ABSTRACT
The qualitative research analogous structure During the past 20-30 years, methodological discussion of qualitative research in health care has been subordinated to the requirements of postgraduate study. The need to maximise publication output has resulted in even master’s level research – designed as a display of entry-level competence rather than a contribution to knowledge – appearing routinely in journals; and this has necessitated the legitimation of methods suited to the time-limited, resource-constrained, bums-on-seats MSc enterprise. The process is akin to Darwinian evolution. The academic environment has selected for whatever can be achieved in less than a year, and methodologists have adopted philosophical ideas in order to provide a theoretical justification (Paley 2016). This evolutionary constraint has imposed certain conditions on postgraduate study. For example, it must be possible to carry out the research in a limited period of time, defined by the deadline for dissertation submission. It must be possible for one person to conduct the study, and for her to be able to do so with very few resources. Given that most students obtained their first degree in nursing or some other health-related field, it must be possible to design the study in the absence of a grounding in relevantly adjacent disciplines, such as psychology or sociology. In view of the vastly increased postgraduate numbers and severe restrictions on time, the intellectual demands must not be too challenging. However, if the study is to be publishable, it must be possible to claim clinical relevance for the research, and to imply that the findings are generalisable. These conditions are likely to select for designs and methods with the following characteristics:
Interview-based. Other methods, especially participant observation, require a lot of organisation and are difficult to accommodate to fixed timetables and deadlines.
