For a number of reasons qualitative techniques have taken firm root in
nursing research generally and are of growing importance in research
undertaken by nurse educators. But there is a great deal of confusion
about the nature of the data which ave produced by qualitative researc
h, the way such data must be handled, and the use to which such data c
an be put. The confusion often results from a failure to differentiate
between several orientations to qualitative data. Positivist research
may use qualitative data (something not always recognized). It presup
poses that there is some underlying, true, unequivocal reality, and a
theory covering this is to be sought by the research. There must be ev
idence of validity - in the sense of a match between the data and the
reality they are supposed to reveal. Non-positivist research is of a n
umber of kinds, despite often being treated as unified. These will be
treated in the second part of this paper.