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Qualitative Health Research Network

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Training programme

QHRN provides face-to-face and on-line workshops on specific qualitative methodologies and their applications in health research.

Our courses are for researchers at all levels of seniority, and in any area of health research who already have some basic understanding of qualitative research and wish to develop, refresh or expand their methodological skills and knowledge in specific areas.

Courses are delivered by workshop leads who are experts in the specific methodological topic of the workshop. Live sessions create friendly, informal settings, with numbers capped at 25-30 so that participants can share their particular concerns and create connections with other qualitative health researchers. These are complemented by non-synchronous content such as pre-recorded videos, preparatory reading or viewing, and follow-up resources. There may be expectations in some workshops for participants to complete specific tasks or preparatory work before attending the live component of the workshop.

We aim to offer a selection of training workshops every six months, with popular courses repeated according to demand.

The courses we currently offer

  • Writing and Publishing Qualitative Research (Online)
  • Applied Conversation Analysis: A practical workshop (In person)
  • Introduction to Ethnography in Healthcare (Online)
  • Introduction to Qualitative Process Evaluation in Healthcare (Online)
  • Supervising a Qualitative or Mixed-Methods PhD (Online)

These courses will be run again in the future. 

Our next training courses

Details of our March/April workshops are provided below. 

Course dates and times

Date TimeCourse titleFacilitatorsBooking link
Wednesday 20th March 202414:00-16:30 (UK time), onlineIntroduction to Ethnography in HealthcareDr Jennie Gamlin and Rosamund GreinerRegister here
Wednesday 27th March 202413:00-17:00 (UK time), in person Applied Conversation Analysis: A practical workshopDr Suzanne Beeke, Professor Steven Bloch, Dr Andrea BruunRegister here
Tuesday 9th April 202410:00-13:00 (UK time), onlineWriting and Publishing Qualitative ResearchDr Julia Bailey, Dr Tom WitneyRegister here

Course details

For more details about each course, please see below:

Introduction to Ethnography in Healthcare (Thursday 20th March 2024, 14:00-16:30 - online)

This course is a comprehensive introduction to ethnographic research, focusing on current understandings, ethics and access in healthcare settings, research design, observational and interview-based methods of data collection, data management, analysis, and the written account.

Who this course is for:

The workshop is aimed at those who work in:

  • Academic reseach
  • Health and social care related charities
  • Policy groups and think tank 

It's suitable for those with limited experience of conducting ethnographies, although some knowledge about ethnography and/or qualitative research generally is beneficial.

Course content

There are three parts to the course:

1. Pre-recorded videos

In four short pre-recorded videos (15-30 minutes each) we will talk you through the basics of ethnography in healthcare:
•    What is ethnography and what does it tell us: how to use ethnography in healthcare settings, 
•    Methodology and methods of ethnography, 
•    Fieldwork preparation
•    Analysis and writing up for publication. 
These short lectures will prepare you to know how, why and when ethnography is useful as a research tool in healthcare, how to develop an ethnographic research question and how to use the different tools of ethnography as well as the basics of analysis and writing up. The videos will guide you step by step through the process of your self-directed fieldwork. They can be watched and re-watched as many times as you like and you should watch all the videos before coming to the live session.

2. Self-directed fieldwork

We would like you to experience what it is like to do some ethnographic data collection. You should complete the fieldwork before coming to the live session.

3. The live session

We will have a live session via Zoom that will extend your learning from the preparatory work. There will be time to discuss queries and further develop your understanding of ethnography.

 

Teaching and structure

This course takes up to three days to complete. The pre-recorded videos and self-directed fieldwork can be completed any time before the live session. The live session lasts 2.5 hours.
You'll learn as part of a group, interacting through activities and questions and learning from others by taking part in the discussions that accompany each step.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course you'll be able to:

•    explain how and why ethnography can be used in healthcare research
•    develop an ethnographic research question
•    conduct ethnographic fieldwork
•    understand how to analyse and write-up ethnography for publication

Facilitators

Jennie Gamlin

Jennie is Associate Professor in Anthropology and Global Health in the UCL Institute for Global Health and director of the IGH Centre for Gender, Health and Social Justice. She leads the Wellcome Trust Funded research programme “Gender, Health and the Afterlife of Colonialism: Engaging new problematisations to improve maternal and infant health”, a mixed methods historical and ethnographic investigation into the historicity of gender in Indigenous Wixárika communities (see virtual exhibition of this project here). She is also co-investigator on the ‘Embodied Inequalities of the Anthropocene project’ together with Professor Sahra Gibbon (UCL Anthropology) , and collaborators in Mexico and Brazil. With Ros Greiner Jennie Co-Leads the MSc Module Gender and Global Health. She has previous led teaching modules Anthropology of Global Health, Qualitative Research Methods, Maternal Health and Risk (UCL Anthropology), and taught on undergraduate and postgraduate modules in UCL  Anthropology and Global Health.

Rosamund Greiner

Ros is a doctoral researcher in the UCL Institute for Global Health. Her PhD research is an ethnography of families raising children with Congenital Zika Syndrome in Barranquilla, Colombia. In her thesis she brings together critical disability studies with decolonial feminism, and explores themes of care work and reproductive labour, health system navigation and caregiver agency, and the social construction of disability. Together with Jennie, Ros co-leads the MSc module ‘Gender and Global Health’ and has taught on a range of modules including qualitative methods for global health and anthropological perspectives on global health.

