Paper Alert: Transitioning from Clinical to Qualitative Research Interviewing

 

What a great topic for clinicians out there starting out as researchers!!!! Published in the International Journal of Qualitative Methods

Matthew R. Hunt, Lisa S. Chan, Anita Mehta (2011)

Abstract

In this paper one aspect of the transition that must be made by experienced clinicians who become involved in conducting qualitative health research is examined, specifically, the differences between clinical and research interviewing. A clinician who is skillful and comfortable carrying out a clinical interview may not initially apprehend the important differences between these categories and contexts of interviewing. This situation can lead to difficulties and diminished quality of data collection because the purpose, techniques and orientation of a qualitative research interview are distinct from those of the clinical interview. Appreciation of these differences between interview contexts and genres, and strategies for addressing challenges associated with these differences, can help clinician researchers to become successful qualitative interviewers.

...here's a practical quote from the paper..

Learning to conduct effective research interviews is a basic skill for qualitative inquiry. Whether

conducting an ethnography, grounded theory, phenomenology, or most other qualitative studies, the

ability to gather data through interviewing is crucial. There are many types of qualitative interviews

including unstructured, semi-structured and structured interviews (Gubrium & Holstein, 2002; Tod,

2006). In addition, informal interviewing is also used in tandem with participant-observation in some

methodologies (Bernard, 2002; Fontana & Frey, 1994). To support clinicians new to qualitative research

we propose five strategies and approaches that can assist experienced clinicians to conduct successful

research interviews (as defined within a particular methodology or tradition). We recommend that

clinicians acknowledge and reflect critically on their prior interview experience, prepare carefully for

research interviews, maintain awareness of power dynamics within the interview, pay attention to the use

of language and verbal cues, and evaluate their own progress on an on-going basis.

...and the paper ITSELF