-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
B. C. Thornton, Health Care Teams and Multimethodological Research, Communication Yearbook, Volume 2, Issue 1, December 1978, Pages 539–553, https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.1978.11923748
- Share Icon Share
Abstract
This study of health care teams used a multimethodological approach. Participant observation and interaction analysis results described the faculty and student health care teams at a university where health care was delivered to clients. The composite data base consisted of six student and three faculty health teams and 12,540 acts.
Conclusions were that a multimethodological approach provides rich data but that time and financial restraints must be considered in designing such studies. The methodologies proved to be useful descriptive tools, in that the participant observation provided a general perspective of the team program as well as information on incidents considered critical by the observer and participants. The interaction analysis supplied more objective data on the communication patterns that developed around the general systems variables of source of information, time orientation, information assembly rules, and equivocality reduction. Implications were suggested for small group research and more specifically for applications to health care teams.