This activity helped me think critically about complex healthcare decisions through the lens of the STEEEP framework. By exploring both sides of the debate on Depo-Provera as a first-line contraceptive, I learned how evidence, ethics, and resource allocation intersect in real-world health systems. The process strengthened my ability to see healthcare as an interconnected system and improved my skills as a communicator and collaborator by engaging respectfully with diverse perspectives. It also developed my confidence as a responsive decision-maker and responsible leader who is able to analyse issues, balance competing priorities, and advocate for equitable, patient-centred solutions.  

This activity explored how individuals perceive, consume, and make decisions about sugary foods through qualitative questions and data interpretation. By engaging with different perspectives (including my own, and my peers’) I gained insight into how social, behavioural, and environmental factors influence sugar consumption. I also learned how to apply different data collection tools such as secondary data analysis, observation, and content analysis to explore real-world health issues.

Through this process, I developed my Scholarship competency by critically analysing qualitative and quantitative data, applying research methods appropriately, and interpreting findings to understand broader health patterns. I also strengthened my Systems Thinking by recognising how sugar consumption is influenced by interconnected factors, such as affordability, culture, availability, and health beliefs, and how these elements interact within the wider health system. This activity taught me to view health behaviours not in isolation, but as part of a complex and adaptive system that requires balanced, evidence-based solutions.

In Activity 6.20.3, I critically engaged with sugar consumption data collected through multiple tools, including surveys, structured observations, interviews, and focus groups, to plan how the data could be analysed effectively. I assessed whether the data were quantitative or qualitative and determined the most appropriate methods of analysis, such as calculating means, frequencies, percentages, or using thematic coding for qualitative responses. I also explored secondary data analysis, observational methods, and content analysis, reflecting on the importance of linking data collection strategies to research questions while ensuring ethical considerations, such as confidentiality and validity, were maintained. This activity allowed me to demonstrate scholarship by applying evidence-based reasoning, evaluating data systematically, and summarising findings in a way that is academically sound. Additionally, it strengthened my systems thinking skills by encouraging me to consider how individual behaviours, observed patterns, and social influences interact within the broader context of sugar consumption and health. By analysing data from different perspectives, I gained insight into the interrelationships between behaviours, perceptions, and systemic factors, highlighting the value of integrating multiple data sources to understand complex health behaviours.