The role of rapport: lessons learned from conducting research in a primary care setting

Conducting research in a primary care setting is difficult because of the competing demands primary care offices have to manage in the current medical environment. Every primary care office has its own relationship and reporting structures, norms, and ways of conducting day-to-day affairs. Regardless of the setting, when carrying out qualitative and/or mixed-methods research, researchers must have rapport with the individuals or group of individuals they will be working with to carry out the research. In this article, the authors describe the different approaches that research staff have used to create rapport with practice staff that were not only participants in the study but were also responsible for the delivery and implementation of this effectiveness study.