I cannot believe 3 weeks have passed since I began my trek through graduate school, with the 4th week beginning tomorrow. I have come up with what I think are great ideas for research, but given the shortened timeframe for submissions to NCA this year, they cannot be completed in time. However, I haven't given up on those. One of the original ideas I had come up with was to look over the ways that sexual health information is provided to people in rural Alaska. However, in talking with the CHAP Director she reminded me that each tribal health organization has its own IRB process that can take anywhere from 6 to 12 months for approvals. So....
Thankfully my colleagues have other really great ideas that can be completed on a compressed timeline. So now we are back to a similar topic we came up with at the beginning of this journey. I think that looking over what people remember receiving as health education in middle and high school and seeing if they felt that the information affected their health choices since then would be an interesting study. Particularly given that some states do not require certain types of education provided to their students as a whole.
In talking it over with my husband, he also reminded me that a lot of these ideas are probably not new ideas. So it is yet another reminder of how important literature reviews and researching papers that have been published is. No sense in reinventing the wheel.
It is already the end of january and I am feeling much more confident as a researcher, but a lot less confident about the process overall. I made an appointment to see a research librarian and it was so very helpful. When I took Library Science at UAF as part of my undergraduate studies, I found it interesting, but i didn't feel that it was applicable to me. However, I am glad that UAF does require it because having someone help me navigate the vast amount of information available at UAF is so helpful.
I was always in awe of people that I knew had written books on the subjects that they studied. Heck, I thought writing 30-50 pages was a LOT! And now, i'm here. I think that as long as my instructor continues to help me, it will go well. At least I hope so.
In response to your husband's comments re: "not new ideas..."
ReplyDeleteTrue. But at the same time, I am sitting here at the UAF library across from the stacks this afternoon. I have the perfect view of books on WWII. From my vantage point, I see 18. There are more. Chances are...they say a lot of the same things. So, what makes them different? The perspective of the researcher...
Think about it...