7. Linking Research and Practice - IV
Research task
Focus Groups with Service Providers
Mujer Sana/Comunidad Sana also targeted interventions at removing barriers to access in health and service organizations. To understand these barriers better from the point of view of the agencies themselves, two focus groups were conducted with service providers in the summer of 2001 at the outset of the project. Several members of LAZO (who later on became Lay Health Promoters/Participatory Researchers) helped to develop the focus group questions; and acted as recorders during the focus group discussions. The focus groups discussions were taped and transcribed. LAZO members, two co-investigators, and a doctoral student in the summer internship nursing program of the University of Ottawa, jointly worked on the analysis of the focus group findings. Selected focus group findings are reported in the key findings section.
CCHC Case study
The Centretown Community Health Centre was not only an administrative partner in the Mujer Sana/Project; it was also where the project offices were located, where many activities took place, and the site for a 'case study'. The focus of the case study was to understand whether and how a community health centre might be changing as a result of participating as a partner in the implementation of this kind of community-based, participatory, action-seeking demonstration project. We expected changes such as increased staff awareness about issues facing minority women when accessing health services; greater staff representation from ethnocultural communities; and more information and contacts between staff and the Hispanic community.
CCHC policy documents were reviewed. Project investigators and doctoral students from the summer internship nursing program of the University of Ottawa interviewed selected staff. A staff survey was conducted in February 2002 and repeated a year later. The views of the LHPs were captured through their practice logs and were incorporated. Some of the key findings are reported as part of the case study.
Project evaluation
In addition to the ongoing evaluation, and the information collected throughout the project, we also undertook a final project evaluation. Please see key findings. We used a number of methods to collect evaluation data. Some of these are outlined below.
