JOURNAL OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN HEALTH SCIENCES
Year:2016 | Volume:5 | Issue:2|Papers Count:8

Introduction: Flossing is the best and most common way to clean between teeth where plaque accumulation and gingivitis starts. However, many mothers neglect the flossing of their small children.The purpose of this study was to provide better understanding of perceived barriers of mothers in use of dental floss for their 3-6-year-old children.Method: This qualitative study examined the perceived barriers of 40 mothers of 3-6-year-old children utilizing qualitative content analysis approach. Participants were selected using purposeful sampling in Kamyaran, Iran, in 2014. Data were collected through conducting in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The transcriptions of all interviews were analyzed by content analysis technique to extract main themes in regards to research questions.Results: Mothers’ perceived barriers were categorized into two main groups as mother and family member-related barriers (inappropriate attitudes, behaviors and skills, mental and emotional conditions, and knowledge) and child-related barriers (skill).Conclusion: The results of this study highlight the importance of understanding mothers’ barriers to help their children in flossing and emphasized the role of mothers and family members in establishing this oral health behavior in children from early years. It is suggested that comprehensive and effective oral health education programs should include modifying wrong, but important, assumptions and beliefs of parents regarding primary teeth and importance of healthy oral health behaviors.

Introduction: Organ donation is a very difficult decision for families. Families of brain-dead patients simultaneously face the difficult and damaging stages of experiencing and understanding brain death and the crisis of decision-making about organ donation. The understanding of individuals’ mentality and experiences is not possible with common quantitative approach; however, due to the importance this issue in nursing, understanding this concept seems necessary in order to provide appropriate care. Thus, in the present study, the qualitative study method was used for a deeper understanding of the psychological problems of brain dead patients’ family members.Method: This qualitative study was conducted through content analysis approach. The study participants were 13 relatives of 8 brain dead patients and were selected through purposive sampling method. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Data collection was continued until data saturation, when no new codes and categories were found. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed through the qualitative content analysis methods of Granheim and Lundman.Results: Through data analysis, 16 sub-categories were obtained and were categorized into the 4 themes of ambiguities, fear and doubt, dependency, and growth and development. Each of these concepts was divided into smaller indices.Conclusion: Results of the qualitative evaluation of the psychological problems of families of brain-dead organ donors showed that, because of families’ different experiences, lack of awareness, and harmful levels of anxiety and depression, it is necessary to appropriately support families in this crisis. The extracted concepts showed that all of the families required the medical team’s sympathy and that they must be assisted in understanding any ambiguities and better understanding these conditions. Moreover, the incidence of inappropriate thoughts and confounding factors in the acceptance of this crisis must be reduced by strengthening the humanitarian morale of individuals.

Introduction: Active aging is an important concept in the positive paradigm of aging that has attracted policy makers’ attention in the past two decades. However, active aging has been less underscored as an issue of research which can provide real and reliable insight about the aging population. Thus, the present study explored the nature, context, and influencing factors of active aging based on the experiences of the elderly.Method: This qualitative study was conducted through grounded theory method in 2014-2015. Sampling was initiated with purposeful sampling method and continued with theoretical sampling method. The study environment consisted of cultural centers, artistic-cultural associations, and parks in Tehran, Iran.Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 35 elderly adults until data saturation was achieved. Data were analyzed and coded through 3 phases of open, axial, and selective coding suggested by Strauss and Corbin.Results: “Reduction of roles” was the context for the phenomenon or main theme of the study which manifested as “agency-oriented existentialism”. This theme consisted of two sub-categories of “continuity of self” and “effective identity seeking” and was the main essence of experiences of active elderly. Causal conditions for active aging consisted of the subcategories of “internalized health tendency”, “quality of life time perception”, and “rethinking the quality of presence in relationships”.Conclusion: At first glance, active aging appears as a behavior type, but in fact it is an attempt for agency-oriented existentialism and it requires elderly individuals’ different perception about time, their presence, and health tendency.

Introduction: Awareness of the problems of students with special needs will help families and special education officials to treat and train these children correctly. The goal of this study was to identify and analyze the problems of male adolescents with mild intellectual disability (MID) in special schools.Method: This qualitative study was conducted through the phenomenological method. The subjects included 16 male students of 15 to 18 years of age with MID in special schools of Tabriz, Iran, during the educational year of 2012-2013. Data were collected through unstructured interviews within 20 to 70 minutes, and analyzed using the Smith et al. method.Results: The themes that emerged from the interviews consisted of family damages (broken family and illness in the Family), physical ailments (illness, dysmorphism, and organ failure), abuse of adolescents, psychological trauma (anxiety, feeling of guilt, and poor self-control), fear of the future (concerns about safety in the future and concerns about education and job in the future), studying in a special school, poor learning, and disability in others.Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that adolescents with MID enrolled in special schools cope with complex problems. Attention to these problems can help families and educational system officials to reduce the suffering of this group of learners.

