Malle Program Focus Group

Well tonight was a great turnout. Everyone came on time and had a whole lot to say. We picked a very good group. It's like everyone fed off eachother's energy. I was assigned the task of taking notes on the giant post it for everyone to see. Diana later explained to me that this was so that people can refer back to points if they get lost, and just to assure them that we were listening intently. Everyone participated and had intersting points. The things that stood out the most or what was mentioned was culture, respect, and most of all trust. Meaning that patient navigators in the Malle Program (patient navigation in the Chamoru community) need to know the culutre of the patients. They have to know the diet, some language, general beliefs etc. of the patients, and above all have respect. It was even said that if you didn't know the culture that well as long as you showed respect and was well informed/educated. Another major theme was trust. This meant confidentiality and sort of blind faith. If you tell the patient(s) you will drive them to their appoitment and will come at 3:35 they expect you to keep your word. Overall this focus group was very interesting. I learned more about patient navigation and got some creative ways to improve the program's state. Whether this means bettering the system of the naviagtion or just getting more word out there I'm sure we can make it happen. At the end of the discussion our moderator started talking about breast health and how she was deemed the "susu" lady because she would talk to so many people about breast health. Then everyone else chimed in and it was very entertaining, and even informational.

Regular Day

Today was normal. Diana had a sort of lecture for me and Tayweave. It was all about qualitative research. I remember learning about a guy that came up with the system that you use whenever you are measuring the quality of something. Diana gave us an example of how she used the model to measure the quality of healthcare. There are three bins: structure, process, and outcome. Basically the strutcure is like the facility/enviornment, the process is the services, and the outcome is as such. The rest of the lecture was like charts about process models and the human experience. That is...too much to write lol. I did pay attention though, don't get me wrong. The thing I remember taking away from the lecture was that if you ever get lost or confuse always refer back to your original framework of the project. Mexican food for lunch, yum. Just another regular day.

With Meaning

Well Friday I didn't have time to do my daily blog so that's right I'm doing it today. Well I'll do 2 days in 1 blogpost. So here's how Friday went down... Me and Tayweave attended the Southern California Edison's Community Forum for Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders. It was for our community exposure, we were shadowing an executive director of a commnity based organization, GCN. It was at the Grand in Long Beach. It was really nice there were like 2 breakfast tables so naturally we grabbed the table that was closest to 1 lol. They also gave us bags with a notebook and flashlight. Very cool. They also had keychains and little bracelets, all very green and very cute. They first played a short movie about Edison, not too exciting. Then they started talking and introducing people, also not too exciting. Later on the introduced who would be in the panel and why. Uncle Joey told us to pay attention to each speaker's technique. He said to take notes to use for future reference if ever we have to speak one day. He also told us why he chose not to wear a suit. He said that these people are looking for Pacific Island organizations and he wore a short sleeved shirt so that they can see his tribal tatt and realize that he is someone they should be talking to. After that we went to GCN to have our final workshop. We basically checked in with Kush to make sure that we are on the right track. Later we had a few presentations. We talked about the difference between qualitative and quantitative data is. We also talked about baggage and that we need to keep in mind that everybody has their own baggage which is rarely the same baggage as us. We also talked about our presentations we will be giving at the end of working with our researchers. We even sang Uncle Joey happy birthday. Kush then told us that when we blog to write about what you took away from the day or what something meant to you. So I will write that the workshop really made me understand why Pipeline is important and why doing the research is important. Which is, when you go to the government and want to say something is a problem in your community you need to have justification, which is your research. Now I will appreciate transcribing and do it with a little more meaning because there is a bigger picture.

Long day

Today is the first day I'll be working from 8-4. Boooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Can you guess what 'll be doing? That's right transcribing :) Horay. I only have and hour and a half left to go. Geehs. Diana says that 10 minutes of transcribing takes usually an hour. Why is it takin me life 4 hours lol All bad. Good news: we got more people confirmed for the focus group today. Now all we have to do is prepare the papers we'll be utilizing. I just created a sign up sheet. Yay I feel accomplished. It's freezing in this office though. Sheesh

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you know what that is ^ ?
It's snow lol It is snowing in here. Hopefully it gets warmer as the day goes on. Well as my day goes on I'll be transcribing. It is interesting, but it's just so painstakingly brutal. I mean I love the story, but I just hate having to go back and get every word down. Every giggle, every laugh, every um ... even every "inaudible dialog."
Tomorrow we're having our workshop here, which is awesome. Because before then me and Tayweave will be at our community exposure at the Grand. It's like something with Edison or something. Then we come here for the workshop. We'll be going over all the paperwork we've been doing for hours and whatnot. Hopefully I don't leave anything out or forget my papers. Well, I guess I'll continue my long day.

