Data Collection Methods Assignment

Design: Selection of Data Collection Methods
Elise Paradis, PhD
Bridget O’Brien, PhD
Laura Nimmon, PhD
Glen Bandiera, MD
Maria Athina (Tina) Martimianakis, PhD
The Challenge
Imagine that residents in your program have been less
than complimentary about interprofessional rounds
(IPRs). The program director asks you to determine what
residents are learning about in collaboration with other
health professionals during IPRs. If you construct a survey
asking Likert-type questions such as ‘‘How much are you
learning?’’ you likely will not gather the information you
need to answer this question. You understand that
qualitative data deal with words rather than numbers
and could provide the needed answers. How do you
collect ‘‘good’’ words? Should you use open-ended
questions in a survey format? Should you conduct
interviews, focus groups, or conduct direct observation?
What should you consider when making these decisions?
Introduction
Qualitative research is often employed when there is a
problem and no clear solutions exist, as in the case above
that elicits the following questions: Why are residents
complaining about rounds? How could we make rounds
better? In this context, collecting ‘‘good’’ information or
words (qualitative data) is intended to produce informa-
tion that helps you to answer your research questions,
capture the phenomenon of interest, and account for
context and the rich texture of the human experience. You
may also aim to challenge previous thinking and invite
further inquiry.
Coherence or alignment between all aspects of the
research project is essential. In this Rip Out we focus on
data collection, but in qualitative research, the entire
project must be considered. 1,2 Careful design of the data
collection phase requires the following: deciding who will
do what, where, when, and how at the different stages of
the research process; acknowledging the role of the
researcher as an instrument of data collection; and
carefully considering the context studied and the partic-
ipants and informants involved in the research.
Types of Data Collection Methods
Data collection methods are important, because how the
information collected is used and what explanations it
can generate are determined by the methodology and
analytical approach applied by the researcher.1,2 Five key
data collection methods are presented here, with their
strengths and limitations described in the online supple-
mental material.
1. Questions added to surveys to obtain qualitative
data typically are open-ended with a free-text
format. Surveys are ideal for documenting percep-
tions, attitudes, beliefs, or knowledge within a clear,
predetermined sample of individuals. ‘‘Good’’ open-
ended questions should be specific enough to yield
coherent responses across respondents, yet broad
enough to invite a spectrum of answers. Examples
for this scenario include: What is the function of
IPRs? What is the educational value of IPRs,
according to residents? Qualitative survey data
can be analyzed using a range of techniques.
2. Interviews are used to gather information from
individuals 1-on-1, using a series of predetermined
questions or a set of interest areas. Interviews are
often recorded and transcribed. They can be
structured or unstructured; they can either follow
a tightly written script that mimics a survey or be
inspired by a loose set of questions that invite
interviewees to express themselves more freely.
Interviewers need to actively listen and question,
probe, and prompt further to collect richer data.
Interviews are ideal when used to document
participants’ accounts, perceptions of, or stories
about attitudes toward and responses to certain
situations or phenomena. Interview data are often
used to generate themes, theories, and models.
Many research questions that can be answered with
surveys can also be answered through interviews,
but interviews will generally yield richer, more in-
depth data than surveys. Interviews do, however,
require more time and resources to conduct and
analyze. Importantly, because interviewers are the
instruments of data collection, interviewers should
be trained to collect comparable data. The number
of interviews required depends on the research
question and the overarching methodology used.
Examples of these questions include: How do
residents experience IPRs? What do residents’
stories about IPRs tell us about interprofessional
care hierarchies?
3. Focus groups are used to gather information in a
group setting, either through predetermined inter-
view questions that the moderator asks of partici-
pants in turn or through a script to stimulate group
conversations. Ideally, they are used when the sum
of a group of people’s experiences may offer more
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4300/JGME-D-16-00098.1
Editor’s Note: The online version of this article contains resources for
further reading and a table of strengths and limitations of qualitative
data collection methods.
Journal of Graduate Medical Education, May 1, 2016 263
QUALITATIVE RIP OUT SERIES