The symposium...
The
symposium last Friday was pretty ordinary, although I did meet some very interesting people. I am going to email some of them this week in the hope of extending my professional networks... I think the highlight of the day was the final presentation on privacy legislation as it relates to the development of an EHR in Australia. Actually, 3 of the presentations- 2 from Monash academics- were useful and interesting, the others felt like a waste of time and my professional training fund. There was a staff member from
HealthConnect in the audience and she simply could not refrain from commenting every time a criticism she felt was incorrect was made by a presenter. The whole affair was very tedious and felt like an advertisement for the EHR rather than any kind of open discussion. Speakers seemed to be quite open to her ongoing commentary throughout each presentation though, whereas I would have preferred to use a question/discussion period to air her views. Her interjections felt more like heckling than anything else.
I did learn though that I know and understand as much on the subject as anyone, and that's a pretty rewarding feeling given the work I have put into my research. I also learned that one of the audience members had used my web site as a research tool and that felt pretty good too (even though I don't know how useful it was to them). I also learned about some new resources and so will need to add them my web page some time this week.
I just checked my email, its shaping up to be a pretty hectic week, although now the detail of my methodology is hanging together I am feeling pretty motivated to work. Hopefully I'll get started on my survey tools before the end of the week.
Hmm it's been a while....
I think Easter provided me with a much needed pause- we went driving through the Flinders Ranges via Adelaide. The scenery was spectacular, especially around
Wilpena Pound and
Cape Bridgewater- I love road trips and sleeping in the back of the Ute and waking with the birds every day.
I have drafted almost all that's needed for my ethics proposals for various research sites which is pretty good and I know what is needed for each site as well. I had a meeting with both my supervisor's on the last working day before Easter since I was a bit lost with my hypothesis. Based on discussions with them, I have decided to take a more exploratory approach using grounded theory to devise a series of hypotheses for further work in my field.
I am also taking a Stats training course which is clarifying lots of issues for me. I began writing a document outlining my research background, aims, methodology and so forth this morning and will start to contruct the questionnaires for my survey later this week. Ultimately the work looks like incorporating both qualitative and quantitative methods.
I'm attending a symposium on health privacy issues on Friday and have a heap of meetings scheduled, including another PhD review early next month and more mWard stuff.
I'm going to get back to maintaining this blogg more regularly than I have lately cos I find it helps to motivate me and see the big picture when I am feeling a bit flat.
