BACKGROUND Many current challenges of evidence-based practice are related to ineffective social networks among health care professionals. Opportunities exist for multidisciplinary virtual communities to transcend professional and organizational boundaries and facilitate important knowledge transfer. Although health care professionals have been using the Internet to form virtual communities for ...

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To report findings from a qualitative study of key stakeholders' perspectives on 'compassion' in the health care context. To present the 'Framework for Compassionate Interpersonal Relations'. BACKGROUND Although many research articles, health policies and health care strategies identify compassion as an underpinning value and key component of health care quality, identifyi...

OBJECTIVE We evaluated the beliefs, experience and diabetes management strategies of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) Muslim patients that chose to fast during Ramadan. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A semistructured focus group interview was conducted with 53 participants with T2DM. Participants were purposefully sampled and asked to share their perspective on Ramadan fasting. All interviews wer...

OBJECTIVES We undertook this study in Kenya to understand the community's emergency care needs and barriers they face when trying to access care, and to seek community members' thoughts regarding high impact solutions to expand access to essential emergency services. DESIGN We used a qualitative research methodology to conduct 59 focus groups with 528 total Kenyan community member participant...

BACKGROUND Understanding the experience of Hispanic parents of children diagnosed with asthma can be useful in the delivery of effective and meaningful asthma education. In order to assess the needs of Hispanic families with asthmatic children in South Texas, investigators utilized a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. OBJECTIVES This study aimed (1) to assess the im...

BACKGROUND Many young migrants and their parents are reluctant to seek help for mental health and substance use problems. Help-seeking delays can result in longer duration of untreated problems and poorer outcomes. In this study, we aimed to identify the help-seeking barriers and facilitators for anxiety, depression and alcohol and drug use problems in young people from recently established sub...

BACKGROUND Stigma affects all aspects of mental disorders, and is the most important risk factor for promoting mental health. The aim of this study was to explore strategies effective in reducing the stigma toward people with mental disorders in Iran. METHODS This qualitative study was conducted from 2013 to 2016. All participants were recruited by purposive sampling method. The majority of t...

OBJECTIVE To describe general practitioners' (GPs') accounts of how to facilitate consultations with children aged 1-2 years. DESIGN A qualitative study based on focus group interviews. SETTING AND SUBJECTS Five focus group interviews were conducted with a total of 25 GPs at Swedish primary health care (PHC) centres. The GPs regularly invited toddlers to consultations. RESULT The GPs' acc...

BACKGROUND Virtual focus groups-such as online chat and video groups-are increasingly promoted as qualitative research tools. Theoretically, virtual groups offer several advantages, including lower cost, faster recruitment, greater geographic diversity, enrollment of hard-to-reach populations, and reduced participant burden. However, no study has compared virtual and in-person focus groups on t...

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY Older adults with age-normal memory changes and those with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) report mild memory difficulties with everyday problems such as learning new names or remembering past events. Although the type and extent of memory changes in these populations have been well documented, little is known about how memory changes impact their everyday lives. ...