Community research

Property of Learning Links – 2012

Course Summary
This course is divided into three units as follows:

How to Plan your
Collecting Data Presenting Findings
Project

Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3


Unit 1

Introduction to Community Research

‘How to plan your project’


Introduction

This course is designed to give you the tools you need to conduct
community research. During this first unit we will discuss the following:

• What are the benefits to community research?
• What will be the topic of our research?
• Who will I engage with, what will I ask them?


What is a community?

‘A group of people with diverse characteristics who are
linked by social ties, share common perspectives, and
engage in joint action in geographical locations or
settings.’


Class Discussion

What do you think are the benefits to using members of the community
to decide upon, design and carry out a research project?

Working in groups of two or three, see how many benefits you can come
up with.


The benefits of Community Research

Community-engaged research takes place under
real world conditions, which increases the
applicability of its findings to practical
applications that improve human health.


The benefits of Community Research

Meaningful community involvement can also
improve the research process itself, and therefore
the ultimate findings.


Community Research.............
• Helps to develop research questions concerning health issues of
concern to the community

• Help in recruiting participants – people more likely to support
the research and researchers when they understand the purpose
of the research and how the results may affect them

• Improves information gained through community input to
produce appropriate, culturally sensitive, accurate and valid
opinions and information

• Gives greater opportunity to build trust and respect between
organisations and communities. This may lead to a greater
exchange of information where the community itself has a voice


P lanning and

P reparation

P revents

P oor

P erformance


What is my task? How can I prepare for it?

During this phase of Healthwatch, we require members from all
areas of the community to choose a title for their research
project, we encourage you to ‘Buddy’ up with a colleague so you
can share ideas, discuss particular areas you may be interested in.

Using the IT facilities available, spend the next fifteen minutes
brainstorming, searching and generating ideas for your topic.

Example: How easy is it for people to access dentistry services in
Portsmouth?


Who will I engage with?

Now we have started to think about what we might like to
research, we have to start thinking about WHO we would like to
engage with.
Using your preliminary research question as a guide, lets see how
many different community groups we can identify.

Keep in your minds these few pointers:
• How can I ensure I engage with a large cross section of the
community e.g. We want as diverse a sample as possible.

• To make the information gained as diverse as possible, what age
ranges of community members will you be targeting


Time Management & Deadlines

Some questions you may ask yourself during the planning phase
of your research project:

• How will I manage my time effectively?
• What would be the best time of day to engage with my chosen
groups?
• How long will it take to gather my information and resources?
• How long will I spend analysing my Data?
• Do I have a deadline to work to?
• What resources will I need?
• Will you keep a diary specific to this task? This could make your
final report easier to compile.


Unit 1 – Summarising our findings

We should now be able to answer the following questions:

• What is Community Research?
• What are the benefits to community research?
• What will be the topic of my research project?
• Who will I engage with?

After our tea-break we will progress onto Unit 2 – Collecting
Data.


Unit 2

Conducting our Research

‘Collecting Data’


Introduction

In this unit we will look at the following:

• What is Data?
• The Eight Principles of Data Protection
• Methods of Data Collection
• Recruitment of Participants
• How to engage with and recruit community members
• Interviewing Tools and Ideas (Communication)


What is Data?

Data is a collection of facts, such as values or
measurements.
It can be
numbers, words, measurements, observations or
even just opinions and descriptions.

The information / data that we will be collecting
during our research project can placed into two very
different sections:

Qualitative and Quantitative


Qualitative Data
Qualitative data is ‘descriptive’ – It describes
something.
This information is ‘subjective’, it represents the
thoughts and opinions of someone.
Qualitative data can be difficult to interpret, it is
more time consuming to analyse but the results at
the end will be broader and more diverse than just a
quantitative approach.

e.g. Why do you think there are delays in Hospital
Treatment?