Applied Conversation Analysis: A practical workshop (Wednesday 27th March 2024, 13:00-17:00 - in person)

Overview

This course provides an introduction to the methods and uses of applied conversation analysis in health, education, and social care research. The course introduces the core principles of CA before providing an opportunity for participants to take part in a live data session: making observations and shaping them into a more evidence-based formulation. The course will include presentations on data collection and formulating CA research questions. It will conclude with a focus on taking the next step to using CA and developing skills as an analyst.

Content

The following topics will be discussed during the workshop:

  • What CA is, and how it can be applied in health, education, and social settings.
  • How data is collected, transcribed and analysed in CA.
  • How to develop CA skills and how to embed CA methods in one's research

Who this course is for? 

This course would be of value to researchers, students and clinicians looking to conduct CA-informed research using recordings from naturally occurring conversations (particularly from health, education, or social care settings). A foundation in/familiarity with qualitative research methods would be preferred, as some basic knowledge will be assumed.

Teaching and structure

This is a single interactive workshop, lasting 4 hours, preceded by 2 hours online preparatory work.

Teaching will be delivered in person face-to-face by experienced applied CA researchers. You'll learn as part of a group, interacting through activities and questions and learning from others by taking part in the discussions that accompany each step. The final 30 minutes of the session will be for developing your personal goals and for further discussion.

We expect the course will require 6 hours to complete in total (including the preparatory work and the face-to-face session).

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, you'll be able to:

  • Understand the core principles of investigating naturally occurring conversation in applied health, education and social care settings.
  • Recognise CA transcription conventions and be able to identify and describe basic features of talk-in-interaction.
  • Understand the potential relevance, value and limitations of a CA approach to your own area(s) of enquiry

Facilitators

We are all from UCL’s Department of Language and Cognition, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, Faculty of Brain Sciences

Suzanne Beeke

Dr Suzanne Beeke is a clinical academic whose research focuses on the impact of communication and cognitive disorders on the everyday conversations of adults with acquired neurological conditions talking to family, friends and health and social care professionals. She leads the Better Conversations Lab, a group of academics and clinical researchers using CA to understand communication difficulties and needs, and to underpin co-produced interventions: www.tinyurl.com/BetterConversationsLab 

Steven Bloch

Professor Steven Bloch is a clinical academic in communication and social interaction. He has a special interest in end-of life-care conversation, helpline interactions, and also interactions between people with progressive neurological conditions and family members. He is currently Head of Language and Cognition in the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at UCL.

Andrea Bruun

Dr Andrea Bruun completed her PhD at the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department at UCL. She is specialised in the CA method and has worked with a variety of interactional data such as homecare visits, student counselling sessions, advanced lung cancer consultations, and hospice multidisciplinary team meetings. She is currently working at Kingston University as a postdoctoral researcher on a project on end-of-life care planning with people with learning disabilities.
 

 

Writing and publishing qualitative research (Tuesday 9th April 2024, 10:00-13:00 - online)

Course content

The session will cover how to write a qualitative academic paper, as well as tips for how to get your paper published in a peer-reviewed journal.  There are three parts to the course:

Who this course is for

The workshop is aimed at those who:

  • Know the key principles of qualitative research
  • Are already writing a paper based on qualitative research

This course may benefit those who have attended other QHRN training courses.

Teaching and structure

This is a one day course, lasting 2.5hrs.

Teaching will be delivered entirely online by experienced researchers. You'll learn as part of a group, interacting through activities and questions and learning from others by taking part in the discussions that accompany each step.

You will bring an example of your own writing based on qualitative research, and use it to learn principles of clear communication and effective writing.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course you'll have gained knowledge about:

  • How to write qualitative research for an academic journal
  • How to increase the chances of a  paper being accepted by a journal
  • How to practice thinking and writing clearly 

Facilitators

Julia Bailey

Dr Julia Bailey is a sexual health specialty doctor in South East London and senior researcher at the UCL eHealth Unit. Julia has a passion for bringing social science insights into health research, and is an expert in health communication including doctor-patient interaction, science communication for different audiences, and academic writing.

Tom Witney  

Cost and booking

The cost of each course is £80, and places are limited to 25. Please use the link above to book.

Please note that bookings for each course close 5 days before the live workshop date. 

Bursaries

To support learning and encourage the dissemination of high quality qualitative research methodology we are pleased to offer a small number of bursary places for this course. 

Please email us at qhrn@ucl.ac.uk before registering if you feel that you would benefit from this course, but the cost presents a barrier to your learning, and provide any details that you would like us to consider. If selected, the fees for this course will be reduced to £30. Note that the number of bursaries we will offer are limited so we encourage interested parties to contact us at their earliest convenience.

Certification

If you would like a certificate of attendance, please contact us after the course.

Terms and conditions

Our bursary policy is included in the terms and conditions, please send qhrn@ucl.ac.uk a brief description of your need for a bursary towards specific training courses.

For information on terms and conditions, please read our training workshop terms and conditions document:

Contact us

Please contact us on: qhrn@ucl.ac.uk if you have any questions about the training courses. 

Training