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Showing results for tags 'Qualitative'.
Found 84 results
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Content ArticleQualitative research methods explore and provide deep contextual understanding of real world issues, including people’s beliefs, perspectives, and experiences. Whether through analysis of interviews, focus groups, structured observation, or multimedia data, qualitative methods offer unique insights in applied health services research that other approaches cannot deliver. However, many clinicians and researchers hesitate to use these methods, or might not use them effectively, which can leave relevant areas of inquiry inadequately explored. Thematic analysis is one of the most common and flexible methods to examine qualitative data collected in health services research. This article offers practical thematic analysis as a step-by-step approach to qualitative analysis for health services researchers, with a focus on accessibility for patients, care partners, clinicians, and others new to thematic analysis. Along with detailed instructions covering three steps of reading, coding, and theming, the article includes additional novel and practical guidance on how to draft effective codes, conduct a thematic analysis session, and develop meaningful themes. This approach aims to improve consistency and rigor in thematic analysis, while also making this method more accessible for multidisciplinary research teams.
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Content ArticleSurgical excellence demands teamwork. Poor team behaviours negatively affect team performance and are associated with adverse events and worse outcomes. Interventions to improve surgical teamwork focusing on frontline team members’ nontechnical skills have proliferated but shown mixed results. Literature on teamwork in organisations suggests that team behaviours are also contingent on psychosocial, cultural, and organisational factors. This study examined factors influencing surgical team behaviors to inform more contextually sensitive and effective approaches to optimising surgical teamwork.
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Content ArticleThis study aimed to understand NHS healthcare workers’ perceptions of toxic organisational cultures and behaviours, by undertaking an analysis of tweets. The prompt tweet was posted in late 2022 by @DrLindaDykes (a prominent UK physician), inviting healthcare staff to share their experiences of “red flags that indicate you're probably in a toxic organisation”. A qualitative analysis of response tweets was undertaken, using inductive thematic analysis. A total of 462 tweets were examined, revealing five key themes of what constitutes a red flag of a toxic workplace culture. The first theme was emotional depletion, with staff feeling drained and futile about their work. The second theme was incivility and unfair treatment, often rooted in a bullying culture. A third theme was a culture of blame shifting, whereby leaders and managers pressured frontline staff to resolve or take the blame for systemic issues, including understaffing. This also fed into the fourth theme, regarding staff feedback and/or concerns being ignored by leaders/managers. A fifth underlying theme was the fear of speaking out, with some employees facing punishment for doing so. This study highlights the pervasive and complex nature of toxic workplace cultures within the NHS, as experienced by healthcare professionals on Twitter. The findings demonstrate the importance of analysing social media posts to amplify critical voices often absent from more traditional methods of capturing healthcare workers’ opinions, such as staff surveys, offering valuable insights into the complexities of organisational dysfunction. There is an urgent need to tackle a culture of incivility to safeguard staff wellbeing.
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Content ArticleThe 10 Year Health Plan for England aims to “end the 8am scramble” and “restore the family doctor” through shifts to increased digitalisation, more community-based services and a greater focus on prevention. But how do people feel about these shifts, and how do they think they will affect access to primary care? This study from the THIS.Institute, published in the BMJ, involving interviews with patients, carers and staff, offers striking insights, suggests a mixed picture of impacts. Findings: Digitalisation: may offer convenience – but could risk continuity of care, does not increase supply of appointments with GPs, and risks excluding some patients. Community-based care: may increase options available, but dispersion of services across wider geographical areas could pose challenges for some patients and increase risks of fragmentation and burdens of coordination. Prevention: important but could add to already-saturated workloads. May also risk becoming task-focused and impersonal, and consume resource for patient-initiated care. More clarity is needed about what patients can expect and what “good enough” looks like in terms of access, as is careful co-design and evaluation of the detail of the three shifts.
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Content ArticleIn her November newsletter, Judy Walker discusses how After Action reviews can be used as a qualitative research tool.
