Week 4: Discussion and focus group preliminary work
This week just entailed a short discussion and gaining an understanding of focus groups. One of my outside advisor’s scribes and I sat down to discuss the gaps in healthcare, the gaps in services offered, and gaps in groups served(my outside advisor was in LA). We discussed why we were doing this project in the first place and our goals for it. To be honest, I think that I seriously misjudged the amount of time the initial stages of this project needed. I thought that it would be easy to pick our target places, and I even thought we had already picked the places we wanted to target, but apparently not. There were just so many clinics in the area and services that we needed to figure out exactly what services were scarce, for whom they were unavailable, etc. I had no idea there was so much to do before we could actually do anything.
That aside, I did some reading on focus groups and how to run them as well as some examples of focus groups. But, the type of focus group I need to run is a little bit different and more of an interview style. This is because since I want to ask them what kinds of services they want and basically what they think about their healthcare situation, it’s not very productive to ask traditional focus group questions. But, it was interesting to learn what focus groups look like, and maybe I can still use some of what I learned whenever I go to the different counties.
Thank you for reading!
Good progress on the start of the project. Don’t be dismayed by the scope of it all. Things often turn out to be very different than we anticipated and that in and of itself is an interesting result! Keep up the good work!
Regards,
Dr. Vervoort
Hi Sowmya!
It’s okay if you misjudged the initial stages. All of us are learning with this Senior Project, and I think it’s great that you learned that now, so that you can have a better understanding of what you want and need to do, and make your project even better! It looks like you’re gonna get to learn a lot about the experiences and lives of the people in the area, and good luck with your focus groups and the rest of your Senior Project as well! Can’t wait to hear what you’re gonna do next!
Hey Sowmya!
It’s ok that you misjudged the amount of time it would take for the initial stages of your project. After all, this project is a learning experience. Great job on reading about focus groups! You are doing so much already!!!