It’s finally the time to start actually implementing our methods and seeing what our research yields, arguably the most exciting part of this class. I have just started conducting my methods last Thursday with asking incoming patients for permission for me to look through their records for my research project. So far, I have obtained consent forms from three children (parental consent) and one adult. I have opened up the first file to analyze.
I am surprised at how quickly I have been receiving permission from patients to look through their records. This was the part I anticipated taking the longest and, at least with the very first day, it has been going right on track or faster than I thought it would. It has been a relief actually that the time I put into the clinic and getting to know these patients is paying off, as they trust me and want to support me during this process. And it has been a uniquely positive experience.
What has been not so great was the analyzing of the records. I figured it wouldn’t take that long to go through a patient’s records and note down the differences in their results between session intervals, but I have been finding it challenging to go through these records that are pretty dense with information to find the exact test I am looking for. I have been finding it helpful to superficially note down the trends of improvement I may see from shuffling back through the stacks of paper to find their first test. Especially, working at the clinic itself and trying to help out at the same time has been complicated. I think when school finally does get out and I have more time to dedicate to my research, these issues will clear up a bit and I can juggle between working and researching.
Recording the results on the computer in a digestible way has also been difficult because the results of the diagnostic tests are presented differently throughout the file, so I need to establish a standard table or way of organizing all this data I have to record. Additionally, organizing all the consent forms (parental consent, patient assent for children, patient consent for adults) has been harder than I thought. Basically organizing all this information that I am receiving and seeking out has been challenging. I need to devise a system to keep everything on track.
So far, I am pretty on schedule in terms of my plans. I did leave a lot of wiggle room for getting patient consent, but that now needs to be reallocated for analyzing patient records instead. If analyzing results does deviate my schedule, I did account for mishaps to possibly occur, allowing extra time especially for the researching component. Once I have the information from the clinic, working from home on the paper shall alleviate a lot of the stress and time constraint I have at the clinic.
Overall, I think I am on a pretty good schedule. If things do run behind, I can try to pull time from some parts of the process I may have been too generous in giving time to work on (composing the paper) and instead focusing more on problem areas that have been taking more time than anticipated (results, statistical analysis).
(546)
(546)
Sunskruthi! I can't tell you how happy I am to hear that people are readily willing to participate in your research. You're absolutely right that the diligent work that you've been putting into the clinic is paying off, so congrats on that front.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of having a hard time analyzing the data, I'm glad that you're recognize that problem in your research right now. I would try to configure some sort of format that you delineate all of the data into (similar to a coding sheet) after having looked at a few of the patients' files. We can discuss maybe doing this in our meeting tomorrow.
Hey Sunskruthi! I'm so glad that you're finding it relatively to get participants! That's super encouraging and it's a huge hurdle that you've cleared. I think for the data, putting time into creating an organizational system will ultimately pay off a lot in the end. Consider making a folder system in a google drive folder with PDF copies of the consent? Or if you like physical filing you can do that in conjunction because that may be helpful for you to visualize and everything.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ms. Haag on the use of a coding sheet ish thing because that would help standardize your data even though it's coming in so many different forms. This all sounds great though! Good job!!
Hey Sunskruthi! I think that it is so great that your participants are so willing to help you out with your project and are giving you consent to use there files. This really shows how good your work is at the clinic if they are willing to do this.
ReplyDeleteWith regard to your data analysis, I totally understand where you are coming from. I have a lot of data that I need to organize and analyze as well, and I am still not completely sure how I am going to do that. With that being said though, I think that if you were to create a table that has the information that you need for all of your participants, then that would go a long way in making all of this data seem more manageable. Also, I agree with Daphne and Mrs. Haag as well that a coding sheet would be useful to be able to standardize the data available from the different participants. Anyways, I hope that has helpful. Keep doing great!