RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Understanding the value of mixed methods research: the Children's Safety Initiative-Emergency Medical Services
JF Emergency Medicine Journal
JO Emerg Med J
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and the British Association for Accident & Emergency Medicine
SP 489
OP 494
DO 10.1136/emermed-2015-205277
VO 33
IS 7
A1 Matthew Hansen
A1 Kerth O'Brien
A1 Garth Meckler
A1 Anna Marie Chang
A1 Jeanne-Marie Guise
YR 2016
UL http://emj.bmj.com/content/33/7/489.abstract
AB Mixed methods research has significant potential to broaden the scope of emergency care and specifically emergency medical services investigation. Mixed methods studies involve the coordinated use of qualitative and quantitative research approaches to gain a fuller understanding of practice. By combining what is learnt from multiple methods, these approaches can help to characterise complex healthcare systems, identify the mechanisms of complex problems such as medical errors and understand aspects of human interaction such as communication, behaviour and team performance. Mixed methods approaches may be particularly useful for out-of-hospital care researchers because care is provided in complex systems where equipment, interpersonal interactions, societal norms, environment and other factors influence patient outcomes. The overall objectives of this paper are to (1) introduce the fundamental concepts and approaches of mixed methods research and (2) describe the interrelation and complementary features of the quantitative and qualitative components of mixed methods studies using specific examples from the Children's Safety Initiative-Emergency Medical Services (CSI-EMS), a large National Institutes of Health-funded research project conducted in the USA.