Journal Entries
Please explore my Athabasca University: MAIS 640 journal entries below.
Journal 1: Thinking About My Grounded Theory Project
As I began my journey in the MAIS 640 course as my chosen elective for my Masters in Health Studies I began to realize I must be an unlikely student to take the MAIS 640: Grounded Theory, Exploration, and Beyond course, however I am grateful I found this course as an elective option for my Masters in Health Studies at Athabasca University. I do not come from an educational background flourishing in research studies. I hold limited experience in conducting research in comparison perhaps to other master’s students who may have chosen a research focused major. Having only a small background in research left me excited to pursue a research course and broaden my knowledge and understanding of research studies. I am thoroughly enjoying the learning process thus far as my understanding of grounded theory has developed throughout stage one of this course.
In unit one I was introduced to the concept of grounded theory for the fist time in my academic career. I have no prior exposure to grounded theory, which left me excited for what was about to come my way this semester. I knew early on in unit one, when I began thinking of topics for my grounded theory research project, that I would like to use grounded theory in the realm of healthcare for my research project. Given my background in healthcare I knew choosing a topic that relates to my current and previous career endeavors would leave me excited to conduct research and explore online forums searching for information for this project. As I began exploring unit two I could feel my understanding of grounded theory begin to deepen, although I did not feel confident I had a complete grasp on the topic at this point. It will probably take more time before I am confident in my understanding of grounded theory and I reminded myself to be patience with the process. I then began to appreciate the importance of grounded theory in research and its place within the research discipline. During the unit two readings I was able to grasp an understanding of “rich data”. With rich data the researcher is getting a clearer, more complete picture of the research participant (Charmaz, 2014), which I feel is important to the overall research being conducted and the story the research will tell.
As I progressed into unit three I began to discover memo writing. After finishing the unit three readings I realized that I have been using memo writing in my studies for a number of years at this point in my post-secondary academic career. I feel memo writing comes naturally to me and I am hoping to easily transition my previous style of memo writing and utilize this in my grounded theory research project. The final unit of stage one, unit four, left me thinking to myself, maybe I am an explorer after all. I had not given much thought to myself as an explorer up until this point of stage one in the course, however I do find it hard to separate work and personal life and often have ideas pop into my head at any given time, day or night, pertaining to my work and exploration.
For my grounded theory research topic I initially tossed around the idea of focusing my research on respiratory therapy patients, given my career experience as a respiratory therapist, specifically respiratory patient care, as I work with respiratory patients on a daily basis and knew this topic would be one of interest to me. My main concern when choosing a research topic is, will I become bored of the topic? Will I enjoy conducting the research? Especially with the manner of grounded theory researchers being so involved with the research and it’s participants I wanted to ensure I would not grow bored of my topic over time. With further digging and reflecting on what will truly keep me interested for the duration of my research project I came to the conclusion I would focus on healthcare staff, specifically the effects on care staff associated with the understaffing crisis, which is ongoing in healthcare today. It can be said that we are in the era of “The Great Resignation” which peaks my interest. Often we focus on the patient data base and fail to give attention to the staff that are working tirelessly to ensure patients are being taken care of to the best of their abilities. The understaffing issue leads to increased turnover rates which in return increases the ongoing short staffing issues in our healthcare facilities, an ongoing cycle that needs to be disrupted if we want to deliver safe, high quality patient care. Diving deeper into online forums, such as Reddit, where healthcare staff feel empowered to post their true feelings and opinions on how they are feeling about their current or past work experiences. Forums such as Reddit provide a safe space for healthcare workers to express feelings and concerns regarding staffing shortages as they can hide behind an online alias without the worry of employers becoming upset. I aim to collect the majority of my research from online forums such as Reddit as it should provide rich data.
I intend to use memo writing to track my notes in hopes that codes emerge as I conduct my grounded theory research. As stated by Charmaz (2014) memo-writing is an important intermediate step between the data collection process and draft writing process of research papers. Memo-writing constitutes a crucial method in grounded theory due to it prompting you to analyze your data as you collect it, leading to codes developing early in the research process (Charmaz, p. 162, 2014). I plan to utilize memo-writing as thoughts ‘pop’ into my head throughout the day and night, as often thoughts tend to do from my experience. Memo-writing will allow me to filter through all the gathered information and keep track of key points and discoveries during my research. I anticipate there will be a lot of online resources regarding my topic and memo-writing will allow me to keep track of the important information, keeping my research organized and simplified. Grounded theory forces me to think ‘outside of the box’ in comparison to my previous research experience, which is limited. I believe conducting grounded theory research will promote personal growth, while I pay close attention not to fall back into my old ways of conducting research.
