A change of supervisor
Its been way too long since I updated this blogg, but life has been really full on. I have completed my ethics paperwork and submitted it to one hospital and will submit another to a second site later this week, if all goes well (I have my fingers crossed). My problem hasn't been with the ethics paperwork, although completing that was pretty demanding. My hassles are with the Heads of Departments. I need 9 of them to sign paperwork at each site. It has been amazingly hard to get appointments with the right people and then to keep up with the changes they make to those appointments. I think there is a problem witha system where you need signatures from Heads of Departments but the Heads of Departments aren't aware of it or the fact that if you miss the deadline, you are behind by 2 months..... or maybe they simply don't care. It is a nerve wracking, torturous, process and I don't think I'll ever conduct research over so many departments again- it's simply too damned hard.
I also went for language counselling and the advice I was given was that everything my supervisors had said about my writing was incorrect.. arrrgggggggggggggggggghhhhh! I'm getting so bloody confused about when to bullet and when not to, the use of pronouns (do you or don't you?), do I write in the first person or the third person.. am I "we" or "I"? What do I put in each chapter? There is no consensus anywhere and its driving me nutty. I loathe the idea of going back to re-writing my chapters 1-3, let alone drafting chapter 4. I have to solve this issue pretty shortly I guess. I just wish I could find 2 sources that agreed with each other. I've told my supervisor that sent me there that the language counsellor did not agree with their view of the world and I'm going with the counsellor's advice. She sent me there so she has to live with their advice (I think).
In the middle of all of this, the whole supervisor thing came to a head and I now have a new supervisor and a new supervisory arrangement. The new arrangement is exciting and positive, but the process of getting organising it has been awful, partly because my former supervisor is in Hanoi. He wasn't very happy, but I just wasn't making the progress I wanted to.
The rural site I was targeting have invited me up for a meeting next week to discuss the research, which is pretty exciting. I hope it goes well. It's also a pain because Nina has a Tae Kwondo grading that night and I have to be back in Melbourne to get her there. If the rural site are supportive of my research then I'll be preparing a third and final ethics application for the PhD before Xmas. I'm also attending the National Health Summit in the city next week and have an ethics hearing at Southern Health.
I'm also researching the purchase of a new notebook for my thesis. Part of me can't be bothered thinking about the purchase and part of me thinks it will be a very useful addition to my work. Time will tell I guess.
Its Nina's birthday this week, so the family will be over for dinner. Sandy starts his new job at SBS too... mornings and evenings will be hell for a while. I can't believe how busy we are. I'm getting very tired and the holidays will provide a welcome relief.
I'm feeling very tense, but I think that's because I have a lot riding on the schedule of a very few Heads of Departments and ethics committees and my home responsibilities are escalating at a time when I'm really tired.
There goes my phone.... *sigh* it was another Head .. though she sounds very nice .. we've moved her signing time to December 1... and on and on I go
