Qualitative interviews: methods and applications

Health and Safety Questionnaire

Qualitative research questions regarding health and policy issues are difficult to put together in a comprehensive fashion. For this reason, it is necessary to have a brief literature review to see how some scholars have dealt with this problem. Then it will be possible to put together a properly structured interview. Then, the author structured a sample interview.

Qualitative Interview Methodology Literature

In a journal article in the International Journal for Quality in Health Care, the authors put together a 32 item checklist to help set up competent focus group interviews with consolidated criteria for reporting The authors performed their comprehensive search in Cochrane and Campbell Protocols, CINAHL, Medline,, systematic reviews of studies of a qualitative nature, reviewer or author guidelines of major medical journals and also reference lists of the relevant journals and other publications for existing checklists that are widely used to assess qualitative research studies. 76 items from 22 checklists were the compiled into the comprehensive list, if there were duplicate, ambiguous items, too broadly defined or impractical to assess, they were removed from consideration (ibid., 351).

In a study in the British Medical Journal, the authors maintain that qualitative research properly includes a variety of methodological approaches that spring from different disciplinary sources and methods. Three commonly used approaches mentioned in the article include mixed methods, grounded theory and action research. The journal study provides each method as a background for researchers whowill encounter the methodologies in the carrying out of such qualitative research. The authors further describe the appropriate use, the key characteristics and the features of rigor of each of the approaches (Lingard, Albert & Levinson, 2008, 459). So that the research questionnaire and the qualitative research interview is properly grounded from a methodology standpoint, this author employed a research model that used action research techniques in which both the participant and the researcher were involved actively from an action research methodology point-of-view. Such relationships need to be in an ethical framework where both the participants and the researcher participating in the research both benefit, Because this relationship embraces tension between some local solutions and also transferable knowledge, the action research by its very nature can help participant and researcher make the results of this type of research more generally applicable and available (ibid., 461)

Sample 10 Question Research Questionnaire

1. How does your quality of emergency response training for terrorist WMD respone measure up the training you have received?

2. How well does your equipment measure up to treating trauma victims in a WMD emergency?

3. Was the training you received hands on and how effective was it?

4. Was your training simply classroom lectures and how effective do you feel it was?

5. How well do you think the EMS providers in your facility are prepared for a terrorist induced mass emergency?

6. How well do you feel the trauma ER doctors are trained and prepared for a terrorist WMD incident?

7. How well do you feel the trauma nurses are trained and prepared for a terrorist WMD incident?

8. How well do you feel that your hospital ER facility as an institution is prepared for a terrorist mass emergency?