Nationwide Survey on Recognitions of the Reliability and Validity of

Qualitative Approach in Japan

Etsuko NISHIYAMA and Hirofumi TAKAGI

School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Niigata University, Japan

Background: While quantitative approaches are strongly recommended in Evidence Based Nursing, qualitative studies have been increasing gradually in nursing researches in Japan. Qualitative approaches (QA) must be thought to be more important in nursing research rather than quantitative ones. Therefore, we tried to elucidate the recognitions related to the reliability and validity of the qualitative studies with the experiences of having lectures and conducting qualitative researches in Japan.

Methods: We conducted the nationwide surveys of which subjects were members of the Nihon Kangokei Daigaku Kyougikai (Japanese Nursing College and University Association); i.e. 3,745 persons surveyed from December 2003 to February 2004 . We mailed the questionnaire which included general background items such as age, gender, educational level, title, etc, and 91 items related with EBN and QA.

Results: 1,118 persons (29.9%) replied, where the mean age were 41.7 years old in females and 49.1 in males, respectively. The relationships between recognitions of the reliability of the qualitative study and the experiences of having lectures about QA in undergraduate and/or graduate courses were not statistically significant. 97.4% of self-learning group answered positively about the reliability of QA while 79.1% without self-learning agreed to it, as well as 98.0% vs. 77.8 % replied positively concerning the validity. With respect to the reliability 75.8% with group learning vs. 62.8% without it answered positively with statistically significance as well as concerning the validity (74.7% vs. 55.6%). It was found that the significant relationships existed between the agreement of the reliability and validity of QA and the experiences of having lectures about QA in undergraduate and/or graduate courses as well as experience of self-learning. With respect to most of sampling methods , the experiences of using the methods were likely to confirm the recognition of reliability and validity of QA stronger than they have never done. We found also statistical relationships of the recognitions of the reliability and validity of QA with the experiences of using the methods such as data collection, interview, data analysis (interpretation) and qualitative approach.

Conclusion: It was suggested that the experiences of self-doing something such as self-learning and/or studying by QA must confirm the recognitions of the reliability and validity of QA strongly. We should elucidate scientific issues on the quality of the qualitative study in detail through the practice of real qualitative study and the reflexivity. This study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Technology of Japan (No.15390660).