Choice of Interpretive Research Method

Choice of Interpretive Research Method Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Choice of Interpretive Research Method Towards the end of the last century researchers emphasized on the importance and necessity of using theoretical and methodological references in supporting qualitative research in Nursing. However, for the last two decades these aspects have received many criticisms especially on their reliability to add scientific and quality research to the field. Based on this context, this paper aims at proposing a methodological referential method in nursing research. The “Interpretive Description” has been considered as one of the inductive approaches that have been designed to provide ways of developing a further understanding human health and other aspects that are related to all experiences of diseases and have impacts on clinical and health practices that are of interest to Nursing researchers. Therefore, it has proved to be a qualitative research method with the ability to generate reliable knowledge which is contributing to the evolution of qualitative methods and their application in the Nursing field. In this context, the “Interpretive Description” method has been used as a basis to support various studies in the scope of Nursing and Health (Teodoro et al., 2018). Thorne, Reimer Kirkham & O’Flynn-Magee (2004) state that interpretive description is a qualitative investigation of health phenomenon of interest within a certain discipline. Through this approach, themes and patterns are developed to generate an interpretive description to provide a clinical understanding. Thorne et al., (1997) states that researchers have devoted much of their efforts to develop methods based on our “epistemological foundations” that conform to certain logic of a discipline and create knowledge for the practice. It is recently that interpretive description was presented as a methodology in applied sciences aimed at creating relevant knowledge in the scope of health. However, after exploring most of the primary nursing journals, it is evident that this method is still unexplored in studies by nursing researchers. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to present a theoretical framework to prove that this method is suitable in my research. It is my believe that my presentation will contribute to the development of new methods that will play an important role in Nursing research increasing the possibilities of producing knowledge. Development and Definition of “Interpretive Description” Most researchers consider the “Interpretive Description” as a methodological approach that provides them with directions especially in the scope of Nursing. This approach allows the researchers to look further into their research questions enabling them to develop a more logical, systematic and justified perspective about their study. The “Interpretive Description” method begun in the late 1990s when the need for an approach with the abilities of helping researchers develop a better understanding of scenarios occurring in health contexts to respond to the needs of the Nursing field. This was to enable the development of reliable knowledge to support the health practice. The developmental studies began after the publication of “Interpretive Description: a non-qualitative alternative for developing nursing knowledge” by Sally Elizabeth Thorne and other two graduate students. In their article, Thorne and her co-authors addressed nursing scholars discussing the need for alternative conventional qualitative methods in Health. The approach was later presented by Thorne in a more detailed manner in her book “Interpretive Description – qualitative research for applied practice” Thorne (2008) explains that the function of interpretive description was to free clinical researchers from methodological orthodoxy. The provided guideline of the approach directs researchers on what to do beginning with the critical analysis of the available theoretical backgrounds within the field. This provides the researchers with a conceptual framework. The approach does not have detailed procedures but rather general criteria to guide researchers in design decisions and incorporation of other strategies. Thorne, (2008), defines interpretive description as: “an approach to knowledge generation that straddles the chasm between objective neutrality and the object theorizing extending form of understanding that is of partial importance to the applied discipline within the context of their distinctive social mandates. It responds to the imperative for informed action within the admittedly imperfect scientific foundation that is the lot of human science,” (p. 26). Thorne (2008) continues to argue that researchers in clinical practice have challenged the imposed “paradigm of positivistic research” through qualitative methods lack quantitative evidence. Thorne explains further that interpretive description was a method aimed at liberating researchers from the imposed normative methods or as Sandelowski (2000) puts it “tyranny of methods” (p. 334). Theoretical Backgrounds Interpretive description approach is largely influenced by various aspects from naturalistic inquiry, phenomology, grounded theory and ethnography when developing the designs, samples, data collection and analysis techniques for a study. Basing the method on grounded theory answers some questions such as “what is happening? and what is the researcher likely to learn?” These questions stimulate a more coherent analytical framework for the study. However, there are criticisms as to why would researchers develop an approach which resembles grounded theory. This can be answered by the preference of researchers to understand the data as individuals and not concepts. Therefore, Charmaz (2006/2008), modification of the theory to focus on people is suitable. Another perspective of concern in this method is the phenomology. Interpretive description approach is dependent on individuals’ experiences while drawing from the emerging patterns of the phenomenon being studied (Thorne, 2008). This has been argued that qualitative content analysis can do so, but Thorne notes that there is the attribute of quality and a link between the study and practice. Therefore, the issue is to put methodological principles into use so that valid results can be presented to practitioners. Interpretive description meets this requirement through the incorporation of the other methods such as grounded theory, content analysis and phenomology which are widely used in the scope of nursing research. Moreover, the practitioners are able to understand the results and put the knowledge into practice. Therefore, the morally defensiveness of the above methods encourages the incorporation of other strategies in interpretive descriptions. Some of these strategies include concurrent data collection and analysis as well as constant comparative analysis. These strategies play an important role in locating findings within the developed framework. Validity is another aspect that needs to be considered in clinical studies. The validity of results in interpretive description study is important and can be done by drawing on the matching patterns or expand on the practitioners knowledge about the phenomenon being studied. This explains why researchers utilizing interpretive description share their findings with other clinicians (Maheu & Thorne, 2008). According to Thorne et al. (2004), researchers who utilize interpretive description in their study enables them to stretch beyond description to develop “coherent conceptual description that taps thematic patterns and commonalities believed to characterize the phenomenon that is being studied. Interpretive description also accounts for the inevitable individual variations within them … understandings of clinical phenomena that illuminate their characteristics, patterns and structure in some theoretically useful manner” (p. 3). It can be argued that Thorne is pointing to the direction that this links the concepts of building theory and causal interpretive explanations. Application of the method After exploring the foundations of the “Interpretive Description”, I will present some of the studies that have utilized it as a methodological framework and how they relate to my study. I will address various aspects such as sampling method, sample size, data collection and analysis methods. In highlighting the use of the approach in various articles, I intend to prove that it is the best choice for my study a well. Most of the studies that utilized this approach focused on patient, family and health practitioners’ perceptions and experiences in various contexts such as ana...