title: Conceptual, holistic, and pragmatic considerations for interviewing research participants.
abstract: Interviews are commonly used as data collection method in many types of studies. Interviewers and researchers may be challenged to take a holistic view of the interviewing process and to acknowledge participants' perspectives and experiences, understand the implications of dialogue between interviewers and participants, guide data collection to address research questions and aims of a study, and ensure that high-quality data is collected for analysis. This article addresses the need to integrate a holistic perspective into data collection and reviews general and specific interviewing considerations, including assessment and conceptualization of potential research vulnerability of participants, factors that may influence the quality of data collected through interviews, interviewing strategies, interview facilitation, and specific strategies to acknowledge a specialized population in terms of vulnerability, dialogue, power, and study rigor. Data and exemplars from a grounded theory study of mothers of medically fragile infants are used to illustrate some of the challenges inherent in the use of interviews for data collection.
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing and Health Professions, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19102, USA. mrg35@drexel.edu
authors.forename: Marcia R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Gardner
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006694:Holistic Health; D018939:Holistic Nursing; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D009042:Motivation; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research / Q000379:methods*; D018579:Patient Selection; D010687:Philosophy, Nursing; D010934:Planning Techniques; D011209:Power, Psychological; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012107:Research Design; D035842:Research Subjects / Q000523:psychology*; D035844:Researcher-Subject Relations / Q000523:psychology; D012660:Semantics; D035862:Vulnerable Populations