This paper offers a selective overview of the increasingly popular paradigm of qualitative research. We consider the nature of qualitative research questions, describe common methodologies, discuss data collection and analysis methods, highlight recent innovations and outline principles of rigour. Examples are provided from our own and other authors' published qualitative medical education research. Our aim is to provide both an introduction to some qualitative essentials for readers who are new to this research paradigm and a resource for more experienced readers, such as those who are currently engaged in a qualitative research project and would like a better sense of where their work sits within the broader paradigm.
Anthropology, Cultural ; Data Collection ; Education, Medical ; Grounded Theory ; Humans ; Interviews as Topic ; Qualitative Research ; Research Design

PURPOSE: This ethnography was performed to explore patterns and meanings of healthy life among aged women using senior centers. METHODS: The informants were 21 individuals aged 65 years and older at 2 community-based senior centers. Data were collected from iterative fieldwork through in-depth interviews and participant observations and analyzed using text analysis and taxonomic methods developed by Spradley. Field notes were used with follow-up interviews and dialogue between authors to enhance interpretation. RESULTS: Patterns of healthy life among aged women using senior centers were categorized by age groups within the context of the four cultural elements of taking care of the body, relationality, temporality, and spatiality: active and passive control, maintenance of interdependence and individuality, expansion and maintenance of the daily routine, unity of peer relations and sustenance of family relations, spending time productively and tediously, and complementary and alternative space of the family relations. CONCLUSION: The informants in this study demonstrated healthy life by maintaining and strengthening continuous relationships developed in the senior centers without being isolated from the family and society. Patterns of their healthy life differed across age groups within the socio-cultural context. Therefore, interventions should be tailored to address age groups and community needs.
Anthropology, Cultural* ; Family Relations ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Individuality ; Qualitative Research ; Senior Centers* ; Women's Health

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify and describe cultural meanings for married Japanese immigrant women in rural Korean communities. METHODS: The informants were 10 women in rural areas. Data were collected from August 2017 to June 2018 through in-depth interviews and participant observations and analyzed using text analysis and taxonomic methods developed by Spradley. RESULTS: The meanings of adaptation were classified into five cultural domains: Practicing the doctrine, accepting the difference, redemption, true home, and confronting reality. The subthemes according to meanings of adaptation were comprised of international marriage with a sense of calling, bearing with sense of duty, and making a living substantively. The subthemes in this study reflect the process of adaptation. The cultural themes in the process of adaptation were overcoming differences and conflicts between Korea and Japan to achieve true family. CONCLUSION: The adaptation processes of married Japanese immigrant women included making their living reality known and recognizing the times when exchanges between Koreans and Japanese cannot exist within a hostile composition.
Anthropology, Cultural ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Emigrants and Immigrants ; Female ; Humans ; Japan ; Korea ; Marriage ; Social Adjustment

PURPOSE: Objectives of this study were to identify and describe cultural meaning for nursing students in the class in fundamental nursing practice. METHODS: Data were collected from November 2016 to May 2017 included focus group interviews and participants observation. The key informants in this study included 23 nursing students divided into 3 focus groups who had taken the course in fundamental nursing practice in university U and university S in Kyungpook, and university D in Jeonnam. Interviews continued until no new information could be identified from transcripts. Data were analyzed using the taxonomic analysis method developed by Spradley. RESULTS: Based on the data acquired from the interviews, cultural domains in the class “fundamental nursing practice” were classified as ‘community oriented activities’, ‘learning and playing space’, ‘relationship of difference and discrimination’, ‘time for present and future’. CONCLUSION: The culture in the class “fundamental nursing practice” could be summarized as ‘non-standardized learning with team dynamics’. Also nursing students learned about a small society whose members are becoming nurses. Results indicate that it is critical for professors to understand students' values, beliefs and their attitude in order to aid in adjustment to class.
Anthropology, Cultural ; Focus Groups ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Humans ; Jeollanam-do ; Learning ; Methods ; Nursing ; Students, Nursing ; Universities

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This article aims to contribute to the literature on health and politics in the Philippines. So far, the wealth of studies on the intersection of these two in the local context has been mostly focused on issues of health sector reform and specific health policies or legislations. Unlike elsewhere, the use of health in elections in the Philippines, the most important political activity in any democracy, remains largely understudied. This article aimed to fill this gap by studying the ways health was used in the 2016 Philippines elections. It mapped the ways health was used as an electoral currency, meaning as a means for vote brokerages during local elections.

