scholarly journals Conceptualising and constructing ‘diversity’ through experiences of public and patient involvement in health research

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Reynolds ◽  
Margaret Ogden ◽  
Ruth Beresford

Abstract Background Increasing the accessibility of public and patient involvement (PPI) in health research for people from diverse backgrounds is important for ensuring all voices are heard and represented. Critiques of PPI being dominated by ‘the usual suspects’ reflect concerns over the barriers to involvement in PPI faced by people from minority groups or non-professional backgrounds. Yet, what has received less attention is how undertaking PPI work might produce diverse experiences, potentially shaping the motivation and capacity of people from different backgrounds to continue in PPI. Methods We conducted qualitative research to explore experiences of the health research PPI field in the UK and to understand how these might shape the accessibility of PPI for people of diverse backgrounds. We conducted in-depth and follow-up interviews with five PPI contributors with experience of multiple health research projects, and a focus group with nine people in professional roles relating to PPI. Interview data were analysed using a narrative approach, and then combined with the focus group data for thematic analysis. Results The structure, organisation and relationships of health research in the UK all shape PPI experiences in ways that can intersect the different backgrounds and identities of contributors, and can pose barriers to involvement and motivation for some. Navigating processes for claiming expenses can be frustrating particularly for people from lower-income backgrounds or with additional needs, and short-term research can undermine relationships of trust between contributors and professionals. Pressure on PPI coordinators to find ‘more diverse’ contributors can also undermine ongoing relationships with contributors, and how their inputs are valued. Conclusions To increase diversity within PPI, and to ensure that people of different backgrounds are supported and motivated to continue in PPI, changes are needed in the wider health research infrastructure in the UK. More resources are required to support relationships of trust over time between contributors and professionals, and to ensure the unique circumstances of each contributor are accommodated within and across PPI roles. Finally, critical reflection on the pressure in PPI to seek ‘more diverse’ contributors is needed, to understand the impacts of this on those already involved.

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 160940691775078 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Flynn ◽  
Lauren Albrecht ◽  
Shannon D. Scott

This article discusses four challenges to conducting qualitative focus groups: (1) maximizing research budgets through innovative methodological approaches, (2) recruiting health-care professionals for qualitative health research, (3) conducting focus groups with health-care professionals across geographically dispersed areas, and (4) taking into consideration data richness when using different focus group data collection methods. In light of these challenges, we propose two alternative approaches for collecting focus group data: (a) extended period of quantitative data collection that facilitated relationship building in the sites prior to qualitative focus groups and (b) focus groups by videoconference. We share our experiences on employing both of these approaches in two national research programs.


2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 105-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Lewis ◽  
Elizabeth Sharp ◽  
Jenni Remnant ◽  
Rhiannon Redpath

The gendered nature of safety has been explored empirically and theoretically as awareness has grown of the pervasive challenges to women's safety. Notions of ‘safe space’ are frequently invoked in wider feminist environments (particularly, recently, in relation to debates about trans people's access to women's spaces), but are relatively neglected in academia. Indeed, despite a body of scholarship which looks at questions of gender, safety and space, relatively little attention has been paid to exploring the meaning of ‘safety’ for women and, particularly, the meaning and experience of spaces they consider to be ‘safe.’ Drawing on focus group data with 30 women who attended a two-day, women-only feminist gathering in the UK, this paper analyses experiences of what they describe as ‘safe space’ to explore the significance and meaning of ‘safety’ in their lives. Using their accounts, we distinguish between safe from and safe to, demonstrating that once women are safe from harassment, abuse and misogyny, they feel safe to be cognitively, intellectually and emotionally expressive. We argue that this sense of being ‘safe to’ denotes fundamental aspects of civic engagement, personhood and freedom.


