Program Planning
I am finding this new course very interesting! It is definitely something I have some experience in and want to learn more. I started about 12 years ago planning programs in the health care field. My first program was a Long Term Care Aide course for a private college in the Comox Valley. It was a great success and I was very proud of every student that graduated from this program. My career continued from there as I designed and implemented many other program for other schools.
As I reflect on the readings, I see some of the issues I faced when I started as a program designer. I found that some schools were more interested in the dollars they were bringing in that what was needed in the community. True stakeholder engagement is needed to make sure that the needs of the community and organizations are being met. In reflection, some of the stakeholder meetings I attended had not be very well thought out as to how to work together and sometimes the meetings had to be ended due too much arguing or bullying. I ended up dreading these meetings and would look for a way to not attend.
Things have changed for me now. I work for a great organization and with what I am learning I will be able to help guide their new project. (more to come in later posts)
I am finally feeling that the posts I am making are quality posts that I hope benefit my classmates learning also. Being able to bring your knowledge of experiences to the class is exciting and I feel recharged. The team discussions we are doing really give us a inside look at our classmates and the different areas and ways they are involved in program planning. I look forward to the next discussion.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Blogging and Academic Identity
This article is very interesting as the writer Heide Estes speaks about how she transitions between writing with her scholarly voice compared to her voice of disability. This article is a good example of how a blog can be written in different ways. Heide demonstrates that the personal side of a blogger can come out in opinions and personal feelings, as she writes about things that affect her disability.
Estes writes about how most bloggers write narratively, like storytelling, to form an identify in their blog. Bloggers need a way to engage their followers and by adding personal touches to their blogs to help other identify with them. Many times the things we blog about can intersect between personal and academia. Estes sees nothing wrong with this. Can you put too much personal stuff into your blog? Is it like a diary for others to see and when is it too much? I like the idea of blogging to offer my voice to articles, and how my studies are going but I am not sure I would go the next step to write about my disability. Of course I am so new to blogging, I have a very narrow opinion on this right now.
I understand the comments made by Estes in her conclusion regarding the feeling of writing into a vacuum. I am always surprised to see that someone has commented on my blog and I am always eager to respond. Estes offers some advice for beginner bloggers to focus on writing in the beginning for non-academia, she suggest no use course shorthand and give full information to what your subject is.
Many more questions arise about blogging and how to use my voice after reading this article. I am sure as I progress with this, I will find the right voice to get my message across.
Estes writes about how most bloggers write narratively, like storytelling, to form an identify in their blog. Bloggers need a way to engage their followers and by adding personal touches to their blogs to help other identify with them. Many times the things we blog about can intersect between personal and academia. Estes sees nothing wrong with this. Can you put too much personal stuff into your blog? Is it like a diary for others to see and when is it too much? I like the idea of blogging to offer my voice to articles, and how my studies are going but I am not sure I would go the next step to write about my disability. Of course I am so new to blogging, I have a very narrow opinion on this right now.
I understand the comments made by Estes in her conclusion regarding the feeling of writing into a vacuum. I am always surprised to see that someone has commented on my blog and I am always eager to respond. Estes offers some advice for beginner bloggers to focus on writing in the beginning for non-academia, she suggest no use course shorthand and give full information to what your subject is.
Many more questions arise about blogging and how to use my voice after reading this article. I am sure as I progress with this, I will find the right voice to get my message across.
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Research study on mobile technology and Nursing
Mobile learning in nursing practice
education: Applying Koole’s FRAME model. Kenny, R., Van Neste-Kenny, J., Park, C., Burton, P., & Meiers, J. (2009). Journal
of Distance Education/Revenue de l’Education A Distance, 23(3), 75-96. Retrieved from http://www.jofde.ca/index.php/jde/article/view/599/990
I enjoyed reading this article, as anything that helps nurses, is of interest to me. I
also know one of the authors, so this made it even more interesting to see this article used.
This article is about an exploratory formative evaluation on 3rd
year nursing students who were provided with mobile devices. The mobile devices were supplied to the
participants to see if they would work to decrease the isolation of students in
non-traditional practice experiences.
This study was done over a five week period, with the participants
receiving two hours of training on how to use the mobile device and the
programs. The authors were surprised by their results and did offer advice for the
next researchers that may want to do a similar study.
It would be interesting to see how the authors would do this study today. Mobile technology has grown exponentially since 2009, I think that most nurses now would and do use their own mobile devices in their nursing programs and when working on the floors. I know many of the Practical Nursing students I speak to have downloaded the Davis's Drug Guide and anything else that helps them in their practice experience, onto their own phones. Even now in hospital they have proven that cell signals do not interfere with medical devices and do allow nurses to carry their phones with them.