Introduction: The aim of the present study was the identification and extraction of parenting myths in the sociocultural context of Kermanshah Province, Iran.Method: This qualitative research was conducted through the phenomenological approach. Therefore, 15 parents were selected through purposive sampling method. Data were collected through in-depth interviews.Results: The data analysis and coding led to 5 original themes of trait, effect, responsibility, relationship, and priority and 17 sub-the mesin parent’s cognition system.Conclusion: Parenting myths are the criteria for parents’ performance. Thus, parents experience stressful parenting because they cannot fulfill these criteria.

Introduction: Theoretical reflexivity is a concept that has been widely accepted in health research and most researchers have acknowledged the importance of reflexivity in the clarity and increased accuracy of qualitative research. The purpose of this study was to introduce, explain the importance of, and describe reflexivity as an important characteristic of qualitative research.Method: This research was conducted using library and internet resources without time limitation until 2015. Information was collected by searching library resources and scientific websites. Then, relevant articles were selected and their contents were extracted.Results: There are many factors for the improvement of the quality of a qualitative study; one of these factors is reflexivity. Reflexivity is a characteristic of research that can be considered during the whole process of qualitative research and is not limited to a certain stage. It is an extensive activity in which the researcher tries to be aware of his/her ideas, attitudes, and beliefs and make their influence on his/her own research clear for him/herself and sometimes the audience. Despite the existing doubts about the ability to conduct it, almost all experts in qualitative research have emphasized its necessity in qualitative research, especially in the field of health. Creating reflexivity in qualitative research and preserving it during the development of qualitative research will increase their precision and accuracy.Conclusion: Reflexivity can enrich qualitative research, improve their quality, and prevent the occurrence of bias. Therefore, attention to this factor is recommended in every step of qualitative research.

Introduction: The present study was a part of the findings of a qualitative thematic content analysis aimed at elucidating the role and position of nursing from the viewpoint of the managers of the Iranian health care system. The theme of inappropriate policies of the health care system, which was extracted in the analysis, was evaluated in this research. The results of this study are part of an effort to develop the nursing education model based on the determination of the role and position of nursing in the health care system.Method: In this study, qualitative thematic content analysis was used. Through purposive sampling, 6 managers and experts in the health care system were selected as participants. The structured interview was used for data collection.Results: In relation to the theme of inappropriate health care policy in relation to the nursing profession, a total of 5 categories and 14 subcategories were extracted.Conclusion: The Iranian health care system has witnessed profound changes in the last decade. However, it is faced with many challenges in the subsystem of nursing. Iran's health care policy in relation to the nursing profession is inadequate. It seems that the lack of dialogue between nursing and other health care institutions, unwillingness of these institutions to recognize nursing, and lack of involvement of nurses in policies because of conflicts of interest are effective factors in this regard. Uncertainty about the scope of services in the field of nursing care, training of disciplines parallel with nursing, non-discrimination in the provision of services within nursing, incompatibility of nursing services and payment, lack of attention of the health care system to the importance of nursing services, and placing professional nursing responsibilities as second priority in comparison with nonprofessional and unrelated responsibilities such as accreditation were the findings of this analysis.

Introduction: Grounded theory has become one of the most important interdisciplinary methods of research because of its attention to social interactions and investigation of hidden processes in social behaviors. This study aimed to explain observation as a tool in grounded theory and to place this data collection method parallel to interviews in terms of importance.Method: This was a narrative review of the literature. First, the available databases (Google Scholar, PubMed, SID, and Magiran) were searched using the keywords observation, qualitative study, and grounded theory, and the indicators AND and OR. As a result, 21 books, 2 professional websites, and 38 articles in English and 18 in Farsi were retrieved. After the final revision, 6 books, and 10 articles in English and 4 in Farsi, which discussed the nature and scope of observation in qualitative studies, were included in the review.Results: Studies show that although interview is the most important and perhaps the most practical tool for collecting data in grounded theory studies, this method cannot always help the researcher to investigate a social phenomenon from different perspectives. Awareness of observation method, ability of the observer, the pros and cons of observation, ethics of observation, and applied guidelines for observation are issues which can help qualitative researchers who adopt symbolic interactionism as theoretical perspective in their qualitative inquiry.Conclusion: Conducting precise observation through which the researcher is totally immersed in the phenomenon under study with curiosity, application of scientific observation principles and methods, as well as employment of in-depth interviews can help qualitative researchers to discover social processes hidden in human interactions.