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Content ArticleThe aim of this study from Hutchinson et al. was to explore the reasons for and experiences of patients who make an unplanned return visit to the emergency department. Interviews from 13 participants generated findings related to experiences at and following their initial visit that contributed to their decision to return to the emergency department. Four themes were developed: (1) Patients experience barriers to feeling heard and having their concerns addressed; (2) Patients have little choice but to place their trust in clinicians; (3) Patients unexpectedly experience persistent symptoms which cannot be managed at home; and (4) Patients develop a sense of urgency about having their condition treated. The study concluded that a negative experience at the initial ED visit may have dual conflicting impacts. It can contribute to patients' perceived need for a return visit because they are ill-equipped to manage their condition at home, and it can also contribute to their initial reluctance to return to the ED when symptoms persist. Nurses and other clinicians working in ED need to actively build patient's experiential trust through clear communication, timely consultation and shared decision-making at discharge, which in turn can increase patient's confidence and capability to self-manage their condition.
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Content ArticleTwo information technology (IT)-based interventions, which aim to improve prescribing safety in primary care, have been rolled out across England over the past few years. Researchers identified five strategies which could help ensure that the systems continue to have an impact over the longer term. The first system (computerised decision support, or CDS) raises a warning when a clinician is about to prescribe a medicine that could increase a patient’s risk of harm. The second method (PINCER) is led by pharmacists; it searches people’s medical notes to identify potential errors that have already happened. Pharmacists, GPs and other clinicians work together to investigate and correct any errors. The research team examined documents, interviewed relevant professionals and carried out workshops which also involved members of the public. They identified strategies that could help ensure that these systems have an ongoing impact in primary care.
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Content ArticleInstitutional racism within the United Kingdom's (UK) Higher Education (HE) sector, particularly nurse and midwifery education, has lacked empirical research, critical scrutiny, and serious discussion. This paper focuses on the racialised experiences of nurses and midwives during their education in UK universities, including their practice placements. It explores the emotional, physical, and psychological impacts of these experiences. The study concludes that the endemic culture of racism in nurse and midwifery education is a fundamental factor that must be recognised and called out. The study argues that universities and health care trusts need to be accountable for preparing all students to challenge racism and provide equitable learning opportunities that cover the objectives to meet the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) requirements to avoid significant experiences of exclusion and intimidation.
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Content Article
A ‘Just Culture’ aims to improve patient safety by looking at the organisational and individual factors that contribute to incidents. It encourages people to speak up about their errors and mistakes so that action can be taken to prevent those errors from being repeated. Adam Tasker and Julia Jones are graduate medical students at Warwick Medical School. They wanted to explore doctors’ perceptions of culture and identify ways to foster a Just Culture, so they conducted a qualitative research study at one of the hospitals where they were doing their medical training. We asked them about why Just Culture is important in the health and care system, and what they discovered from their research. -
Content Article
This is part of our series of Patient Safety Spotlight interviews, where we talk to people working for patient safety about their role and what motivates them. Lesley talks to us about how personal stories enrich our understanding of data, drive real quality improvement and remind us that healthcare is all about people. She also explains how her own personal experience drives her work to improve healthcare experiences for patients and their families. -
News Article
Using Twitter to assess patient takes on patient experience
Clive Flashman posted a news article in News
A qualitative study of Twitter hashtags revealed power hierarchies can damage the patient experience and clinician relationship. In an analysis of a popular Twitter hashtag, researchers found that patients largely take umbrage when they feel their doctor does not believe their ailment or knowledge about their healthcare, and when they perceive a power hierarchy between themselves and their clinician. Although not as many patients are using Twitter to get peer feedback on certain providers (the Binary Fountain poll showed only 21% of patients do this), the social media website still holds a lot of power, researchers from the University of California system explained. Twitter is a large platform that hosts social discourse. Healthcare professionals use Twitter to disseminate public health and patient education messages and to network, while 61% of patients use Twitter to learn more about their health, as well. Read full article Source: Patient Engagement HIT, 29 October 2020- Posted
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News Article
New patient safety research by Northumbria University achieves global accolades
Clive Flashman posted a news article in News
Looking to improve practice through learning Errors, mishaps and misunderstandings are surprisingly common in medicine and around one in 10 patients suffer avoidable harm, impacting on patients, their families, health care organisations, staff and students. However a research project seeking to improve patient safety across Europe, led by Newcastle-based Northumbria University, has received international acclaim as it looks to improve practice through learning. The SLIPPS (Shared Learning from Practice to improve Patient Safety) project is Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, and is led by Professor Alison Steven, a Reader in Health Professions Education at Northumbria University. Professor Steven has a longstanding interest in the use of education to raise standards of care and ensure patient safety. Considering the rapid spread of Covid 19, she says improving patient safety and standards of care across Europe and beyond, has never been more important. Read full article here -
Content ArticleThe COVID-19 pandemic has imposed extraordinary strains on healthcare workers. But, in contrast with acute settings, relatively little attention has been given to those who work in mental health settings. Liberati et al. aimed to characterise the experiences of those working in English NHS secondary mental health services during the first wave of the pandemic.
