• Kevin Pottie, Susan Haydt, Barbara Farrell, Lisa Dolovich, Connie Sellors, and William Hogg.
• Elisabeth Bruyère Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. kpottie@uottawa.ca
• Ann Fam Med. 2008 Mar 1; 6 (2): 161-5.

PurposeNarratives can capture unfolding events and negotiation of roles and thus can help to evaluate interventions in interdisciplinary health care teams. We describe a practical qualitative method, the narrative report, and its role in evaluating implementation research.MethodsWe used narrative reports as a means to evaluate an intervention to integrate pharmacists into group family practices. The pharmacists submitted 63 written narrative reports during a 1-year period. Our interdisciplinary research team analyzed these reports to monitor the progress of the implementation, to identify pharmacists' needs, and to capture elements of the integration process.ResultsThe monthly narrative reports allowed the research team to document early learning and calibrate the program in terms of clinical support, adapting roles, and realigning expectations. The reports helped the research team stay in tune with practice-related implementation challenges, and the preliminary summary of narrative findings provided a forum for sharing innovations among the integrating pharmacists.ConclusionThe narrative report can be a successful qualitative tool to track and evaluate the early stages of an intervention in the context of evolving primary health care teams.

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