Legitimising the subjectivity of human reality through qualitative research method', The qualitative report

The controversy that has surrounded the value of quantitative research methods as opposed to qualitative approaches as a means to increasing the knowledge and understanding of human behaviour in health and illness, has been contested by nurse scholars for several decades. This paper continues debate around this issue and provides a critique of the problems associated with these competing paradigms. It challenges the convention that all nursing research must be objective and value free in order to be scientific, and provides an overview of the processes that should be considered by researchers utilising qualitative methods of inquiry