Answering the Mail: Replying to Common Questions About Qualitative Inquiry

摘要

Editor's Note: The online version of this article contains a figure of the steps of the qualitative research process described in the Rip Out series.;The Qualitative Collaborative Qualitative inquiry is an increasingly popular way of answering important questions in graduate medical education (GME). Qualitative inquiry primarily focuses on the lived experiences of individuals in multidimensional and unique social contexts. It is also used to examine social settings and their affiliated processes. Given these focal areas, qualitative approaches are particularly well suited to answering “why” and “how” questions. Answers to such questions are critical to the exploration and understanding of different social phenomena. For example, GME scholars might ask the following: ?Why are third-year residents in this program struggling with interprofessional collaboration??How do residents navigate the competing demands of meeting professionalism expectations and circumventing health care system constraints??Why do residents perceive a particular educational intervention as a successful training tool for some skills but not others? These are important areas of inquiry and areas that may be difficult to explore using only quantitative methods. Qualitative inquiry is fundamentally different from quantitative inquiry, as each is based on different scientific traditions and world views. As a result, even when a GME clinician educator is familiar with quantitative research, those experiences and skills are generally not directly transferable to qualitative research. Given this situation, clinician educators regularly seek out researchers with qualitative expertise for advice. When clinicians pose questions about qualitative research to their qualitative colleagues, clinician educators soon learn that there are few unambiguous, straightforward answers to their questions. In fact, and perhaps frustratingly, the answers to these practical questions are often: “It depends” or “That's not possible.” For instance, consider the following common question: How many interviews do I need to conduct to answer my question? The answer: It depends. The number of interviews you will need to conduct is contingent on (1) the question you are asking and (2) the methodology you are using to answer that question. Expanding the Rip Out Series to Answer Questions About Research and Evaluation Deborah Simpson, PhD, Deputy Editor, JGME Anthony R. Artino Jr, PhD, Deputy Editor, JGME The Journal of Graduate Medical Education's (JGME) Rip Out section was introduced in June 2011 to facilitate readers' ongoing development as educators. Rip Outs are meant to provide practical, evidence-based approaches that align with the roles and responsibilities of graduate medical education (GME) faculty and leaders. As these Rip Outs are now among the most frequently accessed JGME content, we are introducing a new Rip Out focus that will appear in parallel with the existing series. These new Rip Outs are designed to answer readers' questions about approaches in GME research and evaluation, whether they wish to more fully understand the literature or are considering participating in this research. The first Rip Outs in this new series offer practical information about qualitative research, including some of the different methodologies, associated data analysis approaches, and underlying principles inherent to qualitative inquiry. These qualitative Rip Outs grow out of the questions commonly asked by GME leaders and faculty that, if systematically answered, could advance scholarly inquiry in GME. Using the Journal's established Rip Out format, JGME Deputy Editor Anthony R. Artino Jr, PhD; JGME Qualitative Rip Out Series Editor, Lara Varpio, PhD; and a diverse team of experts in qualitative research provide succinct, action-oriented guidance on how to conduct qualitative inquiry. Each qualitative Rip Out is grounded in examples commonly seen in GME, and covers a breadth of topics ranging fr