Premium
Case study: a bridge across the paradigms
Author(s) -
Luck Lauretta,
Jackson Debra,
Usher Kim
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
nursing inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.66
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1440-1800
pISSN - 1320-7881
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1800.2006.00309.x
Subject(s) - bridge (graph theory) , flexibility (engineering) , openness to experience , case study research , process (computing) , engineering ethics , product (mathematics) , face (sociological concept) , sociology , transdisciplinarity , presentation (obstetrics) , epistemology , management science , psychology , computer science , social science , knowledge management , medicine , social psychology , management , engineering , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , economics , operating system , radiology
Case study as a teaching and research tool has an extensive history in health and social sciences. Despite its suitability for many of the research questions that face nurses, nurses have not fully embraced case study as a comprehensive approach for research. The vagaries of the real‐life clinical setting can confound methodologically purist researchers. Case study provides a milieu in which nurse researchers can respond to these vagaries and move towards a paradigmatic openness. In this paper, we argue that case study offers, as yet, under‐explored and under‐utilised potential as a bridge across the traditional research paradigms. We argue that case study has broad research application and epistemological, ontological and methodological flexibility. When used as a research approach, case study is both the process and end product of research. It provides a delineated boundary for inquiry, and a structural process within which any methods appropriate to investigating a research area can be applied.