Having spent 5 years in home care, having a cell phone to keep in touch is a necessity. Safety was a high priority, so being able to reach staff was very important. Also in home care there is a lot of travel between clients, so knowing people are safe is a must. I really thank Kenny et al. for writing this paper and opening the door for discussion.
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Imposter Syndrome
Imposter syndrome, a term I have heard a number of times now and actually had someone tell me I was suffering this. After I heard this, I wanted to know what it was that I had. So off to the internet to find a definition.
Caltech Counselling Centre defines Imposter Syndrome as feelings of inadequacy that persist even in face of information that indicates that the opposite is true. I know this feeling, when I cannot remember what I read to be able to make a discussion post that sounds intelligent. I read everyone else's posts and think to myself how smart they sounds, why can't I sound that smart. Some times it can be a very defeating feeling but I know I have to over come it. I know that whatever I decide to do, research paper or thesis, my situation is different than everyone else. I will focus on something that deals with regulation and the processes that pertain to this role. I know when it comes to speaking regulation, I can do it and have to stop feeling like I am less smart than everyone else.
Imposter syndrome, a term I have heard a number of times now and actually had someone tell me I was suffering this. After I heard this, I wanted to know what it was that I had. So off to the internet to find a definition.
Caltech Counselling Centre defines Imposter Syndrome as feelings of inadequacy that persist even in face of information that indicates that the opposite is true. I know this feeling, when I cannot remember what I read to be able to make a discussion post that sounds intelligent. I read everyone else's posts and think to myself how smart they sounds, why can't I sound that smart. Some times it can be a very defeating feeling but I know I have to over come it. I know that whatever I decide to do, research paper or thesis, my situation is different than everyone else. I will focus on something that deals with regulation and the processes that pertain to this role. I know when it comes to speaking regulation, I can do it and have to stop feeling like I am less smart than everyone else.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Mindful Inquiry of Social Research
“Mindful Inquiry is based on the idea that your research is – or should be – intimately linked to your awareness of yourself and your world” (Bentz & Shapiro, 1998, p. 5). I find myself reflecting on the reading and trying to understand how to insert myself into the inquiry process. This will provide a bit of annotation on the four cultures I looked at and my personal reaction to each of the cultures.
Evaluation research is often used in public and non-profit sectors of industry. This culture of inquiry looks at the effectiveness of a program in meeting their objectives. The researcher is often someone not associated with the agency that conducts the research into what worked and what didn't work and comes back with some effective strategies to effect change. This is the culture of inquiry I am most familiar with as a consultant just completed a review of our practical nurse education recognition program, and she conducted her research in the fashion described in this culture. The only part that I did find hard to adjust to was when the recommendations came back, which sometimes due to different factors would not be feasible to use. It would take us quite a bit of time to go back and forth with reasons why, and then try to figure out how to change her recommendation into something that would work. I guess this is just part of the process and I will get better acquainted with it as time goes on. It is probably a little tougher because the researcher is removed from us in the aspect that she knows some of what we do but not all of our processes.
Quantitative inquiry is based on measurement, estimates and quantification of occurrences used mostly in social sciences. This culture uses mathematics a lot because it is a reliable way to show relations. In quantitative inquiry, the research looks more at the whole picture and individual pieces. This helps them to identify commonalities that may lead to a bigger issue. In this culture, the researcher must report objectively and to do this must remain detached from the subjects at all times. If the researcher does not respect this, contamination of the research results may happen. I think this type of research is something I may enjoy doing. From the reading, I see that quantitative inquiry can consist of constructing questionnaires, operationalizing, computer analysis and working away from others, which would work for me as I like developing and operationalizing different things. I am not opposed to working on my own and find I can do some of my best work then. Of course there are down sides to every culture and I am sure I will find out more as I progress through the course.
Phenomenological inquiry is used to obtain knowledge about how we think and feel in the most direct ways (Bentz & Shapiro, 1998, p. 96). This culture of inquiry is not appropriate for trying to establish attitude or behaviors or when you want to compare situations in order to predict or control (Bentz & Shapiro, 1998, p. 98). This is another culture that I need more time to absorb and understand. I look forward to expanding my knowledge and seeing how I may be able to use this in the future.
Action research is not so much an inquiry as it is focused on how it can influence or change a system. The researcher conducting action research is driven to change the behavior of a person or an organization (Bentz & Shapiro, 1998, p. 129). The big difference with this is the researcher helps guide the person or organization to develop their own goals and objectives for the change. They do this by identifying the problem, developing a prediction and plan how they will get the results needed in the time needed. Revisiting the issue till the results that are desired are reached could be seen as a major concern with this inquiry. The researcher plays mainly the role of a facilitator throughout the process and provides guidance to keep them pointed towards their goals. The epistemology assumptions with action research seem to be the application of scientific method to a practical problem (Bentz & Shapiro, 1998, p. 128). I can understand the reasons for this culture of inquiry, but I am not sure I understand the components of it. Maybe by the end of the course, when I have studied these more, I will be able to put the pieces together better.
