gms | German Medical Science

Background: Although single qualitative studies are helpful in uncovering complex processes, they are frequently limited by the range of population groupings and study settings. To date, qualitative studies largely remain isolated works and as such results from qualitative projects have little impact on clinical practice, research or policy. Thus, synthesising the findings of multiple qualitative studies in a meta-synthesis is an ideal approach to addressing these limitations.

Target audience: The target audience is researchers and/or clinicians with intermediate knowledge of qualitative research methodology.

Didactic method: Teaching methods encompass a brief lecture, practical group work as well as plenary discussions.

Objectice: The aim of this workshop is to provide participants with a brief introduction to meta-syntheses. Participants will be introduced to the working steps, prerequisites and challenges associated with this methodology. Drawing on a real life research project, participants will be given the opportunity to extract findings from single qualitative studies, a key technique in synthesis research.

Number of participants: The maximum number of participants is 15. Workshop language is both German and English.

Short introduction of the workshop chairs: Oliver Herber is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of General Practice. Oliver has recently completed a meta-synthesis in close liaison with Professor Julie Barroso (USA), the co-author of the “Handbook for Synthesizing Qualitative Research”. Kirsti Malterud is Professor of General Practice at the University of Bergen. Kirsti has published numerous theoretical and methodological contributions about qualitative methods; recently a textbook about qualitative meta-synthesis.