Fundamentos para iniciantes na abordagem da pesquisa qualitativa em educação médica: uma revisão narrativa

INTRODUCTION: Medical education research studies and analyzes teaching and learning in Medicine. It makes it possible to use evidence to support curricula construction, student assessment, pedagogical approaches and medical practice in health care. OBJECTIVE: To provide an introduction to the methodological bases of qualitative research in medical education. METHOD: A narrative review based on information extracted from secondary sources, from an exploratory search in the PubMed, Lilacs, ERIC, and SciELO databases. The data obtained was organized in a guideline, aiming to provide theoretical and practical support for the elaboration of future research in the area. RESULTS: The definition and structuring of a guideline to carry out qualitative research shows the foundation in the interpretive paradigm, the possible methodologies of qualitative research in medical education, the particularities of the mutual and continuous process of fieldwork and information analysis. The principles of scientific rigor and adoption of terminology used in quantitative research in the development of qualitative studies were also problematized, which can interfere with the essence of what was sought to be understood, known, or analyzed. CONCLUSION: Qualitative research has a well-defined structure, objectives, and applicability, and it is up to researchers to recognize its characteristics and use them in the construction of projects that value subjectivity, context, and social and human phenomena.