title: Mixed methods research in music therapy research.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Music therapists have an ethical and professional responsibility to provide the highest quality care possible to their patients. Much of the time, high quality care is guided by evidence-based practice standards that integrate the most current, available research in making decisions. Accordingly, music therapists need research that integrates multiple ways of knowing and forms of evidence. Mixed methods research holds great promise for facilitating such integration. At this time, there have not been any methodological articles published on mixed methods research in music therapy.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this article is to introduce mixed methods research as an approach to address research questions relevant to music therapy practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  This article describes the core characteristics of mixed methods research, considers paradigmatic issues related to this research approach, articulates major challenges in conducting mixed methods research, illustrates four basic designs, and provides criteria for evaluating the quality of mixed methods articles using examples of mixed methods research from the music therapy literature.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Mixed methods research offers unique opportunities for strengthening the evidence base in music therapy. Recommendations are provided to ensure rigorous implementation of this research approach.
authors.affiliation: Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA.
authors.forename: Joke
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bradt
authors.forename: Debra S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Burns
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Creswell
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D019985:Benchmarking; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009147:Music Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D036301:Qualitative Research; D015203:Reproducibility of Results