Judith Green et. al (1998) have used the asthma treatment to illustrate how qualitative methods can broaden the scope of evidence-based medicine. According to the authors, Qualitative methods can help bridge the gap between scientific evidence and clinical practice, provide rigorous accounts of treatment regimens in everyday contexts, help us understand the barriers to using evidence based nursing practice, and its limitations in informing decisions about treatment.
Recognizing the limits of evidence-based nursing does not imply a rejection of research evidence but awareness that different research questions require different kinds of research (Judith Green et. al 1998) .
The authors classify qualitative research into various components as Naturalism which is the understanding treatment regimens in an everyday context; Interpretation which explains what meaning do symptoms and treatment regimens have for patients and practitioners; Process which explains how might these meanings change over time ;Interaction which explains how communication between patients and practitioners impact on the meaning of medication and Relativism which explains how scientific reality look different from different perspectives.
Qualitative findings as discussed, are often the first type of evidence available relating to innovations and contextual constraints relating to existing practice [12]. According to this published article, the value of good qualitative data is that it can provide crucial information about context and processes related to health practices and interventions and can be useful in areas for which there is little or no previous research, the use of RCTs or other types “experiments” is impossible and to complement quantitative data gathering providing data about unanticipated impacts of interventions.
Qualitative procedures can form information not obtainable using quantitative methods. Qualitative evidence is often the “best available” evidence until quantitative research is carried out (David R. Thomas, 2000).
Works Cited:
• Adler G, Grieshaber S, Faude V, Thebaldi B, Dressing H. Clozapine in patients with chronic schizophrenia: serum level, EEG and memory performance.Pharmacopsychiatry. 2002 Sep;35(5):190-4. • Ann J. Zwemer, 1995. “Professional Adjustments and Ethics for Nurses in India”, 6th edn, B. 1 Publications, India, • Annandale, E and Hunt, K, 1998 “Accounts of Disagreements with doctors”, Social Science and Medicine 1:119-129,. • Baum Neil H. , 2003. “Support your decisions with Evidence based Medicine”, “Urology Times” Feb 1,