Winding Down

So today Diana wasn't able to come in today. Her poor daughter has a cold. But we still have a lot to do. We will be working on confirming the people we have recruiting and seding a recruitment log to Diana. She also explained to us what she will be doing with the transcripts we complete. Basically the transcripts will be coded. Coding is going through transcripts and deciphiring what certain terms/phrases contributes to a theme. A theme is what researchers believe to be the big picture of what the transcript(s) is. She gave us an examply of her Latina study where the theme was a family first kinda thing. She also told us the importance of having more than one researcher reading through the transcript. For instance there was an anthropolgist by the name of Margaret Mead. She went to Samoa to study the culture and over all way of life. Diana said that Mead reported that young females said that the they experience a lot of sexual freedome. Which shocked myself and Uncle Joey because we both know very well that the Samoan culture is super strict/conservative. So another anthopologist went to Samoa, a man, and got a different story. Here's a link to read what Mead wrote http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/scientist/margaret_mead.html There is still dispute to whether which story is true. But it just sets an example of why more than one interpretation is needed. All we have to do now is finish transcribing and getting ready for the focus group. Our hours are almost finish, it's kind of winding down. Not in a bad way, just because we're almost done.

Good Friday

So I forgot to post my blog yesterday. Hmph. Anyway today it was hecka cold in the GCN offices. Plus I wore a dress, wrong idea. So I just been transcribing and recruiting people for the focus group. I tried inviting people that we didn't know so well so that we could have refershing ideas/feedback. Diana also gave us text to read that she copied from a book on Focus groups. So I'll probably read that for the remainder of the hour. Because believe it or not, transcribing is getting a little dry. Not the interview itself, but the constant stopping and going back to capture every single um and uh huh and laugh. It's so painstakingly crucial. Uncle Jay brought us some mickey dee's though. Scarfed down a 10-piece real quick. It was good though. Our workshop got canceled. It was kinda sad because I really wanted to see UCLA, but then again I'm glad I don't have to drive! My uncle said that I would have to leave at like 645 just to be at UCLA on time. YIKES. Well next week I'll be working from 8-4, horay. Get her done ya know?

Relief

So me, Taylor, Uncle Joey and Dr. Tisnado just finished our meeting. It went great. We just discussed the next steps for our focus groups. Today we were supposed to go over the list of names for possible recruits. Instead, we went over the script of what we would say. Then we realized that we wouldn't really use the script because we know the people that we are planning to ask. Then we did some role playing with Uncle Joey for practice. Then we actually called someone. However she totally didn't really ask questions lol She just immediately agreed to come. So there goes your script. The next lady I called did all of the talking lol she just said yes and didn't really listen to my shpeal because she started to talk over me lol. It's ohkay though because she's funny and even gave me some more people to contact for this focus group. We also talk about the hours situation and have decided to work 15 hours for the next week or 2. I think I may just work 16 hours a week. That means 8AM -4Pm. Eeeeeeeek. It's ohkay though because the work keeps me pretty busy.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek

So today I got tired of transcribing and decided to tally my hours/milage paperwork. I realized that I missed 2 workshops which could have been like 8 hours to add to my total hours. I've decided to start staying longer to get more hours, so that I'll be done on time. If I actually stay with my plan I'll have 42 hours by next thursday. Plus 17 hours from the workshops I've attended plus the anoher 4 from the workshop on Friday which I will be attending which gives me a total of only 63. Eeeeeek. Hopefully the remaining workshops and focus group we will be conducting will make up for the rest. If not I think - I will varify with Kushbindar - I will have to intern for more hours at GCN. That isn't a problem with me I just want to make sure that I get all my hours on time. Hopefully everything works out. I literally have my fingers crossed! Well tomorrow I'll be at GCN.
Then Friday we have workshop in the form of a tour of UCLA! How awesome! I can't wait! I wonder what we'll do. Hopefully we get to visit Dr. Tisnado's office :) Well I'll check back in tomorrow. Here' s hoping everything goes over well.

The Joy of Transcribing

So today Diana had us start a new project because we finsihed our ethics of rearsearch traning Monday! WOOHOO! However the next project is - transcribing. GRRRRR. I knew it would be hard writing every word. Including the ums's and the uh-huh's and the oh's. Thankfully Uncle Joe showed us something called VoiceWalker. It's really cool it loops a certain amount of seconds over and over for you. VERY HELPFUL :) It helped me to speed up the process a lot! And the interview is really interesting. It's very personal and like my own personal audio book really lol. Also today we talked about whether or no we'll be albe to do our focus group next week. I think we need more time becuase I haven't really read the recruitment script yet, eeeeeeeeek :/ Well Diana's supposed to email us with updates so hopefully it'll get pushed back. That way we have more time to prepare and recruit. Then we'll have a more successful and meaningful focus group. Well I'll get back to transcribing. Oh the joy of transcribing!