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Content ArticleWard audit is a specific and common form of audit and feedback used in hospitals around the world. This study in BMC Health Services Research describes the content of ward audits and how they are carried out. The authors found that ward audits can have unintended and sometimes negative consequences, often caused by punitive feedback. They highlight the need to make feedback more constructive, for example, by including suggestions for improvement.
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Content ArticleIn this systematic review published in BMJ Open, the authors analyse and compare the focus of 694 studies about safety culture in hospitals. The review identifies 11 key themes relating to safety culture across the studies. The authors suggest that the wide range of methods and tools available highlights a persistent lack of consensus in defining patient safety. They also highlight the value of qualitative and mixed method approaches in providing context and meaning to quantitative surveys that assess safety culture.
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Content ArticleMany diagnostic mistakes are caused by reasoning errors, but lack of feedback makes it difficult for healthcare providers to make improvements in this area. This paper, published in BMJ Quality & Safety, describes the reason for and process of developing 'The Diagnosis Learning Cycle', a new model for feedback and improvement in diagnosis. The model is based on theory and knowledge from both outside and within the field of healthcare. It proposes a standardised feedback mechanism that includes concrete measures of factors such as reasoning and confidence.
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Content Article
WHO: Guidance for after action review (1 April 2019)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in WHO
The WHO guidance for after action review (AAR) presents the methodology for planning and implementing a successful AAR to review actions taken in response to public health event, but also as a routine management tool for continuous learning and improvements. Four formats of AARs are described including the debrief, working group, key informant interview and mixed method AARs, and the accompanying toolkits containing materials to support the designing, preparing, conducting, and following up on each AAR format. Whilst the AAR methodology described in this document can be used for any response, a specific guidance to conduct an AAR following the response to emergencies that were not caused by biological hazards such as natural disasters is also provided to help the health sector to review its specific contribution to the multisectoral response and coordination. -
Content ArticleWhen patients give feedback to healthcare providers, the topic of "communication" often features prominently. That is because when people are feeling vulnerable, the way they are spoken to, and the words that are used, matter a great deal. There can be few experiences that are more distressing than the death of a baby. So we need to think very carefully about how bereaved parents are spoken to. This paper looks at clinical terms such as "miscarriage", "stillbirth" and "neo-natal death" and finds that "These categorisations based on gestational age and signs of life may not align with the realities of parental experience". This study, published by the International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, explored the healthcare experiences of parents whose babies had died just before 24 weeks of gestation. Those interviewed "felt strongly that describing their loss as a "miscarriage" was inappropriate and did not adequately describe their lived experience".
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Content ArticleThis study from Landefeld et al., published in the Indian Journal of Community Medicine, looks at the perceptions of healthcare providers about barriers to improved patient safety in the Indian state of Kerala. Five focus group discussions were held with 16 doctors and 20 nurses across three institutions (primary, secondary and tertiary care centers) in Kerala, India and transcripts were analysed by thematic analysis. The results found there were 129 unique mentions of barriers to patient safety; these barriers were categorised into five major themes. ‘Limited resources’ was the most prominent theme, followed by barriers related to health systems issues, the medical culture, provider training and patient education/awareness. Although inadequate resources are likely a substantial challenge to the improvement of patient safety in India, other patient safety barriers such as health systems changes, training, and education, could be addressed with fewer resources. While initial approaches to improving patient safety in India and other low- and middle-income countries have focused on implementing processes that represent best practices, this study suggests that multifaceted interventions to also address more structural problems (such as resource constraints, systems issues, and medical culture) may be important.
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Content ArticleEuropean drug regulations aim for a patient-centered approach, including involving patients in the pharmacovigilance (PV) systems. However many patient organisations have little experience on how they can participate in PV activities. The aim of this study published in Drug Safety, was to understand patient organisations’ perceptions of PV, the barriers they face when implementing PV activities, and their interaction with other stakeholders and suggest methods for the stimulation of patient organisations as promoters of PV. A sequential qualitative method study was conducted and integrated with the quantitative study performed by Matos, Weits, and van Hunsel to complete a mixed method study. The qualitative phase expands the understanding of the quantitative results from a previous study by broadening the knowledge on external barriers and internal barriers that patient organizations face when implementing PV activities. The strategies to stimulate patient-organisation participation are the creation of more awareness campaigns, more research that creates awareness, education for patient organisations, communication of real PV examples, creation of a targeted PV system, creation of a PV communication network that provides feedback to patients, improvement of understanding of all stakeholders, and a more proactive approach from national competent authorities. Both study phases show congruent results regarding patients’ involvement and the activities patient organisations perform to promote drug safety. Patient organisations progressively position themselves as stakeholders in PV, carrying out many activities that stimulate awareness and participation of their members in drug safety, but still face internal and external barriers that can hamper their involvement.
