Comparing Three Methods to Capture Multidimensional Service Experience in Children’s Health Care: Video Diaries, Narratives, and Semistructured Interviews

Abstract

Interest in studying experiences has grown rapidly; however, little attention has been paid to the applicability of qualitative methods for capturing the service experience in children's health care. This study examined and compared three data collection methods to capture the multidimensional service experience of child patients and their families: video diaries with child patients, narrative interviews with parents of a child patient, and semistructured interviews with health-care professionals working with child patients. The methods were analyzed with respect to their benefits and limitations and their applicability for capturing the multidimensional service experience presented by service experience co-creation framework, including the temporal, factual, spatial, locus, control, and organizational dimensions. The key findings are as follows: (A) The video diary method has the potential to capture the temporally broad and spatially complex phenomenon of child patients' service experience and enables researchers to capture service experience created beyond the hospital setting (e.g., through hobbies or in school). (B) Narratives with parents have the potential to capture the temporal, spatial, locus, and organizational dimensions through stories and are well-suited for mapping children's experiences and the actors influencing them. (C) Semistructured interviews with health-care professionals have the potential to capture a generalized but temporally narrow view of the service experience of child patients, concentrating on experiences within hospital settings. This is beneficial for developing health-care service providers' actions. Structured analysis and comparison of methods guides researchers to select appropriate methods to take a complementary approach in the understanding of experiences in the context of children's health care.

Self-Narrative Elicitation in Counseling: An Exploration of the Usefulness of Selected Interview Methods

“…As the researchers insist, the study identified strategies of narrative elicitation in a specific ward, but there is need for further research addressing the contextual variations of the use of narrative in different settings. Recently three data collection methods (video diaries, narrative interviews, and semi-structured interviews) were compared in a children's healthcare context (Litovuo et al, 2019). The authors concluded that narrative interviews with parents have the potential to capture temporal, spatial, locus, and organizational dimensions through stories and are well suited for mapping children's experiences and the actors influencing them.…”

The use of diaries for understanding the experience of health and illness

“…Not all participants may enjoy the task of writing (Elliott, 1997), and thereby, other tools may be used by researchers such as videos or audios in a diary format (Bernays et al., 2014; Jones et al., 2015). For instance, video diaries have been found to be a rich method of data collection as it allows participants the opportunity to express verbally and visually their thoughts, feelings, and activities (Litovuo et al., 2019). Furthermore, either audio or video diaries offer the possibility to capture or give voice to research participants (Gibson, 2018).…”