title: Rigorous, robust and systematic: Qualitative research and its contribution to burn care. An integrative review.
abstract: Qualitative methods are progressively being implemented by researchers for exploration within healthcare. However, there has been a longstanding and wide-ranging debate concerning the relative merits of qualitative research within the health care literature. This integrative review aimed to exam the contribution of qualitative research in burns care and subsequent rehabilitation. Studies were identified using an electronic search strategy using the databases PubMed, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Excerpta Medica database (EMBASE) and Scopus of peer reviewed primary research in English between 2009 to April 2014 using Whittemore and Knaﬂ's integrative review method as a guide for analysis. From the 298 papers identified, 26 research papers met the inclusion criteria. Across all studies there was an average of 22 participants involved in each study with a range of 6-53 participants conducted across 12 nations that focussed on burns prevention, paediatric burns, appropriate acquisition and delivery of burns care, pain and psychosocial implications of burns trauma. Careful and rigorous application of qualitative methodologies promotes and enriches the development of burns knowledge. In particular, the key elements in qualitative methodological process and its publication are critical in disseminating credible and methodologically sound qualitative research.
authors.affiliation: University of Tasmania, Faculty of Health, School of Health Sciences, Australia; The University of Adelaide, School of Nursing, South Australia, Australia; Severe Burns Injury Unit, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: rachel.kornhaber@utas.edu.au.
authors.forename: Rachel Anne
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Kornhaber
authors.affiliation: Burn Centre, Red Cross Hospital, Beverwijk, The Netherlands; Association of Dutch Burn Centres, Beverwijk, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A E E
authors.initials: AEE
authors.lastname: de Jong
authors.affiliation: Westmead Psychotherapy Program, Discipline of Psychiatry, and BMRI, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Australia; Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Sydney West and Greater Southern Psychiatry Training Network, Australia.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: McLean
mesh_terms: D002056:Burns / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012107:Research Design
keywords: Burns; Integrative review; Nursing; Qualitative research