Wednesday, April 11 2012

With such a hectic Wednesday I just realized that this blog never got posted. But here is what was saved in my drafts.
It's in, my last and final proposal draft to Margaret. It along with all of the scholarships forms and now this last blog post. Its amazing how even with the prepcourse coming to a close how much I had taken for granted the wonder addition that it was to my under standing to what was up coming in the field. I want to outline some of the last thoughts that I have before I blog in the field concerning somethings that need to be resolved before I go. The first thing that I have been stressing out about is the fact that my IRB is not yet turned into the ORCA office. After the miscommunication as to what was expected from some people in the fieldstudy's department I wasnt able to submit my completed IRB proposal on time. It was rather a stressful time but now that the next deadline is coming up and I have gone through so much to correct and refine my current proposal I hope that I will still have a proposal that doesnt go full board.
I recognize the importance of the IRB and I hope that by tomorrow morning I can get submitted all of the documents that they need. One thing that I realized just the other day is the need that ill have to update my consent form on the IRB. It wasnt writen in a language that is probably that understandable in the first place due to the formatting that is on the ORCA website but it is helpful to note that its really just a form that I can re fill out with the few details that have changed in my proposal.
Also the situation of my visa and its approval is getting kinda grim. I know that I have to get the forms in soon and the consulate is being so slow to respond with my forms. I really hope that everything makes it on time.
I can't wait for the field. I know that the things that I experience and learn out there will be of serious help and use to me as I seek to define what it is that I am studying. As I now go to prepare for the final it will be my last real chance to incorporate what I have learned and prepare to use those techniques in the field.

Monday April 9 2012

Friday I was able to present my project before several of my peers and a facilitator. This was able for me to be able to defend my project before an audience of my peers. I realize while doing the presentation that the reason why I was up there was not for them to critique or pick holes in what I was planning on doing but it was for me to do that exact thing. I no what it is that I want to do while in India but everything that I do for the prep course can actually get me much closer to realizing the difference between what I say I want to do and what I am actually planning on doing.

Last night I did a lot of research for an idea that Rem gave me during the presentation on Friday. As I was presenting he informed me that in India the participants/general population that I will be working with are not going to recognize my terminology but that they will recognize the concept. Specifically he was referring to the idea of western and traditional healthcare. I now know that when people refer to traditional medicine they say homeopathy. When they want to talk of wester medicine that say allopathy.

I did some quick research last night on homeopathy medicine and it was amazing how quickly I got real time current and up to date results back from on line. Here are some of the things that I found. "Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine. Practitioners treat patients using highly diluted preparations believed to cause symptoms in healthy individuals similar to the undesired symptoms of the person treated." That is from Wikipedia page on homeopathic medicine. Here is another definition from another source, "Homeopathy, or homeopathic medicine, is a medical philosophy and practice based on the idea that the body has the ability to heal itself. Homeopathy was founded in the late 1700s in Germany and has been widely practiced throughout Europe. Homeopathic medicine views symptoms of illness as normal responses of the body as it attempts to regain health.


Homeopathy is based on the idea that "like cures like." That is, if a substance causes a symptom in a healthy person, giving the person a very small amount of the same substance may cure the illness. In theory, a homeopathic dose enhances the body's normal healing and self-regulatory processes."


Thus we see that it is not the exact same thing as ayurvedic medicine but it is similar enough that it would appear as if maybe the practices or even just the names are used interchangeably. I think there will be a lot of room to study both of them when I get on the ground. This will be the goal of my first few weeks or so on the ground in India. I hope to be able tor early define clearly what type of medicine is being practiced.

Friday April 6 2012

I just had a great strategy session. I talked with the Margaret and I realized that the survey that I am proposing to do in concept is great but the way that it is to be carried out needs to be very different. There is a good chance that with the survey questions(ill attach at the end of the post) that I’m proposing to conduct will be much better suited if it is given as a structured interview and not as a rigid survey. Also including something in my methods and procedures having to do with a period at the beginning of my stay, spending some time getting to know what is currently offered in the village of Chavadi and the city of Coimbatore. 

I really like this approach a lot because there is a lot of things about the medical system in India that I can't learn in medical journals or on wikipedia. I want to spend a couple of weeks documenting what is being offered and what people consider to be the appropriate forms of medicine then conduct my interviews and surveys with that in mind. There is a lot that can sway or disrupt my data flow and finding out half way through that people don’t even consider pharmaceuticals or some other predominate form of western medical care as such. That is my worry and the best way to prepare for that is to observe and gather information on what is performed first then go and set my own data points and coding for what kind of care people receive. That is way to much for what I want to do and I feel like this is a great step in making my data much more valuable.

I am for the first time in a while really getting excited about going to India. I never have been not excited but I can see clearly now what it is that I will be doing and I can see what will stand in my way. Knowing both are helping me really see what it is that I should do to get ready.

Wednesday April 4 2012

I have spent the last several hours refining my project proposal and here is what I have come up with. I had no idea what I was doing when I initially started this project. It is a great feeling to really feel like I am accomplishing something. I realize that there is a lot yet to be done and I know that the proposal that I currently have is not anywhere close to what I need to have but it is what I would consider a good start.

There are several things that I feel that I need to nail down and I will list them now.

First I need to be clearer in my declaration as to what I want to do with my statement of intent and the title of the project. I still really feel like there is a better way to put what I am trying to say in my paper. I have also attempted to make my statement of intent as personal as possible but I think that it lacks a certain academic edge that I also want to convey.

Second, My lit review and background is sorely under developed. I have a general idea as to what I want to do with this section but I feel that there is a lot of research that I have done in defining the two types of medical care that I will be analyzing and I feel like it isn’t pertinent enough to fit into my Lit Review or background. I hope to be able to explain in more detail what it is that I have learned about the topic of healthcare in india but I dont know how I can fit this into my project proposal.

Third I have a lot of loose ends and conflicting suggestions as to what I should do with other parts of my proposal. I hope to be able to straighten out these miscongruiencies and add some serious clarity as to my intentions in the proposal.

Monday April 2 2012

Its April already. March seemed to have flown by. In the rush to get several things done at the last minute in March I found my self striving to accomplish a lot in seemingly very little time. This all culminated this friday when I got the chance to catch up on a lot of my annotated sources and work on the over all direction of my paper. I really feel like the direction which I should go is an over all logical analysis of healthcare and health in general followed by a the definition of the two types of healthcare that I will be analyzing in order to be able to differentiate between the two when surveying the people.
Here is the general outline that I want my paper to follow.

Statement of Intent:
Personal reasons and specific scholarly reasons that I want to study this topic and live in India.

Lit Review:
Healthcare: Definition of Healthcare as a whole Health will be defined as well here
Two types of Healthcare in souther India and the current system for receiving healthcare in India.
Traditional:Ayurvedic
Western: US style medical atteniton
Current issues and problems with both
Combination of the two types of healthcare in India
Other forms of healthcare

Methodology and Procedures
Here I will describe in detail how I will distribute and conduct the survey that I have written up for the project above.
How I plan to locate my age group
Where will be established by locating different places where my potential age group exists
What I plan on doing when I find my age group

The rest of my proposal will come in a different blog post. This comprises parts A-C in order to give a good foundation for the research that I will conduct.