing stories left me emotionally shaken and it was hard to keep myself from judging people for offensive comments. With reflection, I learned to “pivot” distressing statements to extract a core value or issue where I could find impartiality. To reach epoché, I first had embrace what had been said as well as my feelings about it. I learned to appreciate these events for their capacity to deepen analysis in the thorniest topics in health care by surfacing core elements. For example, the person who said “just let those crack babies die” helped unlock my understanding of conceptual relationships in how people think about health care. It begins with the idea that “deservingness” plays a role in how we think about health care access: when do we believe that people deserve health care resources? Deservingness seems to hinge on the interplay of costs and perceived personal responsibility, not medical severity or treatability. I will share strategies for pivoting such as listening for the visceral reaction as a signal that a pivot may be available; using distressing statements as codes or themes; examining how the distressing statement arose logically from prior discussion; and cross-walking distressing content with conceptual frameworks

New Windows on Patient Experience in Health Care: Blogs, Vlogs, Facebook, and More

New emphasis on patient-centered care has done much to increase qualitative inquiry in healthcare research. As healthcare providers are held accountable for patient satisfaction, they need to understand how patients experience and perceive their care, and why. But, research is often restricted to traditional modes of qualitative inquiry—focus groups or interviews—because these are familiar. Privacy regulations may also pre-emptively stop researchers from considering observational data collection. Data analysis, too, often consists of only a few techniques—coding, thematic analysis—deemed the “most rigorous.” These traditional methods may also produce results that are less concrete and biased by researchers’ goals and objectives. For example, doctors may be told that they need to “interact respectfully” and “partner with patients,” without much to tell them what that entails. Meanwhile, patients are creating their own rich repository of information about their experiences though blogs, vlogs, photo archives, or public social media. For example, videos like this one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyGRFiSv2bI) open a new window into the patient’s world. Not only do patients record and comment on their actual care, permitting new insights into what really happens in a hospital, but they choose what data to collect and how, reflecting what is naturally important to them. Because patients collect and publicly release this information, this window is also not obscured by privacy laws like HIPAA. I will explore the value of these novel resources can bring to healthcare researchers and suggest ways in which they could be used to supplement traditional qualitative modalities

Pathway to Measuring Patient and Family Engagement: Prioritizing Engagement Behaviors in the Hospital Setting

Background/Aims: Growing evidence suggests that patient and family engagement (PFE) can help achieve the “Triple Aim” of improving population health and patient experiences of care while reducing costs. One critical gap as we work toward these goals is the lack of a clear approach to PFE measurement to assess associated outcomes and gauge health care performance. In this project, we draw on an existing framework to define behaviors that constitute PFE in the hospital setting and identify a subset of these behaviors that are of high priority for measure development and implementation. Methods: We identified engagement behaviors for hospital leadership, clinicians and patients/families through: a literature scan of publications and existing measures; key informant interviews; and input from an eight-member advisory group that included patients and families, clinicians, measurement experts and hospitals. To prioritize engagement behaviors, we categorized these behaviors into thematic domains, surveyed our advisory group and other experts in PFE and synthesized feedback to select a set of high-priority behaviors for PFE measurement that address multiple domains, are feasible to measure and are important for driving change or increasing accountability. Results: Eight domains of engagement in the hospital setting were prioritized: access to medical record, creating opportunities for engagement, communication, discharge planning, family presence, goal-setting, shared care planning, and transparency. These domains include specific high-priority engagement behaviors at the hospital, clinician and patient levels. For example, priority behaviors in the “access to medical record domain” include: hospitals make medical records easily accessible and involve patients and families in designing medical record access mechanisms and policies; clinicians record patient medical information in plain language (free of jargon and abbreviations); and patients access and use their medical record. Conclusion: PFE measurement is at a nascent stage. To our knowledge, this is the first work to systematically identify behaviors that constitute PFE in the hospital setting and prioritize those that are feasible and important to measure. The resulting matrix of high-priority measurement behaviors mapped against domains and levels of PFE provides a comprehensive approach for measuring PFE in the hospital setting, including the selection and development of measures

The scientific nature of qualitative inquiry: An unscripted panel discussion

Aspects of the TQR learning community, including the journal, the conference, and the NSU qualitative research graduate certificate provide myriad opportunities for scholars to connect and collaborate. In keeping with the conference theme, the purpose of this panel presentation is to provide an organic demonstration of how we as members of the TQR community learn from each other through a process of personal construction of understanding, followed by social re-construction of our understanding of the same phenomenon. In this session, five participants who met as a result of TQR learning community activities will engage in an unscripted scholarly discussion about the question: “To what extent should qualitative inquiry be scientific?” Prior to the conference session, panel members will independently prepare a brief manuscript, replete with references, to describe their unique responses to the question. Panelists will engage in limited exchange prior to the conference, and incorporate reflections from the exchange into their writing. During the session, all panelists will share their responses with each other, describe what they have learned from each other, consider how this new learning enriches their initial thoughts about the question, and provide session attendees with opportunities to contribute to the conversation

To What Extent Should Qualitative Inquiry Be Scientific? Notes From and Inspired by an Unscripted Panel Presentation

The components of The Qualitative Report - TQR learning community – including the journal, the conference, and the NSU qualitative research graduate certificate – provide multiple opportunities for scholars to connect and collaborate. This paper is an extension of a moderated panel presentation from TQR 2021 in which we aimed to provide an organic demonstration of how we, as members of the TQR community, aimed to learn from each other through a process of personal construction of understanding, followed by social re-construction of our understanding of the same phenomenon in response to others’ responses. To prepare for the session, five members of the TQR learning community independently developed responses to the question: “To what extent should qualitative inquiry be scientific?” Prior to the conference session, panel members and an invited moderator held periodic virtual meetings to negotiate aspects of the upcoming presentation. This paper consists of re-presented panelist and moderator reflections, comments, and responses, re-ordered to create an engaging narrative that shares commonalities and contrasts revealed through the process of reflection. We begin the multiple dialogue with excerpts which illustrate participants’ reflections to their invitations to participate, continue with excerpts to show thoughts and transitions at key points of the presentation preparation process, and ending with new questions inspired by involvement in this collaborative process