I aim to collect rich data during the data collection phase of my research. According to Charmaz (2014) people construct data – whether it be researchers generating first-hand data through interviews or field notes or gathering documents and information from other sources such as historical texts, government records, or organizational information compiled for private discussion or public dissemination (p. 29). Personally I intend for the majority of research to be collected from online sources such as private discussion and public dissemination. The data I have collected thus far has come from online forum such as Reddit. I find this type of online data collection provides the rawest source of data, usually full of emotions from the individuals posting online. Online forums often leave people feeling free to speak on how they really are feeling about a certain issue, especially if they are hiding behind an online alias it can leave the individual feeling more comfortable speaking their truth. I feel my research regarding understaffing issues in healthcare will be meaningful as I bring together a large amount of data found mainly among online forums into one common space, which will become my grounded theory research project. I feel people are aware there are staffing shortages around the world in many different areas, not just within healthcare. In researching this topic I am hoping to bring further light to the issues surrounding staffing shortages in healthcare and the real reasons why individuals are choosing to leave healthcare altogether and pursue different careers. My research aim will be to collect information where healthcare workers are sharing their real life, authentic stories and experiences in their own words regarding healthcare staffing shortages. I am hoping this approach to research will allow for rich data to be collected.
As a whole stage one of MAIS 640 has left me feeling excited for stage two and starting to become more confident in my ability to tackle my grounded theory research project. During the beginning phases of stage one I began to worry if I would continue to struggle with increasing my understanding of the concept of grounded theory throughout the course and struggle to settle on a research topic that I would be interested in and be able to conduct grounded research on. Over time the concept of grounded theory became increasingly clear and I was able to apply it to the research collection phase of my research project for the course. I anticipate that my grounded theory understanding will continue to strength and deepen throughout stage two of the course and onward which leaves me excited when looking forward to the remainder of the MAIS 640 course work.
References
Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Sage.
As my MAIS 640: Grounded Theory, Exploration, and Beyond journey continues on and my learning deepens I begin to feel as though I do belong in this course. As I re-read my first journal entry completed earlier on in the course I remember how I felt like an unlikely student to partake in the MAIS 640 course as I am a Health Studies major. I am thankful I stuck with this elective and decided to broaden my knowledge horizons. I am enjoying the learning I am experiencing as I continue on with stage two of the course.
My data collection stage has been going smoothly thus far, with an abundance of data being available, which I am thankful for. From previous research I have completed in my post secondary education I have not always been so fortunate to find good data sources related to my chosen topic. I purposefully chose to research from the nurse’s point of view on staffing shortages at hospitals instead of from the respiratory therapist’s point of view due to the limited data available from the respiratory therapist point of view. As a practicing respiratory therapist I would have loved to research from my own professions point of view but given the limited available data this was not an option. I began my data collection primarily using Reddit as there is an abundance of information available on this site from the nurse’s point of view regarding staffing shortages at hospitals. From there I expanded my data collection to include YouTube and Twitter as there is an abundance of information on these web sources on my given topic. I intend to dive deeper into blog posts before concluding my data collection. Thus far my data collection has been focused on online sources and forums such as Reddit, YouTube, and Twitter to find news releases and personal opinions from front line Nurses on my chosen topic, the effect of understaffed hospitals on its nursing staff from the nurse’s point of view. I acknowledge that I could have conducted my own research study given that I do work at two different hospitals with many nurses on staff, however I felt at this time it was best for me to find raw data from differing online sources. It does however interest me how the nurses I work alongside feel regarding the understaffing issues at the hospital we both work at, as they are often if not always dealing with a larger case load than they should be during their shifts. I have found it very useful to find research from the government’s point of view versus the nurses point of view on this topic, as they are not always aligned, which I expected prior to researching this topic.
In Stage Two: Doing Grounded Theory, I began to dive deeper into the collection of research data pertaining to my grounded theory research topic “the effect of understaffed hospitals on its nursing staff from the nurse’s point of view.” My goal for stage two of the course is to begin to reveal a theory in relation to the raw data I am collecting for the research project. Initially I thought revealing a theory would be simple, although I am learning through the course readings that it may be more time consuming than I originally anticipated. My plan for the next phase in my research is to move from raw data and the process of analyzing the data to come up with a theory. I need to fully understand the definition of theory before attempting to create my own theory based on the research I have collected for my grounded theory project. In the Charmaz (2014) course readings there is a simple quote that easily defines a theory, “a theory states relationships between abstract concepts and may aim for either explanation or understanding.” (Thornberg & Charmaz, 2012 p. 41) Once reading this definition of theory it began to click to me what theories may look like regarding my chosen research topic. I instantly began brainstorming possible theories that may emerge given the raw data I have collected thus far. As I continued on reading chapter nine of Charmaz (2014) it states theories try to answer questions. Theories offer accounts for what happens, how it ensues, and may aim to account for why it happened (p. 228). This quote from Charmaz (2014) gave me a direction to base my grounded theory project theory on. If I am able to answer the questions on what happens, how it ensues, and why it happened, I may be able to develop a theory working forward from there. Personally it is helpful when I am given direction or a list of questions to answer in order to reach the end product of a project. This quote from Charmaz will aid me in developing my theory.
