Centre for Qualitative Research : Featured Resource
New Qualitative Methods in Health and Social Care Research
Frances Rapport (2004)
Aim of the book
The aim of this collected volume is to better inform research and practice in health and social care by raising awareness of the potential use for new qualitative methodology and its application to practice. New qualitative methodology is discussed in terms of its history, methods and applicability to health and social care practice. In order of chapter appearance, following an introduction to new qualitative methodology (Frances Rapport), methods covered are:
Chapter 1 Discourse analysis (Griffiths and Elwyn)
Chapter 2: Biographic narrative interpretive method (Jones)
Chapter 3: Hermeneutic method (Chadderton)
Chapter 4: Descriptive phenomenological method (Todres and Holloway)
Chapter 5: Interpretative anthropological method (Nigel Rapport)
Chapter 6: Imagework (Edgar)
Chapter 7: Cut-up technique (Biley)
Chapter 8: Historiography (Maggs)
Chapter 9: Social action research (self-directed groupwork method) (Fleming and Ward)
In exploring recent developments in qualitative methodologies and their implications for, and impact on, the delivery of health and social care and the evaluation of good practice, the volume and the individual contributions will:
broaden understanding of notions of good practice;
enable health and social care professionals and academics to learn more about new qualitative methodologies;
encourage an understanding of the application of methodologies to practice.
There is pressure on health and social care professionals to combine their health or social care work with research - however limited - in order to achieve 'best practice'. This is normally seen as entailing simply keeping up with the latest literature and apprehending the results of recent evidence-based research. But evidence is not so simple or transparent a concept. Evidence, in fact, is closely related to research methodology. Different methodologies can put forward different 'evidence': both different kinds of facts and, to an extent, different facts per se. There are more research methodologies and more evidences about in 'science' than many health and social care professionals may be aware.
But these other methodologies and evidences may have direct relevance for them nonetheless; becoming aware of a range of different methodologies and evidence can assist health and social care professionals in their efforts to achieve a timely best practice.
This book brings together health and social care professionals and a range of research scientists in order to explore ways in which notions of best practice can be broadened, and a diversity of methodologies and evidences brought into the world of health and social care. This will be done through an in-depth appreciation of the concept of evidence: what it means, how it is arrived at and the consequences of it being applied.
Unifying factors between chapters
The nine chapters in the book will cover a diverse range of approaches to qualitative methodology, spanning a spectrum of responses to the relation- ship of theory to practice. However, several factors unite them:
- interest to a range of professionals from different disciplines, making them accessible to a wide audience of health and social care professionals and academics;
- credibility, coming as they do from recognised experts in the field of health and social care research;
understanding of complex issues presented in a clear and concise manner without misuse or inconsistency of methodological precepts; - grasp of developments in qualitative methodology through clear demonstration of its applicability to our understanding of health organisations and practice;
- international application, since issues pertinent to methodological decision making transcend nationality.
This book should, therefore, appeal to health and social care practitioners, general practitioners, and primary care professionals and researchers, as well as to health and social care researchers, postgraduate and PhD students studying medicine, nursing, the social sciences and social work, lecturers in health and social care practice and research, and health services researchers.
With a desire to improve patient care delivery and work towards best practice, the volume is a timely reminder of the value of applying theory to clinical research and practice and the chapters, with their underlying methodological discussions, will have international relevance.
