|
Read
about using research to raise
patient care to new
heights. Overview of Chapter 14:
Analyzing Qualitative Data The purpose of Chapter 14 is
to acquaint you with some of the fundamental
principles of analyzing narrative data from
unstructured interviews and observations, as well
as from written documents such as diaries and
letters. The chapter begins by discussing the aims
of qualitative research and describing the
challenges that qualitative data analysts face. The
next section discusses four major styles that range
on a continuum from standardized and systematic to
intuitive and interpretive. While the results of
qualitative analysis are usually easy to
understand, it is sometimes difficult to comprehend
the process of the analysis--particularly
because there are no firmly established rules. For
this reason, the chapter devotes more time to
discussing the methods associated with grounded
theory, about which much has been written. Some
basic procedures that are typically used for
analyzing qualitative data are also presented, but
these are not described in detail. The analysis of
qualitative data is an inductively driven process
that typically uses an iterative approach to
gleaning meaning from the data and checking that
meaning back against the data. Often the data are
also checked against the interpretation of others,
including the informants. Study
Chapter 14 in the
text, pages 379-402. Use the forum
for Questions for Instructor on Part 5 in
WebCT for Nurs
400A
or Nurs
400B
to post questions about things you don't understand
in Chapter 14. |