The reason I have chosen to research the effect of understaffed hospitals on its nursing staff from the nurse’s point of view is because I feel there are so many opinions on the staffing shortage crisis online, and unless these opinions come from creditable sources or from individuals directly involved, they should be taken lightly. People on the internet enjoy jumping to conclusions quickly and posting about these conclusions online. I feel the story should be told from the nurse’s point of view, as they are the ones living it day in and day out. For myself personally I am not a nurse, I am a respiratory therapist. As respiratory therapists we often work short staffed, and often alone covering the hospital, in addition to this we work a lot of overtime hours to ensure the hospital is given 24/7 respiratory coverage. The reason I have chosen to conduct research from the nurse’s point of view is because there is not a lot of data from the respiratory therapists point of view readily available. I feel what I conclude in my research among short staff nurses can be applied to other healthcare professions also experiencing staffing shortages across the country. There are multiple factors affecting the nurse’s shortages across the country and I plan to dive deeper into these factors while conducting my research online. As I progress through my resources and begin diving deeper into my findings a common theme has emerged from the early stages of my research, the nurses are frustrated with hospital decisions to be understaffed.
My main concern with my chosen research paper topic is, will there be enough varying information for me to write about to meet the length requirements? It appears a lot of the information is repetitive and leaning in the same directions. This may make it easy for themes to emerge, on a positive note. My concern is will I be repeating myself throughout my paper and struggle to keep the audience reading my paper engaged. My initial focus when collecting data is to work on coding, which I had never used before consciously when researching. “Grounded theory coding requires us to stop and ask analytic questions of the data we have gathered.” (Charmaz, 2014) I re read Charmaz (2014) chapter nine and was able to have the information click more completely versus the first time reading through the chapter. I began to realize more clearly what was expected of me to complete coding effectively and how proper coding will aid me in developing a theory for my work. Through the years of research I have conducted I have been coding without actively realizing I was coding, to a certain degree. Coding has shown to be greatly beneficial to myself during the information gathering phase of my research. Coding has allowed me to pause and think deeper about the information I am collecting, not just taking it at face value. Charmaz (2014) states that coding means categorizing data with a short name that summarizes and accounts for each piece of data. Your codes show how you select, separate, and sort data. I have been aiming to code my data in such a way that makes the abundance of data easy to identify and sort based on different codes. Coding has made the research process much smoother and organized. I am also utilizing coding to help me discover themes within my collected data.
As a whole stage two of MAIS 640 has left me feeling excited for stage three, the final stage of the course. I am continuing to feel more confident in my ability to complete my grounded theory research project and develop a theory based on my research. During the beginning phases of stage two I began to worry if I would be able to complete my grounded theory research project properly. Although this is still a worry for me, I am beginning to feel more confident in my abilities to properly complete the assignment. Over time the concept of grounded theory continues to become clearer and I am able to apply newly acquired knowledge to my research project. I feel confident entering into phase three of the course, which leaves me excited when looking forward to the remainder of the MAIS 640 course work.
References
Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Sage.
Thornberg, R. and Charmaz, K. (2012) Grounded Theory. Qualitative research: An introduction
to methods and designs (pp. 41–67). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Journal 3: Writing my Grounded Theory
As my MAIS 640: Grounded Theory, Exploration, and Beyond journey comes to an end my learning took a brief pause, and now continues to deepen once again. As I re-read my first and second e-journal entries completed earlier on in the course I remember the feelings of being an unlikely student to partake in the MAIS 640 course, as I am a Health Studies major. I come from a background undergraduate studies in heath science, and prior to that a diploma in respiratory therapy. There are still moments while completing the course work where I think, what am I doing? Can I complete this course effectively? I have my moments of doubt. In conclusion to those thoughts I am thankful I stuck with this elective and decided to broaden my knowledge regarding research, specifically grounded theory research. I am enjoying learning and pushing myself outside of my comfort zone as I continue with the final stage of the course.
As I wrap up my data collection phase in conducting my grounded theory research project and transition into the phase of writing my grounded theory project I feel the immense amount of work required to conduct and prepare a grounded theory research paper. It is out of my comfort zone, however I am choosing to embrace the challenges as they come. The stage three readings have proven to be immensely helpful in growing my understanding in what is expected from a scholarly level grounded theory research report. I do not come from a background in grounded theory research, as I have mentioned prior, and I suspect other classmates on this journey with me do not as well. This course has therefore taken more time and patience for me to grasp what is expected of me in my final report versus my masters focus classes. I feel most comfortable learning within science and or healthcare courses, however broadening my knowledge horizons has been an enjoyable process thus far.
