Ethnography in the emergency department
I'm all excited about starting with the data collection for my dissertation tomorrow. [Adviser] has rented out an apartment on the campus of [Teaching hospital] which is about two hours drive from home. I will be living there 4 days out of the week. The other three days I will be back home since I have to fulfill my TA responsibilities at school. My dissertation research is concerned with how information and communication technologies (ICTs) affect overcrowding in emergency departments. I still haven't narrowed down on the exact research question but am open to interesting things that the data might reveal to me. The research method I have chosen for data collection is ethnographic observations, interviews, and focus groups.
My initial plan is to observe the work in the ED and determine patient, provider, and information flows. I'm hoping that this will help me understand the nature of the problem first hand and give me ideas about ways to tackle it. Depending on what I discover from my observations, I hope to narrow down on issues that can be further explored via interviews with care providers.
The Director of the ED is excited about conducting a healthcare/engineering partnership with the department of Industrial Engineering and my department The goal of the project is to use engineering tools and techniques (like simulation, lean thinking, queuing theory etc.) to improve quality of healthcare in the ED. Yesterday we had our first meeting on the healthcare/engineering project and it aligns very well with what I am interested in doing. [Director of the ED] and I will be meeting every Fri for two hours to discuss my progress and for me to get feedback from him. Also present at these meetings will be medical students and residents working on this project. I am really looking forward to our first meeting this Fri. Not only am I excited about finally starting on my data collection, but also about learning more about medicine. Medicine fascinates me and I often wonder what it would have been like to take it up as a career. I think I am also slightly in awe of the "saving human lives" aspect of the medical profession.
I went out today and bought some notebooks, pens etc for note-taking in the ED. I've never conducted observations before so I am not sure exactly what I need. Right now I have paper, pens, and digital tape recorder. [Adviser] is buying a digital camera and a video recorder soon.
I've spent Jun - Dec of last year conducting focus groups and interviews in the same ED (as part of another project) so I am familiar with some people there. But I'm sure I have a lot to learn.
My initial plan is to observe the work in the ED and determine patient, provider, and information flows. I'm hoping that this will help me understand the nature of the problem first hand and give me ideas about ways to tackle it. Depending on what I discover from my observations, I hope to narrow down on issues that can be further explored via interviews with care providers.
The Director of the ED is excited about conducting a healthcare/engineering partnership with the department of Industrial Engineering and my department The goal of the project is to use engineering tools and techniques (like simulation, lean thinking, queuing theory etc.) to improve quality of healthcare in the ED. Yesterday we had our first meeting on the healthcare/engineering project and it aligns very well with what I am interested in doing. [Director of the ED] and I will be meeting every Fri for two hours to discuss my progress and for me to get feedback from him. Also present at these meetings will be medical students and residents working on this project. I am really looking forward to our first meeting this Fri. Not only am I excited about finally starting on my data collection, but also about learning more about medicine. Medicine fascinates me and I often wonder what it would have been like to take it up as a career. I think I am also slightly in awe of the "saving human lives" aspect of the medical profession.
I went out today and bought some notebooks, pens etc for note-taking in the ED. I've never conducted observations before so I am not sure exactly what I need. Right now I have paper, pens, and digital tape recorder. [Adviser] is buying a digital camera and a video recorder soon.
I've spent Jun - Dec of last year conducting focus groups and interviews in the same ED (as part of another project) so I am familiar with some people there. But I'm sure I have a lot to learn.
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