After reading the four cultures of inquiry I chose, I have the start of a better understanding of what research entails. Further study of the different cultures will help me to flesh out the ones that speak most to me. I am leaning more towards evaluation research as I have experienced this is my place of employment, where I can dissect down the pieces and have it make sense to why the consultant chose to do her research the way she did. I hope as I move through this course to be able to emulate the procedure as well as our consultant did.
References
Bentz, V. M., & Shapiro, J. J. (1998). Mindful inquiry in social research. Thousand Oaks,
“Mindful Inquiry is based on the idea that your research is – or should be – intimately linked to your awareness of yourself and your world” (Bentz & Shapiro, 1998, p. 5). I find myself reflecting on the reading and trying to understand how to insert myself into the inquiry process. This will provide a bit of annotation on the four cultures I looked at and my personal reaction to each of the cultures.
Evaluation research is often used in public and non-profit sectors of industry. This culture of inquiry looks at the effectiveness of a program in meeting their objectives. The researcher is often someone not associated with the agency that conducts the research into what worked and what didn't work and comes back with some effective strategies to effect change. This is the culture of inquiry I am most familiar with as a consultant just completed a review of our practical nurse education recognition program, and she conducted her research in the fashion described in this culture. The only part that I did find hard to adjust to was when the recommendations came back, which sometimes due to different factors would not be feasible to use. It would take us quite a bit of time to go back and forth with reasons why, and then try to figure out how to change her recommendation into something that would work. I guess this is just part of the process and I will get better acquainted with it as time goes on. It is probably a little tougher because the researcher is removed from us in the aspect that she knows some of what we do but not all of our processes.
Quantitative inquiry is based on measurement, estimates and quantification of occurrences used mostly in social sciences. This culture uses mathematics a lot because it is a reliable way to show relations. In quantitative inquiry, the research looks more at the whole picture and individual pieces. This helps them to identify commonalities that may lead to a bigger issue. In this culture, the researcher must report objectively and to do this must remain detached from the subjects at all times. If the researcher does not respect this, contamination of the research results may happen. I think this type of research is something I may enjoy doing. From the reading, I see that quantitative inquiry can consist of constructing questionnaires, operationalizing, computer analysis and working away from others, which would work for me as I like developing and operationalizing different things. I am not opposed to working on my own and find I can do some of my best work then. Of course there are down sides to every culture and I am sure I will find out more as I progress through the course.
Phenomenological inquiry is used to obtain knowledge about how we think and feel in the most direct ways (Bentz & Shapiro, 1998, p. 96). This culture of inquiry is not appropriate for trying to establish attitude or behaviors or when you want to compare situations in order to predict or control (Bentz & Shapiro, 1998, p. 98). This is another culture that I need more time to absorb and understand. I look forward to expanding my knowledge and seeing how I may be able to use this in the future.
Action research is not so much an inquiry as it is focused on how it can influence or change a system. The researcher conducting action research is driven to change the behavior of a person or an organization (Bentz & Shapiro, 1998, p. 129). The big difference with this is the researcher helps guide the person or organization to develop their own goals and objectives for the change. They do this by identifying the problem, developing a prediction and plan how they will get the results needed in the time needed. Revisiting the issue till the results that are desired are reached could be seen as a major concern with this inquiry. The researcher plays mainly the role of a facilitator throughout the process and provides guidance to keep them pointed towards their goals. The epistemology assumptions with action research seem to be the application of scientific method to a practical problem (Bentz & Shapiro, 1998, p. 128). I can understand the reasons for this culture of inquiry, but I am not sure I understand the components of it. Maybe by the end of the course, when I have studied these more, I will be able to put the pieces together better.
After reading the four cultures of inquiry I chose, I have the start of a better understanding of what research entails. Further study of the different cultures will help me to flesh out the ones that speak most to me. I am leaning more towards evaluation research as I have experienced this is my place of employment, where I can dissect down the pieces and have it make sense to why the consultant chose to do her research the way she did. I hope as I move through this course to be able to emulate the procedure as well as our consultant did.
References
Bentz, V. M., & Shapiro, J. J. (1998). Mindful inquiry in social research. Thousand Oaks,
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
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Friday, July 11, 2014
Blogging
I was searching the web today for information on blogging and found this info-graphic. I like the ideas presented in this info-graphic. I often wondered how to make a blog stand out from everyone else's on the web. I think this is one reason that I have been holding off starting to do my own blog.
You can read more on this idea at:
http://mashable.com/2014/02/18/blog-food-groups/.
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