Research

Goals:

• familiarize self with SPSS software, simple descriptive analysis and transformations, and creating tables and charts

Tasks:

• re-organize Excel data in SPSS, create tables and charts from dataset

Goals:

• acquire 60+ questionnaire responses today

Reflection:

• I had to be strategic with how I approached participants; if one person noticed others turning down the survey, they were more inclined to do so too. So instead, I isolated participants and spoke with them individually to make sure they understood the purpose of the questionnaire/study

• at times, it felt awkward and intrusive to come up to the patient and talk about the questionnaire; many appeared stressed, worried they might miss their number being called, tired, or busy; these patients were the ones that said no to doing the survey

• some patients were old and therefore not very tech-savvy; their children had to fill out the questionnaire for them

• I had to come prepared with multiple translations (thank you, Google translate!) because the Malaysian population is a mesh of various ethnicities---some patients spoke Mandarin, others spoke Malay. Majority, however, were able to speak English

• Final count: 13 patients

Goals:

• acquire at least 10 questionnaire responses today

Reflection:

• I had to modify my goal for today's data collection because it was simply unrealistic to aim for 60 responses, given the results from the previous data collection session, so I shrunk it down to 10

• I tried a different approach today. Rather than quickly trying to get as many responses as possible, I sat down with patients and took the time to introduce myself and explain the survey/its importance. I think this made me more personable, and patients were more willing to listen/learn more about the study. One woman initially expressed hesitation and told me she was lazy/bad with technology, but after I explained to her that this survey may allow us to implement Telehealth in the clinic, she became more interested and agreed to scan the QR code and find out more. The woman told me Telehealth would be much more convenient for follow-ups since she has had breast cancer for years. The woman also expressed concern about being hacked, but she seemed more inclined to do the survey after I told her more of my background and made small talk. Lesson: appearing credible/trustworthy is super important when doing this method of data collection!!

• It's very important to first introduce yourself before asking people to fill out the survey. A lot of patients seemed startled and confused when I first approached them, but after I told them that I was a student doing research with Prof. See (whom many were familiar with), they visibly relaxed and were more open to hearing about the survey.

• although a lot of patients come into this clinic, few of them are here for breast cancer appointments; one patient I spoke to said she was here with her son for his appendicitis, and another told me she was here for urology

• Updated count: 31 patients

Goals:

• acquire at least 10 questionnaire responses today

Reflection:

• I tried a different approach to data collection today; rather than walking around and asking patients that are waiting, I cooperated with the people at the front desk to have breast cancer patients come to me after checking in. I thought this might be a more efficient method since it was previously difficult for me to identify which patients were there for a breast cancer appt. The people at the front desk redirected patients to me after they checked in, and I explained the survey and showed them the QR code to scan. Unfortunately, today was another slow day in the clinic, so we didn't get that many patients to fill out the survey

• Updated count: 38 patients