Many aspects of people’s experiences of work can only be identified by speaking to them, or seeing them doing their jobs. These qualitative methods will be an important part of our work.
Qualitative research enables people to discuss issues in their own terms, to explore and debate potential ideas, as well as map the routine (and sometimes surprising) features of daily life.
We will be using a range of methods, including individual interviews and group discussions, spending time with people as they undertake their work, to help us better understand the types of problems the NHS workforce face. We will also learn more about the wide range of potential good ideas that people have thought about or tried in the past.
Where changes are implemented, these methods will help us understand the impact of the solutions we are testing. We will learn about how they are introduced, how they impact people over time in different ways, and how they could be further developed and refined in the future.
Approach and methods
There are a number of potential qualitative methods available. These will be adapted to specific projects, settings and populations, but we will mainly be using three methods:
- Talking to people: we will be undertaking lots of different conversations with NHS staff and managers, patients and carers, members of the public, as well as other relevant people, like policy makers. Some will be one-to-one conversations, others with small groups and some with much larger groups. Some conversations will be recorded on digital recorders, while others will be captured on brief notes about the key points raised.
- Observing what they do: we will also ask some people if we can observe specific events (e.g. staff training days) or activities (e.g. working at reception). Spending time with people, as they go about day-to-day work, can really help us to understand the issues they face.
Reading what people have said: we will also ask some people to complete some diaries to ask about key points of stress in a week, their experience of a trialled solution and more. This will help us further understand key issues that people face.
Opportunities in this workstream
We will be working with a wide range of NHS staff and managers, across the regions we are working in, to explore the key issues they face. We will also run a range of public events, in order to learn more from some patients and members of the public.
As potential solutions are implemented in specific NHS workplaces, we will ask some of the most impacted health and care staff to take part in conversations and observations.
Details about these opportunities will be shared on the Get Involved page.
