Project Timescale Plan

 

Summary of my Research at the moment

USAGE OF WEB LOGS IN HOSPICE SETTINGS

 

My name is Nothando B Ngwenya, I am a PhD student at Staffordshire University and I am conducting research and hoping to develop studies to explore the different forms of usages of weblogs in hospice settings. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions in my research. I have drawn up a summary of the main objectives and rationale behind my research.

 

Key Questions:

1. How can technology improve the quality of care for patients in palliative settings?
   
2. How effective and efficient can weblogs be in hospice settings?
   
3. In what ways can hospice blogs be used in end of life care e.g. communication, therapeutic writing, management tool etc
   

 

There has been an increase in research on the use of Information Technology to enhance palliative care. Information systems technologies have been built for various reasons within the healthcare industry and these systems could be extended to hospice settings. Some of these could include symptom management, data collecting and therapeutic writing (Kuziemsky, 2004).

The emergence of online communities has seen a rise in the use of blogs. A web log is defined here as "a frequently updated webpage consisting of brief posts presented and archived in reverse-chronological order" (Schiano, Nardi, Gumbrecht and Swartz, 2004) mainly used as an online journal and can contain text, images, and media objects. Different people use them for different purposes mostly linking to things that interest them personally and engaging in conversation. Web logs vary in content as much as they do in use enabling people to manipulate blogs for their personal use. Other sectors (education, journalism, and business) have seen and experienced success in the use of weblogs which could also3 be experienced in palliative care as well whether for the benefit of the patient or the improvement of the service and care offered.

Some uses and benefits predicted on the use of weblogs would be:

• To help patients get more involved with their care and put them in control as palliative care should be person-centred.
  
• Patients, family members, staff and carers can write therapeutically (Pennebaker, 1986) and possible curb emotional isolation and increase social interaction/networking.
  
• The weblogs could be used as a symptom management tool with patients self-reporting pain and staff documenting medication use.
  
• Weblogs can be a source of information for family members and friends where by they can read about the patients' care and treatment process and professionals can post new research.
  
• Weblogs can give access to palliative care, information and support to people in remote/rural communities.
  
• By reading what other carers post/write, web logs could offer a transfer of knowledge between staff.
  

 

Confidentiality of the patients and staff will be observed at all times. All research will be conducted within NHS Ethical guidelines.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this information. Please send any questions, comments or suggestions to Nothando B Ngwenya at Staffordshire University on 01785353742, or email: n.ngwenya@staffs.ac.uk. You can also contact my supervisors Prof Paul Kingston (p.kingston@staffs.ac.uk) and Prof Stella Mills (s.f.mills@staffs.ac.uk). You can view my weblog on http://weblogsastherapy.blogspot.com

Abstract for conference on the 13th of May 2008

Can Weblogs be a Complementary Therapy in Palliative Care?

There is increasing interest and a growing body of literature that connects creative therapies and well-being. Different schools of thought from both the arts and sciences have tried to explain the connection between creative writing and health benefits with many theories being postulated. There is no single theory that convincingly explains why and how creative writing benefits health, but what is important is the effect on patients' health and sense of well-being, whether self-reported or clinically observed. This research is interested in exploring creative writing within the ever-growing technological era in hospice setting. Technological advances have had a huge impact on people's lifestyles, changing the way individuals communicate. There has been an increasing demand on the use of the internet and computer-mediated communication (CMC) for health benefits giving a rise to a new field known as cyber therapy. We have seen the success of computer-mediated communication in different settings within the health service. We have also seen the positive role of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies in palliative care. The imperative question within this research is whether web logs can be used as cyber therapy within the CAM framework in palliative care.

 

Sue Ryder Care Centre for Palliative and End of Life Studies, School of Nursing

PhD Day – Tuesday May 13^th 2008

Venue: Coates Building, A7, University Park Campus, Nottingham

Supervision meeting

Supervision Meeting for Nothando Ngwenya on the 17th of April 2008 at 4:15pm in Paul Kingston’s Office.