Quantitative Data
Quantitative data is numerical information.
It usually relates to facts and figures, compared to
Qualitative data, Quantitative data can be easy to
represent, it can show trends and it can be collected
in a non face to face way e.g. Printed questionnaires.

It could be that you receive a lot of Qualitative
data, and after analysis decide to find out how many
other people feel the same way, this can then be
collected as quantitative data.

e.g. How long did you have to wait for your initial
hospital appointment.


What information do we want?

When gathering information, we only want to ask
specific questions. During our planning phase these
questions need to be generated.

By including too large a range of either questions or
options, the data can easily become difficult to
represent or interpret. Remember your timescales!

Do we want numerical data? Opinions and thoughts?
Numbers or figures? I would suggest you re-visit your
research project aims and pick questions specific to
that area.


Sensitive Information
We will be asking people to provide information
regarding health related issues.

For most people this is a very personal and sensitive
subject, so we will have to be very careful when we
present this.

A community member must ‘trust’ us not to break
this confidentiality and they may have concerns
about who, or where this information is going.

This relationship between you and them must at all
times be build around a mutual understanding.


Data Protection

As we have seen, the information we gather may be
personal and sensitive. We have to adhere to The
Data Protection Act 1998, which is an act of
Parliament which outlines how we should process
personal information from members of society.

This is a good tool to understand, as people may have
questions surrounding who will see their
information, you can put people at ease by
mentioning this. This will also help you build rapport
with your audience.


The Data Protection Act 1998

…is a piece of national legislation that…
governs how information about us is held.


Holding Personal Data

1 Personal data must be processed fairly and lawfully

Personal data must be obtained for specified and
2 lawful purposes

Personal data must be adequate, relevant and
3 not excessive

4 Personal data must be accurate and up to date


Holding Personal Data

5 Personal data must not be kept any longer than is necessary

Personal data must be processed in accordance
6 with the right of the individual

7 Personal data must be kept securely

Personal data must not be transferred out of the
8 country without adequate protection


Methodology – How will I collect my Data

This is one of most important aspects of your
planning phase. HOW you are going to collect your
Data will depend on your chosen topic.

Group Exercise – How many different ways of
gathering / collecting information can you identify in
your groups?


Data Collection

Questionnaires – Are a good source of both
qualitative & quantitative data

Surveys – If conducted with random members of the
public, pay attention to time constraints – It may be
beneficial to use these to gather quantitative data

Focus Groups – These are a fantastic way to
network, build relationships with the community and
are an excellent source of qualitative data. These can
cover perceptions, beliefs, opinions and attitudes
towards a topic.


Data Collection

Reports – It could be that you are conducting some
research yourself, or existing data is available to
you, if so how will you relate this to your research
question / topic?

Social Media – Have you considered Chat
Rooms, Facebook Pages (Excellent and Free), Blogs or
even Twitter?

Remember: The questions you ask will invoke an
answer from your participant, try to be impartial
when designing these, as you may inadvertently skew
the result in a particular direction


Recruitment of participants & accessibility

How will you go about recruiting people to take
part in your project?

When will your target audience be
available, what are the age ranges, what would
be an appropriate method based on their
demographic?

Working in your same groups see how many
ways you can come up with


Recruitment of participants

Historic studies show that the reason community
engagement works is because the community feel
their voice is being heard and that they can see
the results around them.

Taking the time to explain the benefits of
Healthwatch or why you have chosen the
topic, will interest the participant.

Will there be some form of incentive for them to
take part, have a look at the Healthwatch printed
flyer, has this got an incentive for people to show
interest?


Sample size
During the planning phase you will need to decide how many people
you will engage with.

A Census is where you ask everyone in a particular group to take
part e.g. You go to a local church group and ask every attendee to fill
out a survey. While this approach will produce the most Data, you
have to think about practical issues, timescales, likelihood of
participation.

A Sample, differed as it is a pre-defined amount, e.g. I will aim to
engage with 1/5 people, or 20% of a particular group. This may be
more achievable.