Friday Workshop

Well that was interesting. For something that's usually boring Dr. Tanjasiri did a great job at making the workskop more interactive. Especially when she called out Putu and Mia lol. I was so thankful that there was food 'cause I just came from work and was STARVING! The drive there wasn't bad at all. I found the building fairly easily. The workshop was mostly about where to find research. We also did an exercise by reading an article on the correlation between the amount of exercise dog owners do versus the amount that non dog owners do. It was really interesting, different that usual articles. We had to read through the article and fill out a sheet answering questions. It was kind of repetitive because I've already learned to do this in college, but it was a good refresher since I've been on summer vacation. Oh we have a new girl that's joinng us I forgot her name, but it's still cool to see that we're growing. Teresa and Bri didn't make it :( It's ohkay next time we'll be together. Oh I forgot, next time I won't be going because I have to get ready for my Grandma's services. I already told Kushbinda and she said it's fine. I also have to miss a day of interning, but Diana says it's fine as well. Great I'll have so many hours to make up. No worries I will get it done! Kush also gave us a "wish list" and a review of what we will be interning and how to behave. It was a good workshop I loved being reunited with my fellow Piepliners :)

Pipeline Orientation

When I first got to the orientation, I realized I - and TayWeave & Aunty Jeany - were one of the first to arrive. So I was relieved we were on time. Then as the girls (because there were no boys who attended this summer lol) came in I just introduced myself to them. It wasn't scary at all, it was kind of fun actually. We started off with Alisi's Kava ceremony and she explained to us what it meant, very beautiful. The day went on with powerpoints about the PI community's health - and it was not looking good at all. It was depressing, but mostly motivating. It made me want to take charge, take action, take our enemies down! After the last presentation we left to the reception at Marie Callendars which was down the street. Sitting with the other girls and waiting for our families to arrive, we all got more aquainted with each other. And soon everybody was getting along. When everyone got there we met everyone's families and some of the researchers we would be working with and other members/allies of the PI community. It was very touching. The food was so-so, but hey it was free lol.
Shortly after we left to our dorms to call it a day. We all ended up meeting in one dorm and talked all night. It was definitely a great bonding experience.
The next day was the last day, but everyone was a lot more social because we had all got to know eachother so well. We were also able to meet up with highschoolers who were in an afterschool program that would help them get into college. It was so neat to meat with them and discuss our futures, including theirs. The day ended with farewells as were left to get our fingers scanned: basically a background check.
Over all it was a tremendously productive workshop and I'm glad to be a part of the PIHCPP fellowship. I'm happy to met all the new people and strengthen the bonds with the people I already know.

:)

Ethics of Research Training

So the first thing I've done today, and what I will be doing for the rest of the day, is completing a course about the Ethics of Research via CITI. It's a whole mess of readings. Some of the context is repetative, making it fairly easy to complete. I have also been printing out the readings, which is a lot of help when it comes to taking the quizzes online (it's not cheating lol it's helping). I just finished the first seciton of the training- which happens to be the shortest part. So I have a slight feeling that this may take up some time out of next week as well, but the sooner I can finish the better.
I totally forgot that we have workshop tomorrow, oh joy. I can never remember anything. FAIL. Also I can't find my planner that we were given as gifts. I always lose things! FAIL, again. It's driving me crazy because I wrote all my schedules into it, and also because it's so cute lol.
Also Dr. Tisnado bought us (me and TayWeave lol) flash drives filled with info/powerpoints about the Project we'll be working on. She has even included the project's proposal, which will greatly benefit us by giving us an idea of what to look forward to. It makes me feel more professional and mature. This internship is so fun and creative I'm glad my Fahj (Uncel Joey) kept reminding me to apply. I can't wait to add this to my resume and look forward to helping the next batch of PI scholars.

Day one

Well I was late today, so not ideal. I kinda didn't even know we were having our first day today. Ever since my grandma Sil passed I haven't been checking anything (email, myspace, etc.). I just don't wanna log into facebook and read all the "I'm so sorry for your loss" type things. It's not that I don't care, it just makes it even harder for me. I know she's in a better place and all, but she just went too soon. She was only in the hospital for a little over a week. It's ohkay though. I'm just glad God allowed her to grace us with her precense for as long as he did.
Back to Pipeline lol.
Dr. Tisnado explained to me and Taylor what we would be doing. Today we are working on our ethics of research training. It sounded boring at first, but the cases that lead to regulations are actually interesting. She also told me the problems with last year's program, and how we could make this time around better. We all have to come a few minutes early and be ready to jump right into work. We also have to be able to concentrate on the work we have to get done that day, but as long as I can listen ot my music I'll be good. She also said she wants us to participates in the focus group they're having in the Maile focus group here at GCN. It's about breast cancer in the Chamoru community, interesting. Next time I have to make sure to bring all my Pipeline materials becuase today was so not on point, never again.
Thursday is the next day we meet, and I promise to bring all my materials and to also have all my work caught up lol.