Handbook for Synthesizing Qualitative Research

by Margarete Sandelowski PhD, RN, FAAN, Julie Barroso PhD, ANP, APRN

Overview

Designated a Doody's Core Title!

Written for graduate-level students and faculty in health care science disciplines, this handbook will help you integrate the findings in reports of primary qualitative studies as well as extrapolate the methods and techniques used to create a qualitative research synthesis.

Using reports of studies in two domains of research and across behavior, social science, and practice disciplines, this handbook will help you:

• Locate qualitative research synthesis in qualitative research, research synthesis, research utilization, and evidence-based practice
• Locate the qualitative research synthesis enterprise in reading and writing practices
• Differentiate qualitative research synthesis from other forms of inquiry
• Formulate significant research problems and purposes for a qualitative research synthesis study
• Design credible qualitative research synthesis studies that fit available resources
• Conduct comprehensive searches for primary qualitative research reports in a target domain of inquiry
• Conduct judicious appraisals of these qualitative research reports
• Compare and classify findings across qualitative research reports
• Select methodological approaches appropriate to the content and form of the qualitative research findings
• Use qualitative metasummary and metasynthesis techniques to integrate qualitative research findings
• Optimize the validity of qualitative research synthesis studies
• Present the results of qualitative research synthesis studies in effective, audience-appropriate ways

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826156952
Publisher:	Springer Publishing Company
Publication date:	07/24/2006
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	312
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Margarete Sandelowski, PhD, RN, FAAN, is Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) School of Nursing.

Julie Barroso, PhD, ANP, APRN, BC, is Associate Professor and Director of the Adult Nurse Practitioner Program at Duke University School of Nursing

Table of Contents

"

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Attitudes, Assumptions, and Caveats

1. The Urge to Synthesize
2. Conceiving the Qualitative Research Synthesis Study
3. Searching For and Retrieving Qualitative Research Reports
4. Appraising Reports of Qualitative Studies
5. Classifying the Findings in Qualitative Research Reports
6. Synthesizing Qualitative Research Findings: Qualitative Metasummary
7. Synthesizing Qualitative Research Findings: Qualitative Metasynthesis
8. Optimizing the Validity of Qualitative Research Synthesis Studies
9. Presenting Syntheses of Qualitative Research Findings
10. Appendix: Reports in the Qualitative Metasynthesis Project

Index

"

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This book is expertly crafted and its easy style and 'readability' are some of its most pleasing features. The short chapters are interesting and authoritative and can be read on a 'stand alone' basis, allowing readers to 'dip in and out'...Without fear of contradiction, this book is the best map of qualitative research synthesis that I have come across. I congratulate Drs Sandelowski and Barroso on producing it and I recommend it wholeheartedly to all qualitative researchers."
-Dr Hugh McKenna, PhD, RN, FEANS, FRCSI, FRCN, Professor and Dean, Faculty of Life & Health Sciences, University of Ulster, United Kingdom

"In this powerful text, Sandelowsi and Barroso have capitalized on their talent for powerful imagery and exquisite narrative to engage readers in a virtual conversation on the meaning of knowledge claims and the methods by which we construct them...Handbook for Synthesizing Qualitative Research meets an urgent need for practical wisdom and intellectual sensibility in the integration of qualitatively-derived knowledge as a fundamental constituent of evidence-based health care practice. This text will be of value to both neophyte and seasoned qualitative researchers in nursing and health care. It will extend the dialogue into action, and contribute to a new generation of thoughtful qualitative research synthesis."
-Sally Thorne, RN, PhD, Professor and Director, University of British Columbia School of Nursing

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Diane M Tomasic, EdD, RN (Slippery Rock University )
Description: This book presents guidelines for synthesizing qualitative research, providing criteria for appraising reports of primary qualitative research studies.
Purpose: The purpose is to provide a guide for integrating the findings of primary qualitative studies. This is a worthwhile goal, considering the growing importance of qualitative research. The authors recommend that this book not be used as a prescriptive set of rules to be followed, but as a stimulus for thinking and creativity.
Audience: The target audience is graduate nursing students and faculty as well as students and faculty in other healthcare and practice disciplines. The authors are well published in the area of qualitative research and are known internationally.
Features: This book provides procedures for preparing metasummaries and metasyntheses of qualitative research. It begins by introducing the concept of qualitative research synthesis. Steps for the retrieving qualitative studies are described and criteria for appraising the studies are provided. The preparation of qualitative metasummaries and metasyntheses are described. Numerous tables, figures, and boxed provide examples of the application of the content. A web site is available for further illustrations of the process of qualitative synthesis.
Assessment: This is a very worthwhile book for those learning how to synthesize qualitative research. It is a must for graduate programs focusing on qualitative research.

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