Unlocking the How and Why: Qualitative Research in Surgery

Behind The Knife: The Surgery Podcast

Education, Science, Health & Fitness, Medicine

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2026

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In surgery, when we think of research, often we picture randomized controlled trials, meta-analyses, and big data sets. But have you ever considered what we might miss by limiting our research programs to quantitative inquiry? What if you want to understand the culture or identity of your department or your training program? Or, what If you want to understand the values, priorities, and lived experiences of your patients? Some of the most meaningful insights about how we teach, learn, and practice surgery come from talking to people. Their words, their stories, and their experiences, and that's where qualitative research comes in. In this episode we dive into the “why” and “how” of qualitative research with leaders in the space, Professor Nicole Perez and Dr. Maya Hunt.

Host:

Steven Thornton, MD (General Surgery Resident at Duke University)

Guests:

Nicole Perez (Assistant Professor of Medical Education, University of Illinois Chicago)
Maya Hunt (General Surgery Resident, Indiana University)

Publications Discussed:

Bosk CL. Forgive and Remember: Managing Medical Failure. The University of ChicagoPress; 2011.
Liang et al 2019 Why do women leave surgical training? A qualitative and feminist study, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32612-6
Jenkins TM. Doctors’ Orders: the Making of Status Hierarchies in an Elite Profession. Columbia University Press; 2020.
Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/1361332052000341006

***Fellowship Application Link: https://forms.gle/QSUrR2GWHDZ1MmWC6

Transcript

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0:00.0	Behind the Night, the Surgery Podcast, relevant and engaging content, to join the Behind the Knife team as a surgical education fellow.
0:28.8	We're looking for enterprising surgical residents to take the bull by the horns and build something new and exciting.
0:35.5	Fellows will benefit from ample support from the Behind the Knife team,
0:38.9	including the use of our digital education platform, and access to all of our resources like
0:43.7	illustrators, video editing, AI tools, social media, and more. Get your name out there and build
0:50.1	your CV by being part of the number one surgery education platform in the world. We're offering a
0:56.2	two-year fellowship starting July 26 and ending in June 28. Only residents beginning their two-year
1:03.0	academic development time will be considered. Check out the show notes for more information,
1:07.5	including the application link. All applications are due on April 20th. Again,
1:12.9	all applications are due by April 20th. Now, get out there and dominate the day. Welcome back to
1:20.9	Behind the Knife. I'm Stephen Thornton, one of the Behind the Knife Surgery Education Fellows. Today,
1:26.5	we're talking about an exciting topic
1:28.3	that's under explored in the world of surgery, qualitative research. In surgery, when we think of
1:34.8	research, often we picture randomized controlled trials, meta-analyses, and big data sets. But have
1:41.4	you ever considered what we might be missing when we limit our research programs
1:45.3	to quantitative lines of study? Consider this. Say you want to understand the teamwork,
1:52.1	culture, or identity of your department or your training program. Or what if you want to
1:57.5	understand the values, priorities, and lived experiences of your patients?
2:02.4	These sorts of things can be hard to measure quantitatively.
2:06.1	So how are you going to go about studying them and communicating your findings with interested audiences?
2:12.6	Some of the most meaningful insights about how we teach, learn, and practice surgery come from talking to people,
2:20.5	their words, their stories, and their experiences. And that's where qualitative research comes in.
	...

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