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Content ArticleThis article describes the qualitative methodology developed for use in CIRAS (Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis System), the confidential database set up for the UK railways by the University of Strathclyde. CIRAS is a project in which qualitative safety data are disidentified and then stored and analysed in a central database. Due to the confidential nature of the data provided, conventional (positivist) methods of checking their accuracy are not applicable; therefore a new methodology was developed – the Applied Hermeneutic Methodology (AHM). Based on Paul Ricoeur’s ‘hermeneutic arc’, this methodology uses appropriate computer software to provide a method of analysis that can be shown to be reliable (in the sense that consensus in interpretations between different interpreters can be demonstrated). Moreover, given that the classifiers of the textual elements can be represented in numeric form, AHM crosses the ‘qualitative–quantitative divide’. It is suggested that this methodology is more rigorous and philosophically coherent than existing methodologies and that it has implications for all areas of the health and social sciences where qualitative texts are analysed.
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Content ArticleDementia is a cause of disability and dependency associated with high demands for health services and expected to have a significant impact on resources. Care policies worldwide increasingly rely on family caregivers to contribute to service delivery for older people, and the general direction of health care policy internationally is to provide care in the community, meaning most people will receive services there. Patient safety in primary care is therefore important for future care, but not yet investigated sufficiently when services are carried out in patients’ homes. In particular, we know little about how family carers experience patient safety of older people with dementia in the community. This was an explorative study, with qualitative in-depth interviews of 23 family carers of older people with suspected or diagnosed dementia. Family carers participated after receiving information primarily through health professionals working in dementia care. A semi-structured topic guide was used in a flexible way to capture participants’ experiences. A four-step inductive analysis of the transcripts was informed by hermeneutic-phenomenological analysis.
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Content ArticleTechnology is often viewed as either positive or negative. On one hand weight loss apps are usually seen as a positive influence on users. From the sociocultural perspective, on the other hand, media and technology can negatively impact body satisfaction and contribute to eating disorders; however, these studies fail to include weight loss apps. While these apps can be beneficial to users, they can also have negative effects on users with eating disorder behaviours. Yet few research studies have looked at weight loss apps in relation to eating disorders. In order to fill this gap,these researchers conducted interviews with 16 women with a history of eating disorders who use(d) weight loss apps. While findings suggest these apps can contribute to and exacerbate eating disorder behaviours, they also reveal a more complex picture of app usage. Women’s use and perceptions of weight loss apps shift as they experience life and move to and from stages of change. This research troubles the binary view of technology and emphasises the importance of looking at technology use as a dynamic process. This study contributes to the understanding of weight loss app design.
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Content ArticleMuch policy focus has been afforded to the role of 'whistleblowers' in raising concerns about quality and safety of patient care in healthcare settings. However, most opportunities for personnel to identify and act on these concerns are likely to occur much further upstream, in the day-to-day mundane interactions of everyday work. Using qualitative data from over 900 hours of ethnographic observation and 98 interviews across 19 English intensive care units (ICUs), the authors of this paper, published in Social Science & Medicine, studied how personnel gave voice to concerns about patient safety or poor practice.
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Content ArticleWith the aim of examining current and potential practice in relation to soft intelligence, the authors conducted and analysed 107 in-depth qualitative interviews with senior leaders, including managers and clinicians, involved in healthcare quality and safety in the English National Health Service. This study, published by Science Direct, found that participants were in little doubt about the value of softer forms of data, especially for their role in revealing troubling issues that might be obscured by conventional metrics. Key findings: There are calls for greater use of ‘soft’ intelligence around quality and safety. Little research examines the challenges and opportunities soft data present. This study in the English NHS found clinicians and managers saw utility in soft data. Dominant approaches to interpretation risked obscuring their greatest value. Soft data might better be used to disrupt understanding and challenge consensus.
