Judith E Hupcey | PubMed Health

PubMed2003

Concept advancement: enhancing inductive validity.

Enhancing inductive validity while advancing a concept has always been a dilemma for qualitative researchers. This dilemma is paramount for researchers completing a series of small discrete projects all focused on the same concept. How do researchers use knowledge from their earlier research while maintaining an inductive paradigm? Template comparison, a method of sequential triangulation, is proposed as a solution to this problem. Template comparison allows the researcher to use findings from earlier studies, which employed the same or different qualitative methods, as a guide for the data collection, interpretative, and theoretical phases of the new study. The authors' research of the concept of trust is used as an example of the application of template comparison.

Concept Formation↗

PubMed2002

Incidence and nature of farm-related injuries among Pennsylvania Amish children: implications for education.

INTRODUCTION: Farming is a dangerous occupation and results in injuries not only to farm workers, but also to families living on farms. Children raised on a farm are at particular risk because the farm is a place where they live, play, and work. Farming is the main Amish occupation, and because Amish farming techniques differ from those used on other us farms, it is important that health care providers recognize the causes of injuries that may occur on Amish farms. However, little is documented about farm-related injuries in Amish children, so we decided to document the incidence and nature of these injuries in Pennsylvania. METHODS: This study was done by reviewing the die botschaft, a weekly newspaper written by the Amish. All references to farm-related injuries among children in Pennsylvania were recorded. RESULTS: During a 5-month period, a total of 89 injuries, including 5 fatalities, were found: male children sustained 64 injuries, and female children sustained 25 injuries. Falls were the most commonly reported mechanism of injury, followed by incidents involving livestock. Both types of events most often resulted in an orthopedic injury. DISCUSSION: Injury to children in the Amish community is a significant problem that needs to be addressed and evaluated by the Amish themselves and in coordination with other health care providers, including emergency nurses. With the information obtained in this study, injury prevention strategies tailored to the Amish way of farming could be developed and implemented.

Accidents, Occupational↗

PubMed2002

Integrating concepts for the development of qualitatively-derived theory.

The development of qualitatively-derived theory (QDT) remains a challenge for researchers wishing to retain the complexity of reality. The techniques of concept integration provide a means to link concepts according to their shared attributes and logically according to their mutual interactions, reactions, and responses. While retaining all of the advantages of qualitative induction, integrating concepts in this manner places QDT theory at the upper end of mid-range theory, or disclosive theory, to produce a theory of higher abstraction and broader scope.

Concept Formation↗