Remember: The larger the sample the greater the range of
information. Have we seen this on TV adverts recently?


Interviewing Tips

When engaging with people, we can use a number of
different techniques to encourage the interview /
conversation to flow.

Although basic these ‘tools’ will help you put your target
audience at ease, help you gain the best quality data
possible and hopefully leave a positive and lasting
impression upon the people you engage with.


Two Way Communication

SENDER

ENCODES THOUGHTS

SENDER SENDS

RECEIVER RECEIVES

RECEIVER DECODES


Interviewing Tips
When planning our questions for our project, we will need to look
at the type of question we are asking.
Using a mixture of ‘Open’ and ‘Closed’ Questions:

Open – “Why do you think it was difficult to get an appointment”

Closed – “Did you get an appointment easily”
As you can see ‘open’ questions invoke a response from the
subject that is unique to them, this leads to a flow of
information, this is very much qualitative data.

Closed questions usually lead to a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ situation, which is
good if you want specific information, quantitative.


Interviewing Tips
People are encouraged when they feel they are being listened to
or understood, these techniques really help the interview to
flow, putting the subject at ease.

Active Listening – Showing the subject you understand by the use
of NVC’s, Gestures and prompts.

Starter Questions – Can you prompt the subject into a new line of
questioning? Or can you ask them to elaborate on information
provided so you can gain more detail?

Paraphrasing – You repeat back certain key points to show your
understanding.
Remember to thank them afterwards for their time


Diverse customer needs
Keep in mind that all customers:
• are individuals
• have differing needs and expectations
• may be from different countries, religions & age groups

Personal values are formed as you grow up and are
affected by:
• Birthplace
• Where you live
• Upbringing
• Friends
• Family


Rapport Building and Networking
Rapport – This is then two or more people connect with each
other, they feel they are on the same wavelength.

Techniques to build Rapport:
Mirroring – You match either their tone of voice, body language
(positioning, the way they are sat, eye contact)

Empathy – Understanding something from another’s point of view
(understanding, not necessarily agreeing)

In order to cultivate lasting relationships you will need use as
many techniques as possible.
Will you offer to feedback information to them / update them?


Interview task

Working as individuals I would like you to come up with five
questions which may or may not be centred around your research
question. I would like you to include four ‘closed’ questions and a
final ‘open’ question.

Working your way around the room, please interview the other
candidates. We will reflect on our findings afterwards.

Remember: Tone of
voice, positioning, engagement, rapport, paraphrasing, prompting,
active listening and please thank your participant.


Unit 3

‘Presenting our Findings’


Writing the Final Report

We have looked at WHO we will be engaging with, we then looked
at HOW we will go about accessing that information.

Now we need to look at WHAT our findings are.

When we are presenting our final report, we always have to have
our research question in the forefront of our minds.



What audience will be viewing our information? How can we
make it accessible to all?

In what way can we present our information.

Working in groups, see if you can come up with five different ways
of presenting our information


The University of Portsmouth has produced a fantastic pro-forma
for you to structure your final report on.

This is a chance for you to bring everything together and present
your findings.

How you choose to represent your information is your own
decision, however you may wish to follow the flow that the
template outlines.

Will you use text? Charts (Pie, Bar, Line)? Data Sheets?


Understanding our results is very important, did we answer our
research question?

What decisions did you make along the way, how did this help /
hinder your project?

Do we need a larger sample? Could this study be mimicked in
other areas.

Critical Analysis – What went well, what didn’t. Did you encounter
any barriers along the way, how did you overcome them.


Presenting our findings

We would love for you to come back in a month’s time to present
your findings.

This half a day session will bring all our projects together, you will
have an opportunity to present or share your thoughts and
findings. I will be available to give any assistance you may need in
concluding your report.

We will promote feedback, which will flow to Healthwatch and
Portsmouth City Council, as this is a pilot scheme you may be
contributing to moulding an entire new way of promoting
Healthwatch in the community.


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