Fundamentals of

Sampling, Recruitment,
& Data Collection in
Qualitative Studies
RSST1001 Spring 2023

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Learning outcomes

Define the types of data

Define the types of
collection methods used in
sampling methods
qualitative nursing research.

Compare how specific data

List the advantages and
collection methods
disadvantages of each of
contribute to the strength of
these methods.
evidence in a research study.

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General Sampling Procedure

Identify Target Population

Delineate Accessible
Population

Develop Obtain REB

Sampling Plan Approval

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Sampling strategies

• Research protocols should identify both the logic by which a particular case
or set of cases will be included (the sampling strategy) and ideally, an
estimate of how many cases will be included, to help with planning study
resources. What unit is being sampled? (patients, groups, hospitals, policy
documents?)

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A sampling strategy involves thinking about:

• What population are they being sampled from? (men with diabetes,
nursing teams, a country?)
• Which particular cases are needed from this population?
• How many will be needed?
• How will they recruited?
• In qualitative work we need a sample that is most likely to furnish the
data needed to answer our question. This is occasionally a probability
sample, but it is more usually some kind of purposive sample, in which
the researcher deliberatively chooses cases to include.

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Sampling strategies

• Some typical approaches in qualitative work are:

Convenience sampling
Snowball sampling (Network)
Theoretical sampling
Purposive
Maximum variation sampling.
Extreme or deviant case sampling
Typical case sampling
Criterion sampling
Systematic sampling
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Sample Size
• No power analysis
• Determined by research method (e.g.
phenomenology vs grounded theory)
• Participants added until data saturation
• The sample size for a qualitative study is likely to
depend on the rationale for including cases.
• A pragmatic approach to sample size
• If addressing a specific research question,
experience suggests that in interview studies, little
‘new’ comes out of transcripts after you have
analysed 15 or so with a relatively homogeneous
group of participants.
Importance of Data Collection Methods

To a large extent, the success of a research study depends on the

quality of the data collection methods chosen and implemented.

In qualitative research studies, self report is the main approach

used

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Critical Thinking Decision Path: Data Collection
Methods

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 Data Collection (self report)
Interview Focus group

Photo voice

Field notes

Observation

Records of available data

Terms: Social desirability bias, concealment, reactivity, research bias.

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Qualitative interview
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1-Interview
• The interview is probably the most widely used method of
producing data in qualitative health research.
• At one end of such a scale is the structured interview, which
aims to determine the kind of data produced quite tightly.
• At the other end of this scale, informal interviews include
the natural conversations that happen fortuitously in the
field.
• The most commonly used interview types in applied
qualitative health research are between these extremes, in
the form of semi-structured, in-depth or narrative
interviews.
Language in Qualitative
Research
• In qualitative research, language is central.

• Language is:
• Data: the route to understanding how the respondent
sees their world.
• Method: the strategy by which, through interviewing,
data are produced.
• Risks with language:
• Recall bias: problems of remembering accurately
• Social desirability: the wish to appear as a morally
worthy person to the interviewer.
 Language in Cross-
Cultural Settings
• Language is particularly problematic where the
researcher and interviewee do not share a common
language.
• Qualitative work ideally requires fluency in the
language and culture of the research setting.
• Solutions:
• In an extended period of fieldwork: possible to
learn local language and recruit assistants.
• In shorter-term research: use interpreters and
translators who are both bilingual and bicultural.
In-depth interviews: what they can and can’t do

Strengths of interviews: Commonly cited shortcomings of

interviews:
Provide data on how people talk about things, Only provide access to what people say, not
cultural contexts, and beliefs surrounding what they do.
different situations. Fail to produce information about how people
interact or behave in contexts other than
interviews.
Interview data are valid, so long as the interview
is treated as a contextual account, not as a proxy
representation of some other reality.
Example of transcript of an interview
• Kathy Charmaz with a 61-year-old man who describes sharp chest
pains he experienced on a walk with friends:
• “ [During the walk] I was white and sweating like crazy. I was in
obvious pain. You didn’t have to be a genius to figure out something
was wrong.... [Later] I lay on their couch for a couple of hours while
they harassed me.... They finally said, ‘you’re not going to die on my
couch. Get out of here’ [Laughing].... I was just so sick of listening to
them. I was extremely uncomfortable, and they’re just at me and at
me and at me like pitbull terriers or something, so I thought, ‘Okay,
just to shut them up’.” (Charmaz 1999: 371)

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Asking questions…

Topic guides
• A key skill in qualitative research is learning to
ask the right questions in interviews.
• In-depth and semi-structured interviews give
the interviewer flexibility in how to ask
questions, and the interviewer may have only a
brief topic guide.
Some rules of thumb for phrasing
qualitative interview questions

• Avoid asking respondents your research question.

