Qualitative research: meaning and language

Qualitative methodologies, for example those determined by ethnography, are being reported by a growing number of British nurses. It is this author's contention that these studies are seriously deficient in areas such as sampling, reliability and, particularly, the attribution of meaning to statements given by interviewees. Whilst it is acknowledged that this kind of research is necessary for analyses of inter-personal relations, it is asserted that such analyses have inadequately dealt with psychological factors of perception and interpretation. Although some of these problems may be partially resolved, there remains a requirement that such ethnographies acknowledge the tentative quality of their conclusions given the subjectivity of the methods used.