Qualitative researchers can use questionnaires to collect data. Suppose a qualit
ID: 3451776 • Letter: Q
Question
Qualitative researchers can use questionnaires to collect data. Suppose a qualitative researcher is interested in the behaviors of physicians that have high ratings of patient satisfaction. The research goal is to identify the behaviors of successful physicians so that these behaviors can be built into the curricula of medical preparation programs. The researcher undertakes a case study and uses three instruments to gather data.
1. First, the researcher gives a likert-scale questionnaire to patients of a select group of physicians to determine the perceived behaviors that lend to higher levels of satisfaction.
2. Second, the researcher reviews video recordings of physician-patient encounters from 10 physicians who have been rated highly by patients in a reliable satisfaction survey.
3. Third, the researcher interviews patients to glean more detail about physical behaviors that improve patient satisfaction.
How might these data be analyzed separately and then triangulated as the researcher presents the results?
Explanation / Answer
The Likert scale questionnaire would provide a quantitative measure of perceived behaviours that would lead to higher levels of satisfaction among patients. Descriptive statistics can be used to find which factors show the highest agreement among the physicians. Next, the video recordings of patient - physician interaction can be used to find specific behaviours exhibited by the physicians. Data from the interviews can be thematically analysed in order to find emerging themes and patterns of what patients conceptualise as physician behaviour leading to satisfaction.
These three data points can be combined to reveal several aspects of the phenomenon of interest. Firstly, what physicians conceptualise patient satisfaction and what patients expect from physicians can be compared. This would reveal whether their views are congruent. Secondly, it can be checked through the video clips whether physicians are displaying the behaviours they rated highly on the Likert scale. This would allow an investigation of the degree of consistency in the physicians’ beliefs and behaviour.