The Exemplary Research & Innovation Team - Institute of Eminence (IoE) of Manipal College of Nursing (MCON), MAHE, Manipal organized a two days workshop on “Mixed Methods Research (MMR)” from 23^rd to 24^th August 2022 through the ZOOM platform. The Chief Guest for the inaugural program, Dr. Monica Charlotte Solomon, Dean & Professor, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, MAHE, Manipal, briefed on the importance of research in health care, and the need of publishing the findings in high quality journals which would lead to evidence-based practice and improve the quality of patient care. Dr. Judith Angelitta Noronha, Dean, MCON, MAHE, Manipal, said that organizing MMR is a developing trend, she further said that these kinds of sessions will be useful to everyone. She also appreciated and congratulated the organizers for selecting the right topics and the experts to deliver the sessions.

The first day of the workshop started with a session on “Introduction to Mixed Methods Research” by Dr. Linu Sara George, Professor & Head, Department of Fundamentals of Nursing, MCON, MAHE, Manipal. She described the various components of MMR and justified the use of MMR in Nursing. Dr. Linu also explained the different designs of MMR with examples and briefed on methodological characteristics, advantages, challenges, and applications of MMR.  The second session was on MMR study design, deliberated by Dr. Anice George, Professor, Department of Child Health Nursing, MCON, MAHE, Manipal. She emphasized the significance of meta-inferences and the rationale behind carrying out MMR. She also said by conducting workshops on MMR, the causal effect by quantitative approach and a causal mechanism by qualitative approach could be identified. She also discussed the different designs of MMR and focused on the procedure of conducting MMR by throwing light on the Notation system, which is used in MMR. Concluding her session, she said MMR can expand and strengthen the conclusions and contributions of a study. The third session for the day was taken by Dr. Bobby Paul, Professor. Dept. of Preventive and Social Medicine, All India Institute of  Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. She briefed on the different steps of writing MMR protocol, using a different theoretical framework, and also highlighted sampling and strategies for mixing.

The second day of the workshop commenced with a session on ‘Analysis of MMR Data” by Dr. Madhumitha Dobe, Former Dean, Director-Professor & Head, Department of Health Promotion & Education, All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. During her talk, she emphasized various approaches and steps in MMR analysis. She spoke in detail about the grounded theory and phenomenological approaches, ethnographic approaches, narrative analysis, trans theoretical model as well as the theory of planned behavior, which is applied in the analysis of MMR data by giving relevant examples from published research articles.

Dr. Bobby Paul, Professor, Dept. of Preventive and Social Medicine, All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Kolkata, spoke on ‘Interpretation of MMR Data” which was the second session of the day. She highlighted strategies for drawing meta inferences in MMR and discussed the framework used in MMR data interpretation. Dr. Maryann Washington, Training Coordinator, NCAH Projects, Division of Epidemiology Biostatistics & Population Health, St. John’s Research Institute, Bengaluru, deliberated the last session. She shared her expertise on MMR reporting with illustrations for each design and highlighted various guidelines used for reporting MMR data. She also emphasized the mnemonic “BILLS” in data reporting which stands for Brief, Integrity, Logical, Legible and Simple.

A total of 86 participants from different disciplines attended the workshop.  The participants, in their feedback, appreciated the organizers for organizing the workshop in a systematic way and appreciated the contributions of the Resource Persons. The event was concluded with a vote of thanks by Mrs. Saraswathi Hebbar, Asst. Lecturer, Manipal School of Nursing, MAHE, Manipal.

The overall programme was convened by Mrs. Pratibha, Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecological Nursing, MCON, Manipal and the co-convener Mrs. Saraswathi Hebbar, Asst. Lecturer, MSON, Manipal. This was chaired by Dr. Baby S Nayak, Professor & Head, Department of Child Health Nursing & the Team Head -Exemplary Research and Innovation, MCON, Manipal.