Making Use of Qualitative Research Techniques
Michael Berkwits, MD1 and Thomas S Inui, ScM, MD2
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Consider the following situation: You have recently taken on administrative responsibilities at a new hospital where you are responsible for improving patient care programs and organizational efficiency in the general medicine outpatient clinics. You are familiar with your department's general objectives for change and with theoretical strategies for improving operations, but you want to optimize the transitions for all involved parties. In early meetings, department and hospital staff express skepticism that any of the anticipated changes would serve them or the hospital's patients better.

In this situation, immediate action—such as announcing a new clinical or quality review program—would directly address the challenges you face. But more information might help you more effectively meet your professional responsibilities. You might want to learn what systems already work well in the clinics, or better understand what services would be valued in the local community. You might also want to learn about employees' perceptions of their mission and service to identify strategies that could motivate them for change. The information to help you meet these objectives will come primarily from the people involved in your questions and plans—your patients and coworkers, for example. One can gather this information by talking to people informally. Alternatively, one can use qualitative research techniques for this purpose, particularly in new situations and environments. This article addresses how and why busy clinicians might use qualitative techniques to answer questions and solve problems like those in the scenario above.

Qualitative research is a form of inquiry that