Which classification applies to group brainstorming with the nurses and doctors to explore why many patients are coming to the ER for non-emergency treatment?

• A. Quantitative
• B. Qualitative
• C. Both qualitative and quantitative
• D. Not applicable

Answer: (B)

This item tests understanding of qualitative research, which aims to explore why people think and behave the way they do rather than how much or how often. Brainstorming with nurses and doctors to uncover why patients come to the ER for non-emergency care seeks open-ended insights, experiences, and perceived barriers, which are captured as descriptive themes rather than numeric counts. This yields non-numeric data and patterns that help explain motivations and context, typical of qualitative analysis. Quantitative work would focus on measuring frequencies, percentages, or other statistics about ER visits. So the best fit is qualitative.