The Research Unit for General Practice, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
BMC Med Res Methodol. 2009 Jul 16;9:52. doi: 10.1186/1471-2288-9-52.
The knowledge and use of qualitative description as a qualitative research approach in health services research is limited.The aim of this article is to discuss the potential benefits of a qualitative descriptive approach, to identify its strengths and weaknesses and to provide examples of use.
Qualitative description is a useful qualitative method in much medical research if you keep the limitations of the approach in mind. It is especially relevant in mixed method research, in questionnaire development and in research projects aiming to gain firsthand knowledge of patients', relatives' or professionals' experiences with a particular topic. Another great advantage of the method is that it is suitable if time or resources are limited.
As a consequence of the growth in qualitative research in the health sciences, researchers sometimes feel obliged to designate their work as phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography or a narrative study when in fact it is not. Qualitative description might be a useful alternative approach to consider.
在卫生服务研究中，人们对定性描述作为一种定性研究方法的了解和使用十分有限。本文旨在讨论定性描述方法的潜在益处，明确其优缺点，并提供使用示例。
如果能牢记该方法的局限性，定性描述是医学研究中一种非常有用的定性方法。它在混合方法研究、问卷编制以及旨在深入了解患者、家属或专业人员对特定主题的经验的研究项目中尤为适用。该方法的另一个巨大优势是，当时间或资源有限时，它非常适用。
随着健康科学领域定性研究的增长，研究人员有时会觉得有必要将自己的工作指定为现象学、扎根理论、民族志或叙述性研究，而实际上并非如此。定性描述可能是一种值得考虑的有用替代方法。
