Formative evaluation and its relevance to palliative care

For the most part, the evaluation of health care and attempts to improve the quality of health care have drawn upon quantitative methods of research. However, for many questions, and in many health care specialities, quantitative methods of evaluation may be neither practical, desirable, nor ethical. Qualitative methods may be more appropriate when evaluators are attempting to ‘open-up’ a new field of study1 or are concerned to illuminate and understand issues in an ever-changing context. Various qualitative methods have been developed which potentially hold out a number of possibilities within the area of palliative care.2 Qualitative case study evaluation is one such example. In this paper, key characteristics of this methodological approach are presented and explained, and illustrated by reference to the evaluation of two palliative care services. More specifically, the paper will focus upon the process of conducting this type of evaluation in the context of palliative care. For this reason the evaluation findings are presented elsewhere3-6.