Present: PK, NN, SM

1) We had a discussion and gave feedback on the meeting that Stella and I attended at ….. Hospice on the 9th of April 2008. Feedback that we received at …… Hospice is as follows:
· Remove the bold and underlining of text within the information and consent sheet as this gives the impression that some information is more important than other.
· Add the amount of blogging time that will be required of the participants (3 months).
· Change the wording on the mental capacity inclusion of participants, to give them the option to either continue or withdraw
· Inform the participants that the supervisors will have access to the weblogs and might see the content.
· We also implemented a procedure of reporting distressing information or when it is necessary to breach confidentiality
2) We briefly discussed how we would recruit carers as there are limited support activities were I might contact them. We agreed that we would decide that when I start recruiting patients as their carers may be potential participants.
3) The way forward at …….. would be to attend a meeting with the day hospice team and decide on a recruiting strategy.
4) We all are in agreement on recruiting people who might be blogging already, and to include bereaved carers as they are involved in palliative care.
5) We briefly discussed attending the Life before death exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London.
6) We agreed on that I would complete the first draft of Chapter 2 and submit it to Paul whilst Stella works on my Chapter 4 Revisions. To submit Chapter 2 on the 18th of April 2008.
7) Meeting at …….. Hospice will be on Thursday the 24th of April 2008 at 3pm.




Things to do by next meeting
1) Complete the first draft of Chapter 2 of the thesis.
2) Make the necessary changes suggested at …… Hospice and discussed during the meeting.
3) Chase up on appointment dates with …… and ……. Hospices.

Project status

I know its been a while. I am quite happy with the progress of the project. Everything seems to be going well and coming closer to the real research work. At the moment I am working on my literature review. I thought it ight be easier as I had already read some parts but I am really finding it hard to be critical in my analysis. My style of writing is more descriptive and I know I have to be more critical and so I am working on that. The chapter I am doing now is more confusing that the last one. Some parts have a lot of litearure whereas some areas little has been written so far and I am finding it hard to get up to date articles. It doesnt help that the library's journal subscription is very limited and it costs £5 for a dpcument delivery request and sometimes by the time you get the article a lot of time has been wasted. Let me stop complaning because it can be worse, at least I have access to the Keele health library although if only I could have access to their online material.

Well with the project I have just been in celebratory mode since I got ethics approval. Anyway we went to St Giles on Wednesday the 9th to discuss the progress of the project. The meeting went quite well and Peter (CEO) is always ever so helpful and enthusiastic about the whole project its actually motivating. We discussed the information sheet and consent sheet and a few minor changes are required. We still have to meet the other hospices. Katharine House hospice meeting is on the 24th and hopefully Barnsley and Severn will follow soon after so that the project can start rolling.

I have laso had the opportunity to meet with a palliative care consultant Alison, who has been very very helpful and had me thinking of new ideas and given me a better awareness of ethical issues within my research. I will be meeting with her again to discuss further how she can be involved and assist within the project so I have to just keep looking up and up.

Oh yes bad news, my car. As I was driving to work on Monday mmh dodgy cars and mechanics. The wheel on my car was loose and it was coming off. It was just held in place by 2 nuts, I just cant bear to think what might have happened if I hadnt stopped. Anyway listening to my better conscious I stopped to have it checked at a garage by the road and well the guy told me what the problem was and that he would fix it, and bear in mind today is Friday and my car is still in the garage. Yep, its was just a tyre and you wont believe it. I ring the mechanic Monday end of the day and well he informs me that my brake pads need replacing and well I say go ahead coz really I didnt think much of it. I call on Tuesday to ask when I can collect the car only to be told that well, the master cylinder had to be replaced, otherwise the brakes wouldnt work. Okay so this work went on without my knowledge, and what can I say, its not as if I could just go and ick up the car as it was taken apart. I call on Wednesday and guess what, the servo needs to be replaced because the brakes are not responding. What can I say, work went on with my go-ahead again. I call Thursday and yep you guessed it, the brake discs need to be replaced. This time I just thought nonooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, just stop doing anything to the car otherwise by the end of next week I would need to replace the whole thing, and yes you guessed it again my bill £367. I am so upset I am on theverge of depression and I am so skint, coz that was all my rainy day money and more. I could cut a chicken's head off now.
Bye

