RRECN member Dr Vinay Gangathimmaiah’s latest publication helps us to consider how best to choose wisely for ED investigations from a patient perspective.
This qualitative study of a convenience sample of people attending Townsville ED provides rich insight into patient desires and expectations for investigations in the ED. Communication, tailored to the individual, was found to be key, as well as consideration of the entire patient journey from triage, and ensuring cultural safety.
A pet peeve is reading a piece of medical qualitative research and being unclear on the methods. No such concerns here. Descriptions of inductive coding and establishing trustworthiness are transparent. A well conducted piece of research rich with local context and nuance.
Others may find this article useful for their own settings, to move forward with a culture of diagnostic stewardship, for the right test for the right patient at the right time (for more pearls read the full article).
Research pearl: What makes qualitative research “trustworthy”?
Unlike quantitative research, qualitative studies establish rigour less through statistical validity and more through “trustworthiness” — ensuring findings genuinely reflect participant experiences and are transparently interpreted. This paper provides a practical example of several of these approaches in action.
Reflexivity — the lead author explicitly acknowledged how his background as an emergency physician and researcher could shape interpretation of the data.
Audit trail — the researchers maintained detailed records showing how raw interview data were transformed into codes, categories and themes.
Collaborative analysis — emerging themes were regularly discussed with co-authors to reduce individual researcher bias.
Thick description — detailed participant quotations and contextual explanations were used to preserve meaning and nuance.
Participant validation — participants reviewed the final manuscript to confirm that the findings accurately reflected their views.
For those considering qualitative research, this article on Ensuring Validity and Reliability in Qualitative Research provides a concise and practical overview.