scholarly journals The quality of radiation care: The results of focus group interviews and concept mapping to explore the patient’s perspective

2012 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica L. Nijman ◽  
Herman Sixma ◽  
Baukelien van Triest ◽  
Ronald B. Keus ◽  
Michelle Hendriks
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Concept Mapping ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Patient’S Perspective ◽  
Group Interviews

scholarly journals Projects to improve mathematics performance at a university of technology

2009 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 366-377
Author(s):  
Ina Louw
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Mathematics Performance ◽  
Class Groups ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Assessment Strategies

Lecturers at tertiary institutions have been expressing concern about the quality of students in mathematics for a long time now. Blame is usually placed at the door of secondary schools, but through put figures are still determining state subsidies and as such necessitate institutions to constantly revisit their efforts in terms of improving performance in mathematics. In this article, the results of two studies to improve the mathematics performance at a technical university are reported. The first study took place at the former Technikon Northern Gauteng and was an action research project with an experimental design. The study entailed the implementation of tutorial sessions and it revealed certain traits of tertiary mathematics education. Data were collected through structured observation, questionnaires and focus group interviews. A standardized questionnaire, Study Orientation Questionnaire in Maths (SOM), was introduced and “study habits” was the field in the test that featured most significantly in both the experimental and the control groups. The results revealed, inter alia, that timely assessment is needed to detect and correct misconceptions as soon as possible. It also pointed out that attendance of lectures (and tutorials) impacted strongly on performance. Lastly, it was found that students preferred communicating mathematics through the medium of English and not by using their mother tongue. The second project was conducted at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) and consisted of an investigation into assessment practices in first year mathematics. The study was executed with action research as strategy and data were collected through interviews, questionnaires and focus group interviews. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected and respondents were exposed to contemporary assessment strategies as suggested by OBE. The aim of the study was to enhance the respondents’ insight into contemporary assessment strategies and to empower them to execute their assessment in a more accountable way. The merger of the institution was still underway at the time, which left many respondents with questions and uncertainties about their future. Some of the findings were, inter alia, that some respondents were convinced that new assessment strategies would lower the standard of teaching; some respondents mentioned the poor quality of students and were convinced that the Tshwane University of Technology would benefit from reviewing their admission criteria, and respondents cited large class groups, lack of marking assistance and ignorance about Outcomes Based Education (OBE) as reasons for failing to undertake assessment renewal. In the mean time class groups got even bigger and a new solution needs to be found as a matter of urgency

scholarly journals Missing Diagnosis, Pain, and Loss of Function in Older Adults with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Insufficiency Fractures: A Qualitative Study of the Patient’s Perspective

Geriatrics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Pia Simonsen Lentz ◽  
Anna Havelund Rasmussen ◽  
Aysun Yurtsever ◽  
Dorte Melgaard
Keyword(s):  
Rheumatoid Arthritis ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Insufficiency Fracture ◽  
Delayed Diagnosis ◽  
Insufficiency Fractures ◽  
Loss Of Function ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Patient’S Perspective ◽  
Group Interviews

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterised by a chronic, progressive inflammation in the joints and leads to substantial pain, disability, and other morbidities. Few studies document the occurrence of insufficiency fractures, but no studies document the patient’s perspective on incurring an insufficiency fracture. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the patients’ perspective on how insufficiency fractures influence their level of activity and to detect their need for rehabilitation. Two focus-group interviews were performed with 10 patients diagnosed with RA and insufficiency fractures. The data from the focus-group interviews were subjected to thematic analysis to provide a sense of the important themes. The 10 patients were all females, aged 57–88 years. Magnetic resonance imaging were performed at a mean of six months and seven days. All patients identified the delayed diagnosis of fracture as a significant burden. They experienced pain but did not receive a diagnosis. When the patients were immobilised, some of them were offered aids such as crutches, which they were unable to use due to their RA. The patients needed a focus on diagnosis and individually customised rehabilitation, taking into account RA and including guidance concerning daily activities, aids, and the regain of physical function.

Management Strategy for Distributing Questionnaires and Interview Guidelines in the Research Data Collection Process

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-111
Author(s):  
Po. Abas Sunarya ◽  
George Iwan Marantika ◽  
Adam Faturahman
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Management Strategy ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Good Management ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Data Collection Process ◽  
Group Interviews

Writing can mean lowering or describing graphic symbols that describe a languageunderstood by someone. For a researcher, management of research preparation is a veryimportant step because this step greatly determines the success or failure of all researchactivities. Before a person starts with research activities, he must make a written plan commonlyreferred to as the management of research data collection. In the process of collecting researchdata, of course we can do the management of questionnaires as well as the preparation ofinterview guidelines to disseminate and obtain accurate information. With the arrangement ofplanning and conducting interviews: the ethics of conducting interviews, the advantages anddisadvantages of interviews, the formulation of interview questions, the schedule of interviews,group and focus group interviews, interviews using recording devices, and interview bias.making a questionnaire must be designed with very good management by giving to theinformation needed, in accordance with the problem and all that does not cause problems at thestage of analysis and interpretation.

scholarly journals Counter-talk as symbolic boundary drawing: Challenging legitimate cultural practices in individual and focus group interviews in the lower regions of social space

2021 ◽  
pp. 003802612110144
Author(s):  
Riie Heikkilä ◽  
Anu Katainen
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Focus Group Interviews ◽  
Moral Boundaries ◽  
Popular Classes ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
Symbolic Boundary

In qualitative interviews, challenges such as deviations from the topic, interruptions, silences or counter-questions are inevitable. It is debatable whether the researcher should try to alleviate them or consider them as important indicators of power relations. In this methodological article, we adopt the latter view and examine the episodes of counter-talk that emerge in qualitative interviews on cultural practices among underprivileged popular classes by drawing on 49 individual and focus group interviews conducted in the highly egalitarian context of Finland. Our main aim is to demonstrate how counter-talk emerging in interview situations could be fruitfully analysed as moral boundary drawing. We identify three types of counter-talk: resisting the situation, resisting the topic, and resisting the interviewer. While the first type unites many of the typical challenges inherent to qualitative interviewing in general (silences, deviations from the topic and so forth), the second one shows that explicit taste distinctions are an important feature of counter-talk, yet the interviewees mostly discuss them as something belonging to the personal sphere. Finally, the third type reveals how the strongest counter-talk and clearest moral boundary stemmed from the interviewees’ attitudes towards the interviewer herself. We argue that counter-talk in general should be given more importance as a key element of the qualitative interview. We demonstrate that all three types of counter-talk are crucial to properly understanding the power relations and moral boundaries present in qualitative interviews and that cultural practices are a particularly good topic to tease them out.

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