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Bibliography in qualitative research must come to live. The person that reads interprets. He/she is a reflective person that while reading is constructing a world view; creates analytic paths and theoretical avenues. Hence the value of bibliography does not rest on itself but on the act of reading. When to read and how to do it is going to be as important as what to read. There are three occasions, in which bibliography enters in a research study with a different objective on each occasion. At the beginning when the study is introduced, during the study when the analysis is developed and at the end when results are rendered. This paper explores the value of bibliography on each of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This research was designed to describe the objects used in the world of nursing care in Spain between 1855 and 1955. Method: It is a historical study conducted with qualitative research methods. The sources of information were training manuals for professional nurses. Results: The context, the settings and those involved in nursing care are presented concurrently in the manuals that were reviewed. The patient's room, with its furniture and physical and environmental conditions, was the primary stage for nursing care. This setting, together with the objects used in it for therapeutic purposes, comprised the material world for nursing care. With respect to their use, the objects in that material world had four properties: 1) reusable, if used more than once; 2) multi-purpose, when they had different practical uses; 3) substitutable, when others could be used in their place, and 4) imported objects or those brought from other contexts and incorporated into the scenario of care. Discussion and Conclusions: The material world of care in Spain during the period in question was in a context of health-illness transition from the miasmatic theory to the germ theory, from general care to specialized care, and from the presence of different professionals dedicated to care to their unification. It was a broad, technological and heterogeneous context. The properties of these objects enriched this material world and facilitated the complex and creative work of those who provided care and whose tools are described in the manuals as simple and unrefined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper comments briefly the nature of grounded theory, its origins and characteristics, and later gives way to the presentation of two research studies. One is about a context of interaction (adolescent pregnancy) and the other about a subjective experience (being a chronic patient). Context and experience are key issues for a cultural competent and congruent nursing care. Grounded Theory studies enable us to contextualize nursing care, and reveal the different interactions and the constructions that caregivers have about a given activity and its cultural elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this editorial the author reflects on the different forms of decisions and choices about the design in qualitative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]