Qualitative Research in Perioperative Medicine

Key points

Uptake of qualitative methods in perioperative medical research has been relatively slow because of some misapprehensions about these methods.
Qualitative methods are most appropriate for answering “how” questions about processes as they occur in their everyday contexts.
Perioperative qualitative researchers should strive for greater flexibility in their interviews and for more observation-based data collection.
During data analysis, perioperative qualitative researchers should focus less on intercoder reliability and more on robust discussion and debate about disagreements.
Qualitative studies published in perioperative journals would benefit greatly from positing explanations for the thematic patterns they describe.

Qualitative Research in Perioperative Medicine

Qualitative methods are appearing with increasing frequency in high-impact journals in surgery, anesthesiology, and critical care. Nevertheless, their uptake remains relatively slow in the perioperative specialties. Misapprehensions about qualitative methods continue to keep many perioperative researchers from fully realizing their utility. In explaining the use of qualitative methods to address topics in perioperative medicine, this chapter attempts to clear up persistent confusions for perioperative researchers who are interested in or are already doing qualitative work, as well as those who do not do qualitative work themselves but are called on to evaluate qualitative studies (e.g., as journal reviewers) in their areas of content expertise. Readers are encouraged to explore the bibliography to see examples of high-quality qualitative studies in the perioperative space and to delve further into methodological issues.

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