2020 ◽  
pp. 001872672095215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parisa Dashtipour ◽  
Nollaig Frost ◽  
Michael Traynor

Why do nurses in training continue to draw on the ideal of compassion when responding to their experiences of nursing work in the UK National Health Service (NHS), despite the difficulties that they face in developing compassionate, long-term relationships with patients in practice? To answer this question, we draw from a psychosocial analysis of focus group data from 49 trainee nurses in the NHS. First, we show how this ideal leads them to blame qualified nurses for failures in patient care. We suggest this is an unconscious defence against the anxiety evoked both by the vulnerability of their position as those who need to gain access to the profession, and of being unable to conduct compassionate nursing work. Second, we emphasize that less powerful occupational groups, such as trainee nurses, may adopt defences that underpin dominant organizational policy, such as idealization, despite further disadvantaging their group and benefitting those in power. We conclude by questioning the particular emphasis on compassion in nurses’ training, which can prevent occupational solidarity and the ability to reflect on the structural and organizational factors required to conduct patient-centred nursing work.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110088
Author(s):  
Benjamin N. Jacobsen ◽  
David Beer

As social media platforms have developed over the past decade, they are no longer simply sites for interactions and networked sociality; they also now facilitate backwards glances to previous times, moments, and events. Users’ past content is turned into definable objects that can be scored, rated, and resurfaced as “memories.” There is, then, a need to understand how metrics have come to shape digital and social media memory practices, and how the relationship between memory, data, and metrics can be further understood. This article seeks to outline some of the relations between social media, metrics, and memory. It examines how metrics shape remembrance of the past within social media. Drawing on qualitative interviews as well as focus group data, the article examines the ways in which metrics are implicated in memory making and memory practices. This article explores the effect of social media “likes” on people’s memory attachments and emotional associations with the past. The article then examines how memory features incentivize users to keep remembering through accumulation. It also examines how numerating engagements leads to a sense of competition in how the digital past is approached and experienced. Finally, the article explores the tensions that arise in quantifying people’s engagements with their memories. This article proposes the notion of quantified nostalgia in order to examine how metrics are variously performative in memory making, and how regimes of ordinary measures can figure in the engagement and reconstruction of the digital past in multiple ways.


Author(s):  
Ellen J. Bass ◽  
Andrew J. Abbate ◽  
Yaman Noaiseh ◽  
Rose Ann DiMaria-Ghalili

There is a need to support patients with monitoring liquid intake. This work addresses development of requirements for real-time and historical displays and reports with respect to fluid consumption as well as alerts based on critical clinical thresholds. We conducted focus groups with registered nurses and registered dietitians in order to identify the information needs and alerting criteria to support fluid consumption measurement. This paper presents results of the focus group data analysis and the related requirements resulting from the analysis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 2333794X2110282
Author(s):  
Osayame Austine Ekhaguere ◽  
Rosena Olubanke Oluwafemi ◽  
Angela Oyo-Ita ◽  
Burke Mamlin ◽  
Paul Bondich ◽  
...  

The wait time clients spend during immunization clinic visits in low- and middle-income countries is a not well-understood reported barrier to vaccine completion. We used a prospective, observational design to document the total time from client arrival-to-discharge and all sequential provider-client activities in 1 urban, semi-urban, and rural immunization clinic in Nigeria. We also conducted caregiver and provider focus group discussions to identify perceived determinants of long clinic wait times. Our findings show that the time from arrival-to-discharge varied significantly by the clinic and ranged between 57 and 235 minutes, as did arrival-to-all providers-client activities. Focus group data attributed workflow delays to clinic staff waiting for a critical mass of clients to arrive for their immunization appointment before starting the essential health education talk or opening specific vaccine vials. Additionally, respondents indicated that complex documentation processes caused system delays. Research on clinic workflow transformation and simplification of immunization documentation is needed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabelle Celentano ◽  
Rachel L. Winer ◽  
Sou Hyun Jang ◽  
Anisa Ibrahim ◽  
Farah Bille Mohamed ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine uptake is low among East African adolescents in the US. Adolescents’ preferences influence HPV vaccine decisions, yet few interventions exist that address East African adolescents’ beliefs about HPV vaccines. We describe a multi-step process on how to create a theory-based comic book by integrating empirical findings, theory and focus group data from East African parents in the US. Methods Our multi-methods process included conducting focus groups with Somali, Ethiopian, and Eritrean mothers (n = 30) to understand mothers and adolescents socio-cultural beliefs and information needs about the HPV vaccine, creating comic book messages integrating the focus group findings, and assessing the acceptability of the finalized comic book among Somali, Ethiopian, and Eritrean adolescents (n = 134). Results We identified categories around socio-cultural beliefs (such ethnic representation and concerns about pork gelatin in vaccines), HPV vaccine information needs, and diffusion of information. We then mapped the categories to theoretical constructs and operationalized them into the comic book. Finally, we describe the overall acceptability of the comic book and specifics on comic book structure, appeal of characters, and message relevance. Conclusions A rigorous multi-step process that integrates theory and focus group data can help create culturally appropriate health messages that can educate and appeal to the community.


