Qualitative research plays an undeniably vital role in advancing healthcare and inventing innovative strategies and approaches to managing public health issues. Specifically, the qualitative research method provides ample opportunities for gaining a solid and profound understanding of the nature of health-related phenomena (Fusch et al., 2018). As a result, strategies for addressing certain health problems can be built and introduced into the target setting. Possessing a range of unique qualities that allow it to be utilized as a helpful tool in understanding the relationships between studied variables, the qualitative research design needs to be viewed as an unparalleled framework for examining specific phenomena.
As a rule, four key dimensions of qualitative research that make the specified method unique can be isolated. These are the positivist, postpositivist, constructivist and objectivist approaches (Poucher et al., 2020). Being unique to the qualitative research design, the specified perspectives allow focusing on the specific nature of studied phenomena and the properties that cannot be quantified. As a result, an in-depth, nuanced understanding of the issue under analysis can be obtained. Indeed, the positivist approach to qualitative analysis offers a chance to use observations to identify key paradigms and elicit immediate conclusions regarding the observed phenomena and trends (Chigbu, 2019). In turn, the postpositivist approach makes the qualitative method unique by representing the author of the research as an independent observer of the studied phenomena or relationships between variables (Poucher et al., 2020). Offering a chance to introduce a personal perspective on a specific issue, the specified dimension of conducting qualitative research is unique in its focus on the author of the study and the acknowledgment of biases that may stem from the integration of a personal perspective into the scientific analysis.
In turn, constructivism as the third dimension of qualitative research should be seen as the attempt to shift from the individual-centered paradigm offered by the post-positivism framework and, instead, embrace a specific phenomenon in the context of its community. As a result, the unique chance to study the interplay between the observed phenomenon and social factors prevalent in the target community emerges. Finally, the application of objectivism in qualitative research suggests that the research subjects should be treated with dignity and respect, focusing on their well-being and benefit (Godino et al., 2019). The specified framework is particularly important for the nursing area due to the necessity to maintain patient beneficence and the principles of non-maleficence in the clinical context. Therefore, as a component of evidence-based research, objectivism in qualitative research should be seen as an essential framework for studies in nursing.
References
Chigbu, U. E. (2019). Visually hypothesizing in scientific paper writing: Confirming and refuting qualitative research hypotheses using diagrams.Publications, 7(1), 22. Web.
Fusch, P., Fusch, G. E., & Ness, L. R. (2018). Denzin’s paradigm shift: Revisiting triangulation in qualitative research. Journal of social change, 10(1), 2. Web.
Godino, J. D., Rivas, H., Burgos, M., & Wilhelmi, M. R. (2019). Analysis of didactical trajectories in teaching and learning mathematics: Overcoming extreme objectivist and constructivist positions. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 14(1), 147-161. Web.
Poucher, Z. A., Tamminen, K. A., Caron, J. G., & Sweet, S. N. (2020). Thinking through and designing qualitative research studies: A focused mapping review of 30 years of qualitative research in sport psychology. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 13(1), 163-186. Web.