Qualitative research aims to comprehend the meaning of human action and investigates phenomenon as it occurs in its natural context through subjective means of inquiry (Carter & Little, 2001 & Hoft, 2011). This paper sets out to identify four features of research as they apply to qualitative research: ontology, epistemology, methodology, and sampling, through the investigation of the article "The health-care environment on a locked psychiatric ward: An ethnographic study" (Johansson, Skarsater & Danielson, 2006).
Idealist ontology holds the belief that research knowledge is made up of subjective experiences obtained through observation that is consistently influenced by the researcher's interpretations (Giacomini, 2010). Qualitative research is intrinsically idealistic. In the study by Johansson, Skarsater, and Danielson (2006), the researchers utilized an ethnographic methodology which allowed the observer to view the phenomena "in the context in which it occurred" (p 243) in order to describe various aspects of the health-care environment in a locked psychiatric ward. In addition, the study acknowledges that findings were influenced by the researchers' interpretations and attempts to prevent this, as the study states, "the researcher tried to avoid becoming too familiar in order to minimize her influence on the course of events" (Johansson et al, 2006, p 245). With the idealist ontological view, the study acknowledges that information about the participants is gained through subjective observation, which is influenced by the researchers' presence and interpretation.
Interpretive epistemology, which stems from idealist ontology, asserts that the world is made up of ideas: about oneself, others, society, or nature (Giacomini, ...
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.... Premises, Principles, and Practices in Qualitative Research: Revisiting the
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Doyle, S. (2013). Reflexivity and the capacity to think. Qualitative health research, 23 (2), 248- 255. doi: 10.1177/1049732312467854
Giacomini, M. (2010). Theory matters in qualitative health research (chapter 7). In I. Bourgeault, R. Dingwall & R. de Vries. The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Methods in Health Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Hoff, T. J. (2011). Toward a culture of qualitative thinking in health services research. Medical care research and review: MCRR, 68 (1), 49-55. doi: 10.1177/1077558710383431
Interpretivism is a view that trusts that the world and the truth are not target and outer, but rather are socially built and given importance by individuals. This view is normally alluded to as the subjective approach and depends on an inductive system (Rea and Parker, 2006).(why
Regardless of how well a health care provider believes his or her practice to be of an exemplary quality, there will remain over time room for improvement - improvement in assessment, empathy, understanding, care, technology and a host of other aspects. To not recognize this places a health care worker at risk, not only within the boundaries and expectations of who that person is as a provider but also of stagnation with an eventual push toward obsolescence. It is one thing to further one’s sense of the parameters of one’s profession and yet, without the ability to honestly reflect upon one’s sense of duty to humanity within the context of professional decision making, it is only a matter of time before conflicts will arise.
Weiss, G. L., & Lonnquist, L. E. (2011). The sociology of health, healing, and illness (7 ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall.
The Ottawa Model of Research Use (OMRU) offers a “comprehensive, interdisciplinary framework of elements that affect the process of health-care knowledge transfer, and is derived from theories of change, from the literature, and from a process of reflection” (Graham & Logan, 2004, p. 93). It promotes research use, and could be used by policymakers and researchers (Logan & Graham, 1998). The OMRU is an example of a planned change theory, which helps “administrators control factors that will influence the likelihood of changes occurring at the organizational level and how these changes occur” (Graham & Logan, 2004, p. 2).
The quest for knowledge, a topic often contemplated in philosophy, remains persistent with mankind seeking to understand the uncertainty in the world surrounding him. Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that raises questions and provides answers about what constitutes knowledge and justifies belief. The main concerns of knowledge in epistemology are how it is defined, what the source is, how it’s acquired, what its limitations are, and what kind of knowledge is necessary. Three very well known philosophers of their time offer their different ideas on the subject of knowledge and epistemology.
A critical appraisal was completed to assess the value of the research study conducted by Batch & Windsor (2015). This was completed through the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP). The CASP tool is used to evaluate different research articles. I assessed that this article has benefit, particularly for the nursing profession. Nevertheless, sections of this article could have been further developed by expanding the topic through a greater variety of hospital settings and more diverse patient populations (add more). Ethnography in the healthcare setting has often been examined in the Nursing 1028 course. This article used an ethnographic framework assess elements such as culture, disparities and gain comprehension of how nurses communicate
...osyncratic individualities and to normalize knowers and knowledge. Epistemology of particular knowledge demands consideration to distinctions and codify for admittance and for examination the perspicacity of knowers. Once knowledge is comprehended as being distinctive to and established by the knower, it surrenders its standing and converts to plural. This leads to the knowers’ comprehension distinct to themselves. While also an individuals knowledge develops the epistemological substance that produce an bionetwork of knowing which notifies and incorporates social groups, organizations and associations. When accepting comprehensively and bearing in mind the interconnection of knowers, the grander epistemological network is a societal or epistemological illusory. One that recommends the parameters of how it can be known, what can be known, and what becomes knowledge.
