‘How many participants are needed?’ The most common answer is, ‘it depends’-it depends on the purpose of the study, what kind of study is planned and what questions the study is trying to answer. See the study of Hatch for a summary of various types of purposeful sampling that can be used for interview studies. Instead, qualitative approaches seek an in-depth and detailed understanding and typically use purposeful sampling. There is no calculation of statistical power and the goal is not a large sample size. Unlike quantitative studies, statistical representativeness is not the goal of qualitative research. Sampling strategies are influenced by the research question and the purpose of the study. 11 12 Working with gatekeepers or informants to get access to potential participants can be extremely helpful as they are trusted sources that control access to the target sample. Good interviewees are those who are available, willing to be interviewed and have lived experiences and knowledge about the topic of interest. We provide recommendations for the essential steps to follow in order to best implement semistructured interviews in family medicine and primary care research settings.Īfter deciding on the purpose of the study and research question(s), the next step is to determine who will provide the best information to answer the research question. In order to elucidate this method, we provide practical guidance for researchers, including novice researchers and those with few resources, to use semistructured interviewing as a data collection strategy. Despite the utility, semistructured interviews can be intimidating and challenging for researchers not familiar with qualitative approaches. Semistructured interviewing can be a powerful tool for family physicians, primary care providers and other health services researchers to use to understand the thoughts, beliefs and experiences of individuals. Researchers using semistructured interviews for data collection should take on a relational focus and consider the skills of interviewing to ensure quality. Semistructured interviews provide an effective and feasible research method for family physicians to conduct in primary care research settings. Skills include: (1) determining the purpose and scope of the study (2) identifying participants (3) considering ethical issues (4) planning logistical aspects (5) developing the interview guide (6) establishing trust and rapport (7) conducting the interview (8) memoing and reflection (9) analysing the data (10) demonstrating the trustworthiness of the research and (11) presenting findings in a paper or report. Overall, semistructured interviewing requires both a relational focus and practice in the skills of facilitation. We reviewed the literature on semistructured interviewing to identify key skills and components for using this method in family medicine and primary care research settings. The purpose of this article was to identify and describe the essential skills to designing and conducting semistructured interviews in family medicine and primary care research settings. The method allows the researcher to collect open-ended data, to explore participant thoughts, feelings and beliefs about a particular topic and to delve deeply into personal and sometimes sensitive issues. This method typically consists of a dialogue between researcher and participant, guided by a flexible interview protocol and supplemented by follow-up questions, probes and comments. Semistructured in-depth interviews are commonly used in qualitative research and are the most frequent qualitative data source in health services research.
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