Focus Group Reflection Paper

A. Upon reading the focus groups quotes given at the meeting with Ms. Jones, I was able to distinguish some quotes that dealt with ethnographic factors. In the text it states that ethnographic factors are those that provide specific information about the culture norms, rituals and other aspects of daily life. A norm is a standard of social behavior, which is expected of a group. Rituals is a type of behavior regularly or invariably followed by someone. In this particular program some of the focus group quotes could influence Ms. Jones program’s success. Among the quotes I felt that quote numbers 1,3,4, 5,6, 8, and 9 are quotes that dealt with ethnographic factors. All several of these quotes could help Ms. Jones understand how the individuals feel about diabetes and the initiatives to bring forth the type 2 diabetes health program. The quotes provided are not judgmental but they are descriptive. Individuals view their environment as one that needs to be educated about type 2 diabetes but there have been some problems that hinder the success of other programs and initiatives. These several quotes could be a factor to Ms. Jones program because now

she will have an understanding on what type of approaches will and will not work for this particular culture. The ethnographic quotes provided will help Ms. Jones to gain a better understanding on the culture she is working with so that she can create better plans and adjustments for the future program.

B.

After reviewing Ms. Jones pre/post testing results, I would say that the testing was beneficial to the program. I believe that it was beneficial because the students showed some fair results overall. Although all of the students were not in the diabetes program the test results showed pretty good results for all 20 students that were tested on the same material. Being that the scores were decent it showed that students really did focus on the material being covered in the program and the control group had some type of knowledge about diabetes recognition. The most successful part that I found to be beneficial was the weight loss criteria. There was definitely an improvement in weight loss at the end of the core phase. Overall this test method could be improved statistically by providing a smaller control group to

test.

C. The most cogent focus group quote that I thought might skew Ms. Jones program evaluation data review would be focus group quote number 15 “I am sorry, Ms. Jones, but I think that program is a waste of time: too little too late.” This quote could have been made by someone who have participated in all the other efforts that were made to prevent type 2 diabetes in that particular area of NC. The individual may have felt that since there wasn’t much funding for the other programs to start and be successful then it is unlikely for Ms. Jones program to be successful as well. There could many different reasons why this quote was made by the individual. I feel that if someone doesn’t see any change in the health amongst the population as a whole then that individual may feel that it definitely is a waste of time and energy. Programs have been put into place for many years to help prevent diabetes so why would Ms. Jones program be the one to make a change in this area. These may have been thoughts that occurred when the individual stated this quote.