Language as research data: application of computer content analysis in nursing research

Statements from clients are valuable research data in nursing. Traditional analysis of such data can be labor intensive and difficult to code reliably or to adapt to group comparisons. The Minnesota Contextual Content Analysis, a computer-assisted analysis program, offers a systematic approach to categorizing and reducing data and to interpreting manifest and latent meaning in linguistic communications. The text is used in entirety, and reliability of coding is ensured, even with great volumes of data and multiple variables. Social context of the communication and emphasized ideas are scored variables, allowing for statistical procedures to further refine the interpretation of meaning. This rigorous method can aid nurse researchers in using language as research data.