Traditionally Empiricists claim that all knowledge and all basic concepts are derived from experience. At the same time they argue that all experience is reducible to private entities, the so-called 'sense data'. Phenomenologists claim that there is nothing in experience itself to suggest that it is reducible to sense data, and that this doctrine is derived from metaphysical prejudices, the so-called 'assumptions of the natural attitude'. They argue that if we could in some way 'bracket' these assumptions and reflect only on our experience of perceiving and on the results of scientific measurements of our perceptual powers, we would discover that perception, rather than presenting us with private entities or 'data', 'opens up' to the world itself. (1)
The unstructured interview approach, is an excellent way of creating multiple realities by giving the control of the interview over to the participants being interviewed and inviting them to tell their stories peaked by only an open-ended question. This method requires an environment in which the participants readily open up (Hill, 2001). To the credit of the current study, the interviewees did provide detailed accounts when interviewed. Additionally, as the stories are elicited by the participants own volition, they can cover a broad range of topics allows for unplanned comments and topics to come up that may have otherwise been left untouched in a more structured methodology (Kvale, 1983). However, because the responses are so gloriously open ended they are difficult to compare across different cases, and large amounts of irrelevant data must be sifted through in a time consuming manner. The benefit of qualitative phenomenological research is that while most scientific methods focus on what can be physically observed and quantitatively measured, this leaves a gapping hole in our ability to evaluate the human condition as most of what we do is determined by unseen forces in our psyches (Kvale, 1983). Therefore, open-ended phenomenology allows researchers to break the restrictive mold and attempt to discover insights into lived experience that would normally remain invisible to more traditional scientific study (Dale,
Reflexivity is a qualitative method of research that takes an ethnography one step further, displaying the personal thoughts and reflections of the anthropologist on his informants. Ethnographies generally take an outside or foreign perspective of a culture, like reading a text, and reflexivity introduces a new component of inside description. Here, the anthropologist may describe personal interactions and experiences with natives and use this inside information to make additional conclusions about the people being studied. The ethnographer may also reflect on his ethnic connections with his informants, or his acceptance into the society, explaining that it provides valuable, inside knowledge of the culture and ultimately leads to a greater understanding of the native people as a whole.
Lipson, J.G. & Dubble, S.L. (Eds). (2007). Culture & clinical care. San Francisco, California: The Regents, University of California.
The study of any particular science involves embracing particular and specific ontology, epistemology and methodologies that are different from each other. Ontology is the concept that defines and explains the essential types of truth (Blaikie 2009). Every field of science constitutes its own ontology and in most cases two types of ontology exists: formal ontology and domain ontology (Blaikie 2009). Formal ontology type of research always postulates something general related to reality while on the other hand domain ontology postulate something specific with regard to different types of truths (Blaikie 2009). On its part epistemology constitute a science concept that defines how human and the general population of the world know and reason the particular truth. The two concepts are differentiated by particular assumptions that are associated with each of them. For instance assumptions associated with ontology include: shallow realist, conceptual realist, cautious realist, depth realist and idealist (Blaikie 2009). On the other hand assumptions related to epistemology include: empiricism, rationalism, falsificationism, neo-realism and constructionism (Blaikie 2009). Therefore the purpose of this essay will be to define objectivism and inteprativism as related to ontology, define positivism and interpretavism as related to epistemology, explain how ontology and epistemology are linked and how they influence each other, before lastly looking at how important ontology and epistemology are.
Chapter four and five in Creswell (2013) helped me realize how important it is to focus on one type of qualitative research. This leads to writing a coherent paper in the approach chosen. It was also interesting to learn that because subjective and objective experiences, phenomenology lies somewhere in between both qualitative and quantitative research.
Sampling is the act of choosing a smaller, more manageable subset of the objects or members of a population to include in an investigation in order to study with greater ease something about that population. In other words, sampling allows researchers to select a subset of the objects or members of a population to represent the total population. Sampling is used in language research when the objects or members (hereafter simply objects or members, but not both) of a population are so numerous that investigating all of them would be unwieldy. Quantitative researchers use both probability and non-probability sample but rely more on probability because of its generalisability. In choosing sampling methods, considerations need to be made for the objective of the research, the resources available, the population and the legal and ethical requirements.
Glouberman & Mintzberg (2007) discusses the traditional roles within the health sector by separating them into four quadrants – care, control, community and cure. Although they work collectively for the wellbeing of patients, the roles discussed in the report also have individual focuse...