METHODOLOGY: The observations that informed this study were based on a political ethnographic study in Quezon City. In-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and participant observations were conducted among voters and politicians of two vote-rich electoral districts in the city. The transcripts and notes from the data gathered were coded and thematically analyzed.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Voters and politicians use health as a means of transactional exchange of votes during focal elections-an electoral currency. Politicians use their control of public health facilities and services to secure votes while voters simultaneously use their vote as a leverage to gain access to these health facilities and services and improve its delivery in their communities. So while politicians use health to reinforce patron-client ties during elections, voters take advantage of its opportunities to improve their everyday life.

Leininger espoused that when studying cultures, researchers are likely to discover authentic and credible data when they are viewed by the participants as trusted friends. The Stranger to Trusted Friend Enabler was formulated to guide researchers in identifying indicators that a researcher has become the participants' trusted friend. This article presents my reflections on using Leininger's Stanger to Trusted Friend Enabler as a novice ethnonursing researcher. From my own experience, I have identified four hallmarks of a trusting relationship during fieldwork that correspond with the indicators of a trusting relationship identified by Leininger: (1) participants voluntarily share information about their culture and their personal experiences; (2) participants express concern for the researcher's welfare through their words and actions; (3) participants give the researcher a sense of community identity, such as a native name; and (4) participants suggest steps to further improve the trustworthiness of the study.

One of the limitations of the Stranger to Trusted Friend Enabler, however, is the fact that it only focuses on assessing the participants' trust towards the researcher. A successful ethnographic research requires mutual trust between the researcher and participants. From my experience in conducting an ethnonursing research, I have noted that aside from the participants' trust towards me, my trust towards them was also essential in obtaining rich and accurate data. Furthermore, the transition from being a stranger to a trusted friend is not a linear process in ethnonursing and in other types of ethnographic research. As a researcher transitions to become a trusted friend, he or she does not totally abandon his or her sense of alienation to the researched. The scientific nature of ethnography requires researchers to be a stranger and a trusted friend at the same time.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to develop and evaluate a nursing educational program improving nursing professional's cultural competency in cancer prevention. METHODS: An eight-hour long educational program was developed based on several preliminary research projects, one ethnography and three quantitative projects, to identify the educational needs among nursing students and professionals in Korea. Thirty two nursing professionals were recruited for a one group pretest-posttest design. Three questionnaires were used to measure cultural nursing knowledge about cancer prevention, cultural competency and perceived importance of nurses' quality. RESULTS: After completing the educational program, the clinical nurses showed a significant change in the mean score of the cultural nursing knowledge about cancer prevention from 4.78±2.01 to 8.81±1.52 (t=-8.48, p<.001) and the level of the cultural competency from 72.47±8.96 to 83.59±8.61 (t=-6.16, p<.001). Clinical nurses' perception of 'Communication ability with patients and family members' changed from 6th to 2nd most importance but 'Having a passion for the patient care' remained the most important perceived factor of nurses' quality after completing the educational program. CONCLUSION: The educational program developed was effective in improving nursing professional's cultural competency in cancer prevention. However, it needs to be improved more to be culturally specific to multi-cultural clients.
Anthropology, Cultural ; Cultural Competency* ; Early Detection of Cancer ; Humans ; Korea ; Nursing ; Students, Nursing

