Thematic Analysis of Using Visual Methods to Understand Healthcare Teams

In healthcare, teams are essential in solving today’s toughest challenges. However, narrow disciplinary perspectives have limited our current understanding of how teams function in various healthcare contexts. Researchers often rely on traditional survey methods as their primary tool, which can prevent them from gathering comprehensive data. To overcome this limitation, sharing stories and narratives visually allows participants to create representations of their perceptions of team experiences and complex encounters using a variety of approaches. Despite the potential of this method, there is little empirical guidance on how to use it in health sciences research. To address this gap and provide guidance on using visual methods, particularly for analysing team function, we contacted researchers worldwide specializing in qualitative research methods. These researchers had published experience using visual methods. Over a year, three virtual, asynchronous brainstorming sessions were conducted with 16 researchers. The brainstorming sessions consisted of respondents receiving a survey with open-ended prompts to gather insight into the best practices for using visual methods. Researchers agreed that visual methods can gather implicit data, break down researcher-participant power dynamics, and improve a study’s accessibility to under-represented groups. It was highlighted, when interpreting drawings, co-analysis with the creator should be facilitated to mitigate biases and support interpretation. This use of visual methods can aid the creation of tacit and more nuanced descriptions of complex phenomena and improve team function through a deeper understanding and respect of each members’ needs/experiences/perspectives. Future studies should pilot visual methods with different healthcare teams to further investigate team dynamics and how findings can be used to optimize team function.