ABSTRACT

This chapter describes the case of Alice Erickson, a PhD student and nurse, who is interested in exploring how patients with end-stage kidney disease experience haemodialysis. It presents in brief the relevant literature related to living with end-stage kidney disease and uses observation as the main research method to record and understand the behaviour of patients in a specific context. The chapter also describes the main research findings from studies of the experience of haemodialysis. It explains what observation is and describes the steps to be employed to conduct observation effectively. The chapter also explains the advantages and disadvantages of observation. Observation studies human behaviour in a natural environment as it is happening, explores processes in depth and uncovers the complexities, and the explanations derived are closer to the actual behaviours. Observation is a technique of collecting research data through the senses, mainly through listening and observing in a natural environment.