PURPOSE: This ethnographic study was conducted to explore and understand themeaning of the daily life of nurses in emergency departments. Objectives for this study were to identify and describe the true nature of emergency roomnurses' daily experience and create a theoretical model based on the findings. METHODS: Data were collected through in-depth interviews and participants observation. These data were recorded and transcribed verbatimwith consent of the informants, 10 nurses who had cared for patients in emergency rooms. Data were collected between November 2013 and October 2014. Interviews continued until no new information could be identified from transcripts. Data were analyzed using the taxonomic analysis method developed by Spradley. RESULTS: Based on the data acquired from interviews, nurses' cultural domains were classified as ‘extensity of emergency room nurses’, ‘temporality of emergency room nurses’, ‘relationships among emergency room nurses’ and ‘becoming an emergency roomnurses’. CONCLUSION: The daily culture of emergency room nurses could be summarized as ‘busy daily life amidst confusion’. However, many nurses boosted their self-esteem by taking care of patients' collaboration with fellow nurses. In other words, nurses in emergency room forms a dynamic culture and pursue professionalism, rather than a simple chaotic daily life culture.
Anthropology, Cultural* ; Cooperative Behavior ; Emergencies* ; Emergency Service, Hospital* ; Humans ; Methods ; Models, Theoretical ; Professionalism ; Qualitative Research

Due to poor preservation of human skeletons at most of archaeological sites, few specialists have carried out limited number of analysis of human bones and fossils in Korea. Worship of ancestor remains and poor development of bioarchaeology in the past may have prevented preservation and analysis of human bones. However, cases of extensive analysis with various methods, including DNA analysis, carbon isotope analysis, pathological analysis etc. have been increased very rapidly in recent years and make meaningful contribution to archaeological explanations of sites and ancient society. Development and rigorous application of various methodologies, in conjunction with related fields such as history and ethnography, to extensive analysis of human bone remains is highly recommendable even for the human remains excavated previously.
Anthropology, Cultural ; Carbon ; DNA ; Fossils ; Humans ; Korea ; Skeleton* ; Specialization

An interesting aspect of the many recent researches on the history of medicine in Korea is a concentration on oral histories, a trend that is sure to supplement the lack of medical documents and historical materials covering the modern period. This trend will also contribute to the invention of new approaches in the historiography of medicine. Although the fragments of oral testimony cannot be expected to give a perfect representation of historical reality, such "slices of life" help represent history from the viewpoint of ordinary people and members of the medical profession who are less often acknowledged. The recent researches that have taken oral testimony on the history of medicine in Korea have both racked up achievements as well as encountered limitations. First, many disciplines such as history, literature, cultural anthropology, folklore, sociology, and the history of medicine have used the technique of oral histories in the research approaches, and, especially since the start of the 2000s, have produced a variety of materials. The large amounts of raw materials published in these many disciplines are sure to bring even higher research achievements. Second, for the most part, oral history researches in the medical profession have concentrated on second-tier practitioners, such as midwives, apothecaries, and acupuncturists, and the experiences of such untypical sufferers as lepers and victims of germ and atomic warfare. While the oral history of more prominent medical figures tends to underline his or her story of success, the oral histories of minority participants in the medical profession and patients can reveal the truth that has remained veiled until now. It is especially meaningful that these oral histories enable researchers to reconstruct history from below, as it were. Third, the researches that take the oral history approach are intended to complement documentary records. Surprisingly, through being given the opportunity to tell their histories, the interviewees have frequently experienced the testimony as an act of self-healing. Formally, an oral history is not a medical practice, but in many cases the interviewee is able to realize his or her own identity and to affirm his or her own life's story. It is in this light that we need to pay attention to the possibilities of such a humanistic form of therapy. Finally, because the research achievements depend on oral materials, the objectivity and rationality of description take on an important research virtue. When conducting an oral history, the researcher partakes of a close relationship with interviewees through persistent contact and can often identify with them. Accordingly, the researcher needs to take care to maintain a critical view of oral materials and adopt an objective perspective over his or her own research object.
Achievement ; Anthropology, Cultural ; Complement System Proteins ; Folklore ; Historiography ; History of Medicine ; Humans ; Inventions ; Korea ; Light ; Midwifery ; Nuclear Warfare ; Sociology ; Virtues