Qualitative Methods in Health Research

Qualitative methods have much to offer those studying health care and health services. However, because these methods have traditionally been employed in the social sciences, theymay be unfa-miliar to health care professionals and researchers with a biomedical or natural science background. Indeed, qualitative methods may seem alien alongside the experimental and observational quant-itative methods used in clinical, biological and epidemiological research. Misunderstandings about the nature of qualitative methods and their uses have caused qualitative research to be labelled ‘unscientific’, difficult to replicate or as little more than anecdote, personal impression or conjecture. The first edition of this…