Qualitative research combines the individual research participant, the researcher as research instrument and appropriate data collection techniques in a collaborative process of producing meaning from data and using that meaning to develop theory: ‘If a person is to be understood as a person and not as a thing, then the relationship (Maykut and Morehouse, 1994, 37). When human experience and situations are the subject of the research, then the human as instrument is ‘the only instrument which is flexible enough to capture the complexity, subtlety, and constantly changing situation which is the human experience’ (Maykut and Morehouse, 1994, 26). The researcher as instrument is also in a position to apply appropriate tacit knowledge to each situation and event as it occurs. Tacit knowledge can contribute to interpretation of the observed evidence, although confirmation and justification of how this knowledge is applied must be possible. Tacit knowledge provides a springboard to generate theory but must be applied tentatively and these theories are only retained and developed when there is evidence to support them.