Training programme

QHRN provides face-to-face and on-line workshops on specific qualitative methodologies and their applications in health research.

Our courses are for researchers at all levels of seniority, and in any area of health research who already have some basic understanding of qualitative research and wish to develop, refresh or expand their methodological skills and knowledge in specific areas.

Courses are delivered by workshop leads who are experts in the specific methodological topic of the workshop. Live sessions create friendly, informal settings, with numbers capped at 25-30 so that participants can share their particular concerns and create connections with other qualitative health researchers. These are complemented by non-synchronous content such as pre-recorded videos, preparatory reading or viewing, and follow-up resources. There may be expectations in some workshops for participants to complete specific tasks or preparatory work before attending the live component of the workshop.

We aim to offer a selection of training workshops every six months, with popular courses repeated according to demand.

The courses we currently offer

• Writing and Publishing Qualitative Research (Online)
• Applied Conversation Analysis: A practical workshop (In person)
• Introduction to Ethnography in Healthcare (Online)
• Introduction to Qualitative Process Evaluation in Healthcare (Online)
• Supervising a Qualitative or Mixed-Methods PhD (Online)
• Theory in Qualitative Research (Online)
• Qualitative Evidence Synthesis (Online)

These courses will be run again in the future. 

Our next training courses

Details of our next workshops are provided below. 

Course dates and times

Course details

For more details about each course, please see below:

Introduction to Ethnography in Healthcare (Wednesday 26th March 2025, 14:00-17:00 - online)

The live workshop will be held on Wednesday 26th March 2025, 2-5pm. The course also includes self-guided learning activities, which must be completed before the live workshop. Please secure your place using this link. 

Course Overview:

Ethnographic inquiry can produce critical insights in health research. This course will introduce participants to ethnographic methods through a mix of lectures, readings, and hands-on experience.

Course content:

This course is a comprehensive introduction to ethnographic research, focusing on current understandings, ethics and access in healthcare settings, research design, observational and interview-based methods of data collection, data management, analysis, and the written account.

The course will cover:

• What is ethnography and what does it tell us?
• How to use ethnography in healthcare setting
• Participant observation and field notes
• Ethnographic interviewing
• Participatory and creative methods
• Analysing ethnographic data
• Writing ethnography

Who is the course for?

This course is aimed at those who work in:

• Academic research
• Health and social care related charities
• Policy groups and think tanks

The course is suitable for those with limited experience of conducting ethnographies, although some knowledge about ethnography and/or qualitative research generally is beneficial.

Teaching and structure

This course consists of self-guided asynchronous learning, an individual fieldwork activity, and a live online workshop in March 2025. The self-guided learning materials include pre-recorded lectures developed by the course leads, and a curated reading list to accompany each lecture. Fieldwork is at the heart of ethnographic research, and the individual fieldwork exercise is designed to get you started in developing your own ‘ethnographic sensibilities’. You will need to complete the self-guided learning and fieldwork activity before the live online workshop. In the live workshop, you will have an opportunity to ask questions, discuss the fieldwork activity, and consider how you might use ethnographic methods in your future work.

Previous feedback

Previous participants commented that the pre-recorded lectures were interesting and highly informative, and that the bite-sized format facilitated self-guided learning. They found the reading list was comprehensive and that the selected texts offered a good opportunity to delve deeper in to topics discussed in the lectures. Participants with little prior knowledge of ethnography found the materials accessible, and commented that there was clear guidance for further self-directed learning. Past participants particularly enjoyed the individual fieldwork exercise, and appreciated the opportunity to put some of what they had learned in to practice. They found the discussions of their fieldwork in the live session particularly useful for understanding how they might use ethnographic methods in future research.

Cost and booking:

The cost of this course is £85 per participant. To register please use this link: register here. 

A £30 bursary rate is offered for participants from low-income countries or without access to funding sources. Please email us at qhrn@ucl.ac.uk before registering if you feel you would benefit from this course, but cost presents a barrier, providing any details that you would like us to consider.

Certification:

If you would like a certificate of attendance, please contact us after the course.

