"The book offers communication researchers some of the best recent work on qualitative inquiry in the human disciplines. . . . Published by Sage, the leading publisher of qualitative research in the social sciences today. . . . This is an important work for it shows how the postpositivist qualitative approach can be inserted into the classical, positivist, medical paradigm. . . . This work brings the communication scholar up-to-date on where qualitative methods are in current sociological and educational discourse."
--Norman K. Denzin in
Journal of Communication
"This book represents a remarkable step forward in the ability of primary care investigators to explore vital research issues related to their disciplines."
--from the Foreword by Larry Culpepper
"Doing Qualitative Research is the sourcebook for the 1990s for anyone interested in either learning or doing qualitative research. Crabtree and Miller review the many and various qualitative methods in a comprehensive yet systematic treatment. The book is well organized and well written. . . . If you are generally interested in research, read this book to stay informed in the developing specialty of qualitative research. If you wish to learn or do qualitative research, this is an excellent map to the field."
--The Journal of Family Practice
"The strengths of this book are many. Of particular note is the first chapter, in which Miller and Crabtree present a ′road map′ of research methods. They identify five styles of inquiry, ranging from experimental to philosophic, based on the focus and intent of the research. In a further elaboration, they then match research aims and analysis objectives with these styles. This clear and succinct discussion not only helps put the various research styles in perspective but helps one to see the relationship between the aim of the research, analysis objectives, research question(s), and style. . . . [The authors] remind us that research is tied to assumptions concerning reality, knowledge of that reality, and the particular ways of knowing about that reality."
--Qualitative Health Research
"This volume contains much interesting material about medical research within the primary care sector. It is encouraging to note the value placed on qualitative research approaches by medical clinicians in this field. . . . This useful book restores the balance in concentrating on qualitative medical research within primary care."
--Journal of Advanced Nursing
"Research that will inform practice and policy of primary care must be driven by the important and central questions, rather than by the tools familiar and available to researchers. The editors of this important book have taken a giant step in creating a language and community of research that can cross disciplinary boundaries to address the important problems that affect most people most of the time. . . . Permitting the methods of biomedical research to constrain our inquiry into the nature of illness and healing has resulted in a totally inadequate knowledge base for primary care. This volume provides a basis for integrative research methods that will rise to the challenges of research in primary care."
--Paul A. Nutting, Director,
Ambulatory Sentinel Practice Network
Why are certain research designs selected? How do researchers use codebooks to analyze participant observation field notes? What are the best ways to use word processing software in the management of qualitative data? Edited by two of the top names in the field--Benjamin F. Crabtree and William M. Miller--this volume discusses essential strategies for doing qualitative research. Each chapter establishes the context when the specific methods should be chosen, offers a step-by-step description of the method, tells how the quality of the method is assessed, and provides interesting true-to-life examples. Two concluding chapters "pull it all together" by describing a completed research study of physician health promotion activities, and a study utilizing focus groups to determine a diagnosis of Alzheimer′s disease. Special topics include an overview of qualitative research methods, data collection approaches, strategies for analysis, and special cases of examination.
Professionals and students in the health professions will find a wealth of information in Doing Qualitative Research.
Benjamin F. Crabtree, PhD, MA is a medical anthropologist and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He is a full member of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey in the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program. Ben earned his master’s degree in applied anthropology from the University of South Florida and his doctorate in medical anthropology from the University of Connecticut. Prior to his current appointment, Ben was on the faculty of the departments of family medicine at the University of Connecticut and the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Ben has collaborated on many in-depth interview and focus group studies where he’s learned to appreciate the experiences of illness and health care from the perspectives of both clinicians and patients. Ben’s recent research focuses on quality of health care delivery, primary medical care practice organization, and organizational change. He has been principal investigator on five National Institutes of Health R01 grants that used qualitative methods and mixed-methods for enhancing quality of care in primary care practices. His current National Cancer Institute R01 grant engages diverse stakeholders in identifying actionable, practice-based activities for provision of long-term breast cancer survivorship care using depth interviews and then implements and evaluates an intervention for delivering care for breast cancer survivors in primary care. Ben has contributed to more than 225 peer-reviewed journal articles and numerous book chapters, and served as co-editor on two books, Doing Qualitative Research and Exploring Collaborative Research in Primary Care. In 2014, Ben and co-author Will Miller were jointly awarded the prestigious Curtis G. Hames Research Award for lifetime contributions to family medicine research. Ben volunteered twice with the United States Peace Corps, first in the Ethiopian Smallpox Eradication Program and then in the Korean National Tuberculosis Program. He completed his dissertation research in Korea conducting a mixed-methods study of rural birthing practices in the face of modern medicine. He and his wife Eiko travel extensively in Japan and enjoy talking long walks and gardening.
William L. Miller, MD, MA is a family physician anthropologist and Chair Emeritus at the Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN), Department of Family Medicine in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and a Professor of Family Medicine at the University of South Florida Morsani School of Medicine for which LVHN serves as a branch campus. Will earned a master′s degree in medical anthropology from Wake Forest University and received his medical degree from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. After completing his family medicine residency at Harrisburg Hospital, Will entered private practice in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania where he honed his craft for four years. Prior to joining Lehigh Valley Health Network as the first Leonard Parker Pool Endowed Chair of Family Medicine, he was on the faculty in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Connecticut.
Will has been aptly nicknamed “coyote” for his propensity for “pushing the envelope,” not only as an organizational leader, teacher, and clinician, but also in his research focused on observing, implementing, and evaluating NIH-funded national primary care practice improvement efforts along with investigations of healing relationships and the clinical encounter, collaborative care, and professional socialization. Some of this work has focused on how primary care practices respond to new innovations in care, with one of the outcomes being the development of the relationship-centered Practice Change Model. He was founding consulting editor for the Annals of Family Medicine, served a co-editor on two books, Doing Qualitative Research and Exploring Collaborative Research in Primary Care, and received, along with Ben Crabtree, the 2014 Curtis G. Hames Research Award for lifetime achievement in family medicine scholarship. He was an advisor and evaluator for the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Future of Family Medicine National Demonstration Project of the patient-centered medical home and the American Board of Family Medicine-funded national family medicine residency redesign initiative. His special joys are family, getting lost in the woods with his grandson, cross-country skiing, and music.
