There is a new attention across disciplines to narrative knowing--the impulse to story life events into order and meaning. In this paper, narrative is presented as a framework for understanding the subject and interview data in qualitative research. Examples of narrative approaches are offered, narrative analyses are contrasted with other kinds of qualitative analyses, and truth in narratives i...

BACKGROUND Core outcome sets (COS) help to minimise bias in trials and facilitate evidence synthesis. Delphi surveys are increasingly being used as part of a wider process to reach consensus about what outcomes should be included in a COS. Qualitative research can be used to inform the development of Delphi surveys. This is an advance in the field of COS development and one which is potentially...

The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved. doi:10.1093/eurpub/cki174 Advance Access published on September 12, 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...

As a journalist, Henry Mayhew recorded daily life in London in the latter half of the nineteenth century. His approach remains of interest to historians and social scientists today in that it foreshadowed qualitative research. The article highlights methodological aspects of Mayhew's investigations and analyzes two of his reports, one on a cholera outbreak and the other on a female street vendo...

This paper compares an extended Meaning of Work framework with findings from a qualitative research project of employment retention among older women working in aged care. While there are majors areas of commonality there are also some specific points of contrast. This suggests that there are important issues relevant to the aged care sector needing particular consideration in the design of fut...

INTRODUCTION Professionalism is essential for the development of mature physicians but not much education is devoted to that theme. AIM We aimed to determine the views of undergraduate medical students on medical professionalism. METHODS This was a qualitative study, based on focus groups of the first and fifth-year undergraduate medical students. Transcripts of the focus groups were indepe...

The aims of this paper were to clarify the nature and purpose of qualitative research and to suggest specific guidelines for reporting the results of qualitative studies. Confusion about the purpose of qualitative research and the absence of a standardized format for reporting such research make it difficult to assess the validity of qualitative studies. Four general purposes of qualitative res...