Preparing for and conducting focus group interviews in nursing research: part 2

Focus group interviews are widely used in health research to explore phenomena and are accepted as a legitimate qualitative methodology.They are used to draw out interaction data from discussions among participants; researchers running these groups need to be skilled in interviewing and in managing groups, group dynamics and group discussions. This article follows Doody et al’s (2013) article on the theory of focus group research; it addresses the preparation for focus groups relating to the research environment, interview process, duration, participation of group members and the role ofthe moderator. The article aims to assist researchers to prepare andplan for focus groups and to develop an understanding of them, soinformation from the groups can be used for academic studies or aspart of a research proposal.