Qualitative Description: A Pragmatic Methodology for Workplace Safety Researchers and Professionals Alike

Qualitative description (QD) is a qualitative research methodology that is meant to produce deep and non-inferential understandings of events and phenomena in a way that is as close as possible to the people providing the accounts. While QD and its supporting methods have been around longer, it was formalized as a methodology in the nursing research field in the early 2000s and has yet to see widespread use in safety research and practice despite being accordingly well-suited. In this methodological paper, I first describe QD as it is used in nursing and health sciences research to provide an in-depth description of what characterizes the methodology, where it is appropriate to apply, and the general steps involved in a QD study. I then argue for the use of QD as a methodology for safety researchers before presenting a modified version of QD for use by safety practitioners working in practical, industry-level safety management. This is to provide the safety management professional/practitioner with a robust and systematic method of gathering and analyzing qualitative data in industrial-corporate settings where quantitative data is often held in higher regard despite the academy-established importance of qualitative data in safety management.