ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of qualitative research in three of the Nordic countries: Norway, Denmark and Iceland. In all three countries, qualitative research has had an important, or partly, even dominant position. Within the medical profession, some researchers tend, disapprovingly, to equate nursing research with qualitative research. Although this is an overly simplistic picture, it underscores the strong position of qualitative nursing research in these countries. Because of this position, providing a comprehensive review of qualitative research is not possible. Rather, my aim is to illustrate the variety of this research both in terms of philosophical foundation, methodological approach and thematic orientation. As an analytic framework, I will use Kim’s (2010) description of the structure of nursing knowledge to illuminate how qualitative research in these three countries has contributed to nursing knowledge.
