background and purpose: research self-efficacy is an important subject in university education. research is considered essential to the development of societies. as such, postgraduate students require research courses in their curricula in addition to regular educational contents. materials and methods: this descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted on two groups of postgraduate students...

There are several reasons why qualitative research is a suitable means to answer a number of relevant nursing research issues. However, as a research methodology it is not without its critics. This article debates the importance of qualitative research to nursing knowledge and uses the literature and practice experience to evaluate its contribution.

Writing the proposal for a qualitative research methodology study is a double challenge because of the emergent nature of qualitative research design and because a methodology study entails describing a process to produce a process. How the authors addressed this challenge is shown in the annotated text of the grant proposal--"Analytic Techniques for Qualitative Metasynthesis"--funded by the Na...

A revised conception of the relationship between psychological science and professional practice is proposed in the light of postmodern changes in perspectives on knowledge. Positivistic science, which has dominated the traditional interpretation of scientist-practitioner training, is considered from a constructivist point of view to be only one possible foundation of psychological knowledge. 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...