Facilitators:

Course Facilitators: Dr Jennie Gamlin and Dr Rosamund Greiner

Dr Jennie Gamlin is an Associate Professor in Anthropology and Global Health in the UCL Institute for Global Health and director of the IGH Centre for Gender, Health and Social Justice. She leads the Wellcome Trust Funded research programme “Gender, Health and the Afterlife of Colonialism: Engaging new problematisations to improve maternal and infant health”, a mixed methods historical and ethnographic investigation into the historicity of gender in Indigenous Wixárika communities (see virtual exhibition of this project here). She is also co-investigator on the ‘Embodied Inequalities of the Anthropocene project’ together with Professor Sahra Gibbon (UCL Anthropology), and collaborators in Mexico and Brazil. Jennie co-leads the MSc module Gender and Global Health. She has previously led the modules Anthropology of Global Health, Qualitative Research Methods, Maternal Health and Risk (UCL Anthropology), and taught on undergraduate and postgraduate modules in UCL Anthropology and Global Health.

Dr Ros Greiner is a Lecturer (teaching) in Global Health in the UCL Institute for Global Health and is co-director of the MSc Global Health and Development. Her doctoral research was an ethnography of families raising children with Congenial Zika Syndrome in Barranquilla, Colombia. In her thesis she analyses the intersecting themes of gender, disability, and care under neo-liberalism, drawing together critical disability studies with decolonial feminism. She is the module lead for the iBSc module Global Health Policy, and co-lead for the MSc module Health Systems in a Global Context. Ros previously co-led the MSc module Gender and Global Health with Jennie, and has taught on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate Global Health modules.

Qualitative Evidence Synthesis (Wednesday 7th May 2025, 10:00-13:00 - online)

The live workshop will be held on Wednesday 7th May 2025, 10-13:00pm (UK time online). The course also includes self-guided learning activities, which must be completed before the live workshop. Please register using this link. 

Course Overview:

Policy makers are increasingly looking to use qualitative evidence syntheses (QES) to inform policy and practice. This course will provide you the skills and knowledge to apply this approach to conducting your own QES.

This course, will be led by 2 members of the EPPI Centre, an internationally renowned centre for excellence in evidence synthesis. Meena Khatwa and Katy Sutcliffe have decades of experience of working with local and national policy makers who commission QES to inform their decision-making.

The course will introduce participants to the key steps in a QES using real examples through a mix of lectures, readings, and hands-on experience.

Course content:

The course is a comprehensive introduction to QES, focusing on current understandings, about how to identify, appraise and synthesise evidence from qualitative studies.

The course outcomes will allow you to:

• Become familiar with key examples of QES;
• Understand the rationale underpinning QES;
• Gain practical experience of synthesising qualitative evidence;
• Be able to apply lessons learnt to your own work;
• Apply your understanding of qualitative methods at primary level to QES.

Who is the course for?

This course is aimed at those who work in:

• Academic research
• Health and social care or the third sector
• Policy groups and think tanks

The course is suitable for those with limited experience of QES, although some knowledge about qualitative research and / or evidence synthesis generally is beneficial.

Teaching and structure

This course consists of self-guided asynchronous learning and a live online workshop in May 2025. The self-guided learning materials include pre-recorded lectures developed by the course leads, and a curated reading list to accompany each lecture. As such, participants will need to watch the two lectures (~60 minutes total) and read one paper in advance of the workshop. The workshop will include some very brief lectures but will mainly be devoted to hands-on activities and discussion.

Cost and booking:

The cost of this course is £85 per participant. Please register using this link. 

A £35 bursary rate is offered for participants from low-income countries or without access to funding sources. Please email us at qhrn@ucl.ac.uk before registering if you feel you would benefit from this course, but cost presents a barrier, providing any details that you would like us to consider.

Certification:

If you would like a certificate of attendance, please contact us after the course.

Facilitators:

Course Facilitators: Dr Katy Sutcliffe and Dr Meena Khatwa.

Dr Katy Sutcliffe is an Associate Professor of social science. Her roles include Associate Director of the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordination Centre (EPPI-Centre); Deputy Director of the NIHR London-York Policy Research Programme Reviews Facility; and Co-convener of the Cochrane Qualitative and Implementation Methods group.

Katy has over 20 years’ experience in evidence synthesis and specialises in developing systematic review methods for producing policy-relevant evidence. In particular her methodological work has focused on approaches for grappling with the complexities of the social world including qualitative and mixed-methods evidence synthesis and approaches for examining intervention complexity including Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Intervention Component analysis.

