THE VIGNETTE TECHNIQUE AND ITS APPLICATION TO NURSING RESEARCH

Abstract

In nursing, it is vital to carry out a thoughtful practice and a constant evaluation of clinical and management decisions by identifying and understanding the reasoning, attitudes and values that support them. Vignettes are a powerful data collection technique which facilitates research on such processes and which has been barely used in our feld. The purpose of this paper is to present an up-to-date bibliographical overview of this technique. Its use, construction, presentation and application from the diverse approaches will be described. Its main features will be analyzed and two of them will be emphasized: its fexibility and suitability for content analysis focusing on contextual factors. In addition, its validity and reliability as well as the advantages and disadvantage of its use in health services will be evaluated.