Problem
Researchers may wish to conduct qualitative research to investigate a specific phenomenon when few or no qualitative studies are published on the matter. Imagine you are a member of a research team debating whether to conduct a qualitative or quantitative study on the health care needs of the community you serve with residual grant funding. As the qualitative specialist, how would you convince the quantitative research specialists in your team that qualitative research is justified? Simply noting there is a dearth of qualitative research on the problem or that other researchers have recommended qualitative research on the problem is not a strong enough argument. How would you justify the need to do qualitative research based on its merits for understanding the phenomenon? Explain.