A question that I am interested in investigating is what is the task that most nurses find difficulty working on in the ICU unit?
There are four major types of qualitative research: phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, and historical (Mauk, 2019) Phenomenology consists of qualitative research that describes the lived experience to acquire understanding of an experience from the perspective of the participants (Mauk, 2019). On the other hand, grounded theory is a type of qualitative research that examines the process of a phenomenon and concludes in the generation of a theory. A question that can describe this design is “What is the process of recovery following breast cancer?” (Mauk, 2019). In addition, Ethnography emphasizes on the basis of culture such as different practices for different cultures (Mauk, 2019). Lastly, Historical design examines events or people to explain and understand the past to guide the present and future, for example they ask questions about ancient beliefs about diseases and the impact it has had on the medical field.
Grounded theory is the most appropriate for my qualitative research question because this method is most commonly used in areas where there is little or no previous research (Mauk, 2019). Grounded theory can be used by nurses to explore a phenomenon about which little is known.