CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 1,898Focus Groups and Qualitative MethodsQualitative Research Methods and EthicsQualitative Research Methods and Applications

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 30 of the 30 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Semistructured interviewing in primary care research: a balance of relationship and rigour

Open access
DeJonckheere, Melissa, Vaughn, Lisa M·2019·Family Medicine and Community Health
DOI 10.1136/fmch-2018-000057PMC PMC6910737
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Semistructured in-depth interviews are commonly used in qualitative research and are the most frequent qualitative data source in health services research. This method typically consists of a dialogue between researcher and participant, guided by a flexible interview protocol and supplemented by follow-up questions, probes and comments. The method allows the researcher to collect open-ended data, to explore participant thoughts, feelings and beliefs about a particular topic and to delve deeply into personal and sometimes sensitive issues. The purpose of this article was to identify and describe the essential skills to designing and conducting semistructured interviews in family medicine and primary care research settings. We reviewed the literature on semistructured interviewing to identify key skills and components for using this method in family medicine and primary care research settings. Overall, semistructured interviewing requires both a relational focus and practice in the skills of facilitation. Skills include: (1) determining the purpose and scope of the study; (2) identifying participants; (3) considering ethical issues; (4) planning logistical aspects; (5) developing the interview guide; (6) establishing trust and rapport; (7) conducting the interview; (8) memoing and reflection; (9) analysing the data; (10) demonstrating the trustworthiness of the research; and (11) presenting findings in a paper or report. Semistructured interviews provide an effective and feasible research method for family physicians to conduct in primary care research settings. Researchers using semistructured interviews for data collection should take on a relational focus and consider the skills of interviewing to ensure quality. Semistructured interviewing can be a powerful tool for family physicians, primary care providers and other health services researchers to use to understand the thoughts, beliefs and experiences of individuals. Despite the utility, semistructured interviews can be intimidating and challenging for researchers not familiar with qualitative approaches. In order to elucidate this method, we provide practical guidance for researchers, including novice researchers and those with few resources, to use semistructured interviewing as a data collection strategy. We provide recommendations for the essential steps to follow in order to best implement semistructured interviews in family medicine and primary care research settings.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1136/fmch-2018-000057

Cites

30 of 30 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Figures

Figure 1 Key characteristics of semistructured interviews.
Figure 1 Key characteristics of semistructured interviews.CC BY-NC · PubMed Central

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Show all 30 references

Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. Kvale S . Interviews. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 1996.
  2. Spradley JP . The ethnographic interview. 1979. Waveland Press, 2016.
  3. Bernard HR . Social research methods: quantitative and qualitative approaches. SAGE, 2000.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 301–400 of 1,002

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
DeJonckheere, M., & Vaughn, L. M.
Affiliations
  • University of Michigan (US)
  • Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (US)
Corresponding author
DeJonckheere, Melissa
ORCID
Venue
Family Medicine and Community Health
Publisher
BMJ
Published
2019-03
Volume
7
Issue
2
Pages
e000057
ISSN
  • 2009-8774 (ISSN-L)
  • 2305-6983
DOI
10.1136/fmch-2018-000057
PMC
PMC6910737
OpenAlex
W2942286908
Cited by
1,898
References
30
Citations by year
2026: 304 · 2025: 356 · 2024: 378 · 2023: 341 · 2022: 267 · 2021: 171 · 2020: 62 · 2019: 14
FWCI
258.58
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by-nc
Locations
  • Family Medicine and Community Health (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Focus Groups and Qualitative Methods
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics
  • Social Sciences › Education › Qualitative Research Methods and Applications
Keywords
in-depth interviews, primary care research, family medicine research, interview skills, rapport building, trustworthiness, interview guide development, qualitative data collection, researcher-participant relationship, research ethics

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review