The Impact of Qualitative Research on the “Real World”

Knowledge translation (KT) remains an elusive term that has no unified definition in the health or social sciences. The wide scope of what KT is in practice invites creativity in disseminating research findings. In this article, we describe innovative KT initiatives based on different methodologies of qualitative research we conducted in the fields of psycho-oncology and mental health. These include medical and public education, training mental health clinicians, national policy recommendations, and clinical interventions in the health field. As academic researchers, we bear a responsibility to the public we are intended to serve with our qualitative research. We argue that researchers need to take KT seriously and think deeply about not only what we research but also the ways in which we translate that knowledge to make the maximum possible positive impact on the communities we study and serve.

Resistance, agency, and liminality in women's accounts of symptom appraisal and help-seeking upon discovery of a breast irregularity

In the breast cancer literature, "delayed presentation" is defined as a period of 3 months or more between the self-detection of a new breast symptom and the decision to seek help for it. Delay studies have overlooked the relevance of dominant medical discourses such as those concerning "proper" health. In this paper we use a critical discursive method to analyze interviews with 14 women about their symptom appraisal process to demonstrate how many inhabited a liminal space comprised of both "knowing and not knowing" about the symptom, and "acting and not acting" on it (interviews took place from January 2006 to April 2007). We describe three discursive themes that arose in the transcripts including "Doing the right thing", "Deliberate ignorance", and "Passive resistance." These women's narratives are juxtaposed with two commonly accepted medical discourses in relation to self-detected breast symptoms: That of the woman who was unaware of her symptom, or interpreted it as being insignificant, and therefore, not requiring medical attention; or that of the woman who noticed the symptom, interpreted it as threatening, and immediately sought medical attention. We suggest that such discourses are constricting and fail to account for the sizeable number of women who do not fit this mold (i.e., those who are both aware of the concerning change and delay presentation). We conclude that these constricting medical discourses effectively have a role to play in the contradictory reasoning or perceived irrationality of women's delay behavior when it occurs.