2019/01/02 by Roderik F. Viergever · 2 citations
Health Professions · #Health Policy Implementation Science #Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare #Primary Care and Health Outcomes
paper · doi:10.1177/1049732318813112
openalex publication_date 2019/01/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The critical incident technique (CIT) is a qualitative research tool that is frequently used in health services research to explore what helps or hinders in providing good quality care or achieving satisfaction with care provision. However, confusion currently exists on the nature of the CIT: Is it a method for data collection and analysis or a methodology? In this article, I explain why this distinction is important and I argue that the CIT is a methodology (and not a method) for the following reasons: Key methodological dimensions are described for the CIT; it has a clear focus; studies that apply this technique make use of various methods for data collection and analysis; it describes, explains, evaluates, and justifies the use of a specific format for those methods; it implies philosophical and practical assumptions; and studies that use the CIT cannot easily make use of additional methodologies simultaneously.