Supervision meeting

Supervision Meeting for Nothando Ngwenya on the 11th of February 2008 at 10:00am in Paul Kingston’s Office.

Present: PK, NN, SM

1) We had a discussion on the work experience placement. ... hospice in Stoke have a placement programme but are not willing to let me do it as they have a policy against allowing research work / or researchers from having access to their patients. ……..hospice was happy for me to complete a placement in the form of 10days voluntary work. This might be a problem with the ethics committee as they were initially not happy with me doing voluntary work in the hospices.
2) Paul suggested I look into the hospice in Wolverhampton and any other within the geographical boundaries.
3) The LREC committee have so far received 1 letter from the hospice (……………………). I spoke to …..from ….. hospice last week Thursday and she said she would write and post the letter and send us a copy.
4) I have to chase up the other 2 hospices. Paul will call ….. from ……. Hospice and ask for a copy of the letter he sent.
5) I then gave feedback on the Chapter that I am currently working on- (Chapter 3, Web- User interface design).
6) We setup deadlines for the thesis chapters. Chapter 3 that I am currently working on should be submitted to Stella by the end of the week (15/02/08). The second chapter deadline was set for 17th of March 2008.
7) Next meeting will be on Monday 25th of February at 10:30am




Things to do by next meeting
1) Complete the User interface chapter. To be completed by the end of the week (15/02/08).
2) Find another hospice to do the work experience placement.
3) Start working on the second chapter of the Thesis. Deadline is 17th of March 2008.

Supervision meeting

After my last supervision meeing with Stella we discussed the importance of the notes from the meetings. I will start posting the meeting notes so that my supervisors can read if they want to and make amendments. I also know what was decided at the meetings and have a trail of both the meetings and my work
I will have to see how or where I can post them without having too much information or long pages

Update

I know, this whole month I have been working on the document I just posted on teaching the users how to create a blog. I know it has taken a long time even though I merely almost copied and posted Rob's blogging handbook for his MSc students.(JOKES). Well almost but I have managed to cut it down and its ready for use. I am hopeng to get the website prototype done for next week and get on with the testing
Only problem I am having is with the LREC, which is really becoming a bore now and I have no idea what purpose the NHS ethics committe serve.
Anyway back to work. You can view the how to guide and let me know what you think of it

"How to" Guide to creating your blog.

A ‘how to’ Guide to blogging and using Blogger.com

Blogs provide a means of journaling, exploration, story telling, information sharing, and anything you can think of involving text and pictures which can be made accessible to as many people as you want

Blogs can be:

Journals
News
Fiction
Web links
Communities
Work based forums
Personal web space
An online photo gallery

Blogger can be found at www.blogger.com and blogs created using Blogger have the following form of web address www.myblog.blogspot.com.

Let’s start blogging

Open Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape or which ever web software you are using and go to www.blogger.com.

Take a moment to look around the front-page of Blogger. Blogger.com is fairly easy to use and has useful explanations and descriptions. There is an opportunity to get more information on what a blog is. You can also take a quick tour around the website.

Follow the “Create a blog in 3 easy steps” links on the front-page by placing the mouse pointer over the link marked “Create Your Blog Now” and click.

Create an Account

The next page will request you to create an account. You must have an existing e-mail address in order to do this. This account will then enable you to establish as many different blogs as you would like. You can then return to the account to delete blogs, update blogs, or create new blogs.

To