Critical incident technique as a qualitative research method

Critical incident technique is a helpful methodology used to examine a number of issues pertinent to nursing science. It allows nurses to understand the dimensions of their role in clinical settings and their interactions with patients and other clinicians. It also helps nurses understand nursing practice in a variety of roles (e.g., clinical educator, nurse informatician, faculty member). Researchers using this methodology should review Flanagan's original assumptions and compare them to their proposed methodology to determine whether CIT is the best fit. Additionally, researchers should compare this method to phenomenology, grounded theory, or hermeneutics to determine whether these approaches are more congruent with the research question. Critical incident technique can provide insight into nursing issues when used with rigor and when appropriate rationale is provided for data collection, interpretation, and analysis.