The Exemplary Research & Innovation Team - Institute of Eminence (IoE) of Manipal College of Nursing (MCON), MAHE, Manipal organized three days’ Webinar on “Qualitative Research Methods and Analysis” from 17th May 2021 to 19th May 2021 through the MS Teams platform. The Chief Guest for the inaugural program, Dr Satish Rao, Director-Research, MAHE Manipal, during his speech, highlighted the importance of conducting research and publishing the findings in high-quality journals.

The first day of the program was started with the session on ‘Overview of Qualitative Research’ by Dr Anice George, Dean, MCON, Manipal. She outlined the various components of qualitative research and highlighted the importance of having good communication skills for the conduct of qualitative research. Followed by that, the session on ‘Types of Qualitative Research’ was deliberated by Dr Judith Angelitta Noronha, Associate Dean of the college. She discussed the various types of qualitative research such as case study, narrative analysis, thematic analysis, ethnography, grounded theory and phenomenology.

The second day of the webinar commenced with a session on ‘Sampling Techniques in Qualitative Research’, deliberated by Dr Mamatha S Pai, Professor, Department of Child Health Nursing, MCON, Manipal. During her talk, she emphasized different sampling techniques that are used by the researchers in qualitative research and also the importance of calculating sample size in this kind of research. The second session of the day was by Dr Vishnu Renjith, Lecturer and Program Director, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin 2, Ireland, spoke on ‘Data Collection Methods’ and highlighted with examples on the different data collection methods or approaches that are used in qualitative research.

On the last day of the Webinar, the session on ‘Qualitative Data Analysis’ was conducted by Mr Anil Raj A, Lecturer, Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing, MCON, Manipal. He discussed the various aspects of the analysis of qualitative data and demonstrated on doing data analysis using open code & Nvivo software. Consequent to that, the session on ‘Reporting of Qualitative Results’ was conducted by Mrs Shalini G Nayak, Lecturer, Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing, MCON, Manipal. She briefed on the importance of reporting qualitative results and the presentation of data in a conceptual model.

A total of 67 participants from different discipline of studies have attended the webinar. During the feedback, the participants appreciated the organizers for organizing a workshop in a systematic way and also appreciated the Resource Persons. The event was concluded with a vote of thanks by Mrs Sarawathi Hebbar, Lecturer, MSON, Manipal, who was also the co-convenor of the Webinar

The overall programme was convened by Mrs Jeyalakshmi K, Assistant Professor, Department of Community Health Nursing, MCON, Manipal and the co-convenor Mrs Sarawathi Hebbar, Lecturer, MSON, Manipal. This was chaired by Dr Baby S Nayak, Professor & Head, Department of Child Health Nursing, & the Team Head -Exemplary Research and Innovation, MCON, Manipal.