Abstract
Background/Aims: There is a strong tradition of quantitative research in the health sciences, but qualitative research designs are now being used more frequently to investigate certain areas of rehabilitation, such as patients' views of health care services, and how clinicians make decisions during evaluations and treatment. Many qualitative approaches are available for conducting these types of inquiries, such as interviews, participant observation, and focus groups. Methods: This article will review these components of focus group research design, as well as highlight other important considerations for planning and conducting focus groups. Issues specific to analysis and trustworthiness of focus group data will be addressed in the second part of the series. Conclusions: Focus groups are an extremely useful method for exploring people's thoughts, ideas, attitudes, and experiences in relation to a particular topic. The interaction that occurs between participants in focus groups is a powerful stimulus for discussion and can encourage people to elaborate or justify a particular idea. Thus, focus groups have the potential to reveal more about clinicians' knowledge and reasons for particular patterns of thinking than could be obtained in one-to-one interviewing.
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