Katy’s key substantive research interest is children's participation in their healthcare, in particular in relation to shared decision-making and consent. Her PhD, awarded in 2010, examined 'Shared decision-making: an evidence-based approach for supporting children, parents and practitioners to manage chronic conditions'. She recently held a grant from the British Heart Foundation for qualitative research with children and families about consent to heart surgery.

Dr Meena Khatwa is an Assistant Professor and Programme Director for MSc Social Policy and Research at the UCL Social Research Institute and is based in the EPPI Centre(Evidence for Policy and Practice Information), Social Science Research Unit. She has worked here since 2014. Her research expertise centres around qualitative evidence synthesis, stakeholder engagement and participatory methods, specifically on policy-relevant systematic reviews funded by the Department of Health and Social Care England. Over the years she has developed a portfolio of research that focuses on social and health inequalities amongst vulnerable and marginalised communities. Her experience of ‘real-world research’ has been invaluable to stakeholder engagement as well as the continuous community outreach she does with vulnerable and minoritised ethnic populations. Meena is one of the co-leads on the UCL Menopause Network and member of the Menopause Project Group both of which are currently shaping UCL policy on this.

Meena has a background in migration histories, gender, race and culture using postcolonial and black feminist theoretical frameworks. She has an undergraduate degree in Sociology and was awarded a PhD by the Faculty of Law, Social Sciences & Geography at Queen Mary, University of London, for her thesis: Life Journeys: Narratives of Hindu Mothers & Daughters in British Homes. Her research led her to further develop knowledge and expertise in narrative methods, auto-ethnography, intersectionality and positionality. Dr Khatwa is a Lecturer in Qualitative Research Methods.

Writing and Publishing Qualitative Research (Wednesday 22nd October 2025, 10:00-13:00 - online)

Course Overview:

The session will cover how to write a qualitative academic paper, as well as tips for how to get your paper published in a peer-reviewed journal. 

Course content:

The following topics will be discussed during the workshop: 

• What constitutes good writing, and how to convey your ideas clearly in writing,
• How to describe qualitative research for an academic/medical audience, 
• How to write up qualitative research (e.g. a research paper). 

Who this course is for? 

The workshop is aimed at those who: 

• Have collected data using qualitative methods,
• Are planning to write a paper based on qualitative method.

Please note that this course is aimed at those who have a good knowledge of the key principles of qualitative research. 

Teaching and structure 

This is a single workshop lasting 2.5 hours. The final 30 minutes of the session will be for Q&A and further discussion.  

Teaching will be delivered entirely online by experienced researchers via Zoom. You'll learn as part of a group, interacting through activities and questions and learning from others by taking part in the discussions that accompany each step. 

Learning outcomes 

By the end of the course, you will: 

• Know how to write up qualitative research for an academic journal, including the contracts with writing up quantitative research, 
• Know how to increase the chances of a paper being accepted by a journal (tips on each step of the submission process),
• Practise thinking and writing clearly through applying our 'Top Tips for Writing Well'. 

Cost and booking:

The cost of this course is £85 per participant and places are limited to 25. 

A £35 bursary rate is offered for participants from low-income countries or without access to funding sources. Please email us at qhrn@ucl.ac.uk before registering if you feel you would benefit from this course, but cost presents a barrier, providing any details that you would like us to consider.

Certification:

If you would like a certificate of attendance, please contact us after the course.

Facilitators:

Julia Bailey is an Associate Professor at UCL, and a Sexual health Speciality Doctor. Julia has expertise in quantitative and qualitative methodologies including epidemiology, online randomised controlled trials and qualitative methods including discourse analysis. Her research focuses on sexual health, digital  health, and marginalised groups. Julia is passionate about bringing social science perspectives to health research and teaching.

Tom Witney is a Research Fellow at UCL. He is a qualitative health researcher with a particular interest in sexual health and relationship intimacy. Tom’s work focuses on improving access to sexual health for trans and gender diverse people and supporting uptake of chlamydia retesting following a diagnosis. 

 

Contact us:

Please contact us on: qhrn@ucl.ac.uk if you have any questions about the training courses.