Using meta ethnography to synthesise qualitative research: a worked example

To demonstrate the benefits of applying meta ethnography to the synthesis of qualitative research, by means of a worked example.

Four papers about lay meanings of medicines were arbitrarily chosen. Noblit and Hare's seven-step process for conducting a meta ethnography was employed: getting started; deciding what is relevant to the initial interest; reading the studies; determining how the studies are related; translating the studies into one another; synthesising translations; and expressing the synthesis.