ABSTRACT
All qualitative researchers appreciate the significant investments of time and resources that go into the creation of a typical qualitative data set. In the case of clinical qualitative studies, researchers also feel a commitment to the patients (caregivers, family members) who have committed their time and shared their experiences in the hopes that what they have lived through, rendered into an evidentiary format, may help in some way to ease the struggle of future patients. These practical and existential obligations have featured strongly in sparking an interest among nurse researchers to ensure that their hard-earned qualitative data is used to best advantage to advance the knowledge that supports the discipline in doing its work well. The appeal of fully capitalizing on all that a data set can offer has attracted lively methodological theorizing as well as considerable dialogue and debate (Sandelowski, 1997), all of which can inform nurses considering secondary approaches to their qualitative inquiries today. This chapter will describe secondary qualitative analysis as it is applied within nursing today.