Nutrients ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 3028
Author(s):  
Patrick McHugh ◽  
Morgen Smith ◽  
Nicholas Wright ◽  
Sarah Bush ◽  
Sue Pullon

Despite an ever-increasing burden of non-communicable diseases and overwhelming evidence that good nutrition improves outcomes it is difficult to know whether this evidence is reaching the general population. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether health professionals in Tairāwhiti have sufficient nutrition education for their roles in health education and promotion and whether nutrition beliefs held by health professionals were consistent with current literature. A particular interest was to enlist views on the harms, benefits, and possible barriers to following plant-based diets. A mixed-methods study involving health professionals completing a questionnaire and a subsequent focus group to collect data was used. Survey data were analysed using spreadsheet software, and thematic content analysis of focus group data was undertaken. Participants provided nutrition advice 2.4 times per day. Almost half of practitioners considered their nutrition knowledge to be inadequate, and most made poor use of references for provision of information. Plant-based diets were generally viewed as beneficial to health, improve quality of life, be filling, but were perceived as not as easy to follow. This study is in keeping with previous research that the health workforce would benefit from more formalised nutrition education and competencies to address common chronic disease.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (17) ◽  
pp. 4066-4088 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhonda Breitkreuz ◽  
Kerryn Colen

This article explores the motivations for unregulated child care use within Canada. Using focus group data from 109 mothers, we analyze unregulated child care use within a policy context in which regulated child care is only available for 20% of preschool children. The key drivers for unregulated care were framed by participants as benefits: trust in a known caregiver with similar values, offered in a home-like environment. Importantly, one driver that was not seen as beneficial was the lack of affordable and accessible, regulated child care. Sometimes used as a last resort amid regulated child care shortages, unregulated care became the driver of how mothers organized their time. Within the constraints of a limited regulatory child care environment, we argue that Mathieu’s (2016) concept of demotherization is beyond the grasp of the majority of Canadian mothers.


Author(s):  
Justin W. Bouw ◽  
Vasudha Gupta ◽  
Ana L. Hincapie

Purpose: To date, no studies in the literature have examined student delivery of team-based learning (TBL) modules in the classroom. We aimed to assess student perceptions of a student-led TBL elective. Methods: Third-year pharmacy students were assigned topics in teams and developed learning objectives, a 15-minute mini-lecture, and a TBL application exercise and presented them to student colleagues. Students completed a survey upon completion of the course and participated in a focus group discussion to share their views on learning. Results: The majority of students (n=23/30) agreed that creating TBL modules enhanced their understanding of concepts, improved their self-directed learning skills (n=26/30), and improved their comprehension of TBL pedagogy (n=27/30). However, 60% disagreed with incorporating student-generated TBL modules into core curricular classes. Focus group data identified student-perceived barriers to success in the elective, in particular the development of TBL application exercises. Conclusion: This study provides evidence that students positively perceived student-led TBL as encouraging proactive learning from peer-to-peer teaching.


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