When reading the stage three study guide in preparation for writing my research report it states “just as grounded theory offers a flexible approach to research, it also allows for multiple approaches to reporting.” (Athabasca University, 2017) This leaves me worrisome as I excel best in writing reports when there is a specific template to follow. This does leave me excited to explore different options for conducting my report write up. Knowing the goal of the research paper is to convey how the research was conducted, what was discovered or concluded, and why the reader should trust the conclusions in the paper (Athabasca University, 2017) is helpful in starting to write up my research paper report.
In reading Stebbins (2001) I have acquired valuable knowledge regarding my approach to writing my grounded theory research project. I learned that it will be best to approach my writing from a present tense point of view versus past tense. According to Stebbins (2001) reporting exploratory research is best done using the present tense (p.47). This came as a surprise to me, as without reading this chapter from Stebbins I would have wrote my research paper in past tense format. Continuing reading Stebbins (2001) chapter four I became aware of the issues surrounding validity and reliability. I began to brainstorm ways in which I can ensure my research paper can be viewed as reliable and valid to my readers. I will aim to do so by; removing reactive effects of observer’s presence, avoid distorting effects, and remove limitations of observer’s ability to witness all aspects (Stebbins, p. 48, 2001). Additionally I was also made aware by Stebbins (2001) that using numerical data to summarize findings is not ideal. It is recommended with exploratory research reports conclude findings such as “about half” or “substantial majority” terms be used in place of numerical data conclusions (Stebbins, p. 46, 2001). The majority of data I have collected is regarding individual nurses posting to online forums about their personal feelings towards the understaffing issues in hospitals. Often times the nurses posting online are staying anonymous to prevent employers or co-workers from reading their online posts. In reading Stebbins (2001) it was stated that it is more important to write about the concepts I have concluded from my research, not to write about the individual people. This was important literature as I was previously focusing on the nurse’s point of view specifically and not at the concept as a whole.
As I begin to draft a rough copy of my grounded theory research I am struggling to put into words the data I have collected regarding my research topic, hospital staffing shortages affects on nursing staff. This may be due to the abundance of similar data and my lack of experience conducting and reporting on grounded theory research. As I struggle through drafting my report I am choosing to embrace the unknowns and uncertainties and learning while I draft, edit, and re draft my final project. Sorting my memos from the data collection phase and filtering through the abundance of information has proven to be time consuming. As I sort through my memo’s I am thankful I conducted memo writing while gathering my research data for my final project. It has proven to be time saving and effective in the writing of my final project. Charmaz (2014) states researchers draw on the flexibility of grounded theory without transforming it into rigid prescriptions concerning data collection, analysis, theoretical leanings, and epistemological positions (p. 320). My research experience with reporting research findings generally includes the above listed positions such as data collection and analysis, therefore switching my mindset to grounded theory research reporting styles has been my main focus to ensure I stay on topic and meet the requirements of a grounded theory research report. Charmaz (2014) chapter eleven notes became helpful in my writing process. Charmaz (2014) speaks on analyzing the background of your analysis for cultural context, historical antecedents, organizational climate, and emotional ambiance (p. 314). Analyzing the mentioned areas will be useful in my research and writing as the cultural context of nurses may produce differing data, as well as the organizational climate, which may change from hospital to hospital. This will aid in promoting my analysis to a deeper level.
As a whole the MAIS 640 course and stage three of the course has left me feeling prepared to a certain degree to finish my final project and the course on a positive note. I am continuing to feel more confident in my ability to complete my grounded theory research project, although there are good days and bad days. During the beginning phases of stage three I began to worry if I would be able to complete my grounded theory research project to a level that is expected of a graduate student and on time for completion of the course. The new fall semester has started and I have become overwhelmed with time management and completing the writing process of my grounded theory report with the high demands of my other master’s course in addition to my full time and often overtime employment hours. The time spent reading and studying the concept of grounded theory has aided in my understanding and confidence as I finish this course. The stage three readings specifically have aided in increasing my self confidence in completing my grounded theory research project to a level I feel is acceptable. I am excited to see where my role in healthcare research may take me in future career endeavors and future studies.
References
Athabasca University. (2017). Grounded Theory, Exploration, and Beyond: Stage III Study Guide: Commentary.
[Course Notes]. Athabasca University.
Charmaz, Kathy. (2014). Constructing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Sage. External tool.
Stebbins, R. A. (2001). Exploratory research in the Social Sciences (Ser. 48). Sage Publications.