PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Michael D Fetters
TI  - Getting started in primary care research: choosing among six practical research approaches
AID  - 10.1136/fmch-2018-000042
DP  - 2019 Mar 01
TA  - Family Medicine and Community Health
PG  - e000042
VI  - 7
IP  - 2
4099  - http://fmch.bmj.com/content/7/2/e000042.short
4100  - http://fmch.bmj.com/content/7/2/e000042.full
SO  - Fam Med Com Health2019 Mar 01; 7
AB  - While many primary care practitioners want to conduct research, many also struggle with getting started. This article’s purpose is to assist emerging researchers in identifying a topic of interest, to try the ‘fit’ of feasible research approaches and commit to a research approach. The article addresses six objectives: (1) identify how important primary care research comes from clinical stories; (2) recognise how clinical stories become the source of research topics; (3) discern how the research process resembles the care of patients; (4) distinguish the essential features of six research approaches feasible for primary care researchers; (5) evaluate the fit of the six research approaches featured in this special issue; and (6) develop a list of steps that need to be taken to implement primary care research projects. Using ‘HPV (human papilloma) vaccination’ as a hypothetical topic, the article illustrates how an emerging researcher can complete the worksheets. Using the HPV topic, a worksheet illustration shows how to complete the worksheets, and examples from the literature illustrate how actual studies have used six feasible research approaches for primary care: (1) survey research, (2) semistructured qualitative interviews, (3) curriculum development, (4) continuous quality improvement, (5) clinical policy analysis and (6) case study research. The worksheet exercises support choosing a feasible research approach for emerging researchers. Emerging researchers using these exercises can identify a topic, choose a research strategy aligned with the researcher’s interest, create a study title, develop a list of the next steps, and be well positioned to implement an original research project