Skip to Main Content

Nursing Research & Evidence-Based Practice Toolkit

FREE resources for nurses and nursing students conducting research, evidence-based practice (EBP), and quality improvement (QI) projects courtesy of the Inova Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice Department and the Inova Health Sciences Library

Qualitative Research

Qualitative Research seeks to understand and interpret personal experiences, behaviours, interactions, and social contexts to explain the phenomena of interest, such as the attitudes, beliefs, and perspectives of patients and clinicians; the interpersonal nature of caregiver and patient relationships; the illness experience; or the impact of human suffering (Wong et al, 2004).
Wong SSL, Wilczynski NL, Haynes RB. Developing optimal search strategies for detecting clinically relevant qualitative studies in Medline. Medinfo 2004;311-314

 


Qualitative studies are subjective; they gain knowledge through the process of induction, involve use of words, and produce findings that are not meant to be generalizable.

Dearholt, S. & Dang, D. (2012). Individual Research Studies. JOHNS HOPKINS NURSING EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE: MODEL AND GUIDELINES. Retrieved http://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/1935476769/ch0006s0090

To find articles that are more likely to describe quantitative research, look at the study types, study methods, or data analysis methods.
The following image provides examples of the types of terms you can look for.

The following is an example of the terms you can put in your search to limit to Qualitative Articles:

(Qualitative OR Naturalistic OR Ethnography OR Phenomenology OR  Grounded Theory OR Experience OR Thematic)

Copy and paste the terms above into the search box of your favorite database (maybe CINAHL or PubMed). Connect this term phrase with your search topic with AND.

Example: Healing Touch AND (Qualitative OR Naturalistic OR Ethnography OR Phenomenology OR  Grounded Theory OR Experience OR Thematic)

This system isn’t perfect.  You’ll still need to look at the Methods and Data Analysis/Results sections of the articles you find to make sure you have a truly quantitative study.

Also, check your article closely to see if you found a Mixed Methods study.  These types of study include both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Qualitative Research: What to Look For

Setting: Natural environment

Samples: Small groups or individuals

Data: Observations, notes, interviews

Interventions: None--looking for themes, trying to understand & describe

Examples: Ethnography, biography, phenomenology, case study, grounded theory, case report, lived experience, documentary analysis, historical

What to look for: Interviews, open-ended questions, experiences, research gathered through observation and interviews, coding, focus group