The use of critical incident technique in population health intervention research: lessons learned

Excerpt

The critical incident technique (CIT) is widely used in qualitative research to reconstruct processes. Since its conception by Flanagan (1954), it has been used in various fields (Butterfield et al. 2005). Recently, Figueiro et al. (2017) introduced a variant, the critical event card (CEC), a tool for analyzing the evolution of complex public health interventions using critical events. We used this tool to reconstruct and analyze deliberative processes involved in the revision of the policy framework of the “Montreal Initiative”, an intersectoral social development intervention. The Initiative was created in 2006 by public and philanthropic financial partners along with an associative partner representing front-line organizations. Its objective was to address poverty and social inequalities in neighborhoods by supporting local consultative structures. In 2011, these partners began deliberating on revised management and evaluation plans. Our research aims to understand how intersectoral actors reconcile their organizational and collective interests in such deliberative processes. This article proposes an approach to identifying and validating critical events in intersectoral deliberative processes. The method utilized to select the key critical events in 4-year deliberative process of the Initiative as well as the lessons learned are presented. …