Professional/Short course Qualitative Health and Care Research

This 15 credit module, Qualitative Health and Care Research, aims to equip learners with the knowledge, skills, and critical thinking abilities to effectively engage with qualitative research methodologies in health and care research. Specifically, the module will enable you to: 

• develop the ability to critically analyse the strengths and limitations of qualitative approaches in health and care research. This equips you to choose the most suitable methodology for your research questions. 
• gain a comprehensive understanding of qualitative research and its diverse methodologies, thus, learn to identify research questions where qualitative methods can provide valuable insights. 
• develop practical knowledge of the main methods of qualitative research methods for data collection (e.g., interviewing techniques) and analysis (e.g., thematic analysis). You will be able to apply these skills to both conducting original research and critically interpreting existing studies. 
• critically read and evaluate qualitative research findings published in academic journals and other sources. This includes understanding how researchers present methodologies, findings, and their interpretations.

On successful completion of this module, you will achieve the following learning outcomes:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of qualitative research traditions and methodologies, and critical evaluation of how and when to use them in health and care research.
• Demonstrate critical understanding of the main methods used in qualitative research for case selection, generating and analysing data, and appraising quality in primary research and qualitative evidence synthesis.

Careers / Further study

This module contributes towards the MRes Health and Care Research.