• Use everyday, rather than technical and
professional vocabulary.
• Check your questions don’t lead the participant by
suggesting a preferred answer.
• Be careful of questions which imply a judgement.
Use open questions in preference to closed ones.
• Ask about concrete experiences rather than
abstract or theoretical questions.
 … and listening to answers
• Look at early transcripts
• Listening is not a passive state and entails body
language
• To facilitate the interview to tell their story, the
interviewer can use:
• Silences
• Prompts (‘uh-huh’, ‘mm’) and the non-verbal
cues such as head-nodding
• Probes, such as ‘Anything else?’, ‘And then what
happened?’, ‘Tell me more about that’.
‘Elite’ interviewing
• Problems of ‘cultural difference’ that arise when interviewing participants more powerful
than the interviewer (i.e. senior civil servants or health service managers):

• Difficult to recruit
• Allotted a short amount of time
• Managers speak ‘for their organization’
Considerations for planning an interview

Access Location

The Interview

Rapport
Recording interviews

• Interacting and facilitating a research interview can be hard work.

• If is possible to record, it is worth investing in a good-quality digital recorder and
microphone, as poor-quality recordings are difficult to transcribe accurately.
• It is not always possible to record interviews. Some individuals will prefer not to be
recorded, and in some cultures it can be a threatening request. It is also important, then,
to improve both your skills in note-taking and your ability to write notes while listening
actively. This is not easy either!
Beyond words
• Using visual methods in interviews
• Not all communication does, or can, happen through the words: silences, non-verbal
movements and other resonances can all be used to share meaning.
• Using material prompts to elicit data
• Visual data solicited from the interviewee useful for accessing knowledge, experiences can be
and accounts of topics that might be particularly emotional, or rarely talked about.
• Focusing on the ‘material’ aspects of health care practices is one way to help interviewees
elucidate what they ‘do’ and thus what taken-for-granted knowledge they bring to bear on
actions and decisions.
• Using visual data to understand pain and embodiment
• Visual methods adds a layer to understanding sensory, embodied knowledge, but they
cannot they completely solve the problem of accessing difficult-to-articulate experiences.
Group Interviews
and Discussions
Groups Interview
• In less well-resourced settings, community meetings have long been used for data-gathering, as
part of a participatory approach to set research agendas and in programme evaluation.
• Recently, there has been interest in generating data by interviewing ‘natural’ groups that might
discuss health, such as households, or friendship groups.
• ‘Group interviews’ mean any interview in which the researcher simultaneously gathers data from
more than one participant.
• These include pair interviews, opportunistic interviews held with small, naturally-occurring
groups during fieldwork, and specially recruited focus groups gathered together purely for
research purposes.
• Group ‘discussions’ refer to strategies where the primary focus of the research is to engender
interaction between the group members, as in a focus group discussion.
Different Types
of Group
Interview
• There many varieties of
group interview all of
which are used in different
types of research.
Advantages of Group-Based
Research

• Allows better observation of relationships and

power structures within groups.
• Some sensitive issues may be more readily
discussed.
• They are based on observation, so more ‘natural’
than individual interviews.
Limitations
• Some topics not appropriate for discussing in public.
• Ethical challenges in accessing stigmatised experiences or
perspectives likely to be contentious within groups.
• Not appropriate for accessing detailed personal narratives,
deviant, or marginal perspectives.
• Can be challenging to organize.
 Recruitment Strategies

Planning Incentives

group Location of the meeting. Comfort/ease vs.

interview Familiarity

studies Use of ‘Ice Breaker’ tasks

Presenting sensitive issues within the group

Photovoice (interview guided by photographs)
 Photovoice was developed in 1990s by Dr. Caroline want.
 This approach is used with members of a marginalized group,
especially in a design called Participatory action research.
 It facilitate the breaking of barriers between researchers and
participants
 Participants use photographs which demonstrate what their
world is about.
 It is said that photovoice is empowering to the individuals
Extensive field notes (part of data collection)
In many studies, researchers may take field notes regarding:
Observations
Nonverbal interactions
The setting itself (description)
Conceptual notes (re, grounded theory)
In qualitative research having “field notes” is all part of data
collection and is used during data analysis
More on this topic in the data analysis!!
The use of observation in qualitative research
• May be the only way to capture the phenomenon—
in studies where behaviors are examined.
• Can be used in experimental and nonexperimental
design– in experimental design an intervention can
be used and the reaction of informants observed
• No other technique yield as much depth and
variety of information that can be collected
Records of available data
• Information that has already been collected: hospital records, historical documents,
audio, video recordings are used to answer a research question.
• Advantages: can be time saving, can look at trends over time, no issue of reactivity or
response set bias,
• Disadvantages: may be difficult to obtain access to those records, the records may not
be representative of all the possible records, underreported events due to stigma
(suicide)
• Primary versus secondary source

Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Canada, a division of Reed Elsevier Canada, Ltd.

Examples of Other self report data collection methods

Diaries: A participant is asked to take daily notes about

activities taken during the day and when they start to
feel tired.
Stories: Use in narrative inquiry to elicit the full account
of an event or situation that requires some “restorying”.
Think aloud technique: Used in a situation where an
individuals would explain how decisions are made with
regards to a complex situation: How are patients
transferred from emergency room to intensive care unit?
The are many other techniques available to gather data.
Questions

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Resources

• Green, J., & Thorogood, N. (2018). Qualitative Methods

for Health Research. Sage
• p75-80
• P115-129
• P148-171

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