Health care access barriers
Imagine you are a state-level health policy maker interested in health care access. You want to explore health care access barriers in underserved rural communities. You have contacts in these communities and decide to do a qualitative case study to explore how residents in one small rural community experience difficulties accessing health care services. You plan to use semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and a sociogram as your sources of data. How would you use a thematic analysis approach to analyze these data sets? Should the analysis be inductive or deductive? Why? What is the preferred sequence for analyzing each data set? Explain. In this study, how would you move accordingly from the analysis of raw data to development of codes and thematic findings? Explain.
Sample Solution
In order to analyze the data sets from this case study using a thematic analysis approach, I would use an inductive method. This type of approach involves allowing themes and patterns to emerge from the data without being guided by pre-existing assumptions or theoretical frameworks (Barbour & Kitzinger, 1999). It also encourages creative exploration of various topics in order to uncover new insights which may not have been considered previously (Barbour & Kitzinger, 1999).
The first step in this process would be to read through all of the collected materials including semi-structured interviews, focus groups and sociograms in order gain an understanding of the types of issues that rural community members are facing when it comes to accessing health care services. Once familiar with the content – key words and phrases can then be identified which might provide clues as what topics should form the basis for further exploration.
From here; I would look for relationships between these terms as well as any overarching themes or narratives that could help explain why residents are having difficulty obtaining necessary health care resources. Open coding techniques can be used during this stage where specific components such as language or context are examined closely so that potential meanings behind certain statements can be established (Barbour & Kitzinger, 1999). Barbour R.,& ;Kitzinger J.(1999). Introducing Focus Groups. British Medical Journal 319(7203): 59–62.
Finally – once all sources have been fully assessed – a final report summarizing findings can then be produced along with any recommendations based upon these results. These reports should include detailed explanations regarding how conclusions were reached – focusing particularly on any causal links made between different elements within dataset so that readers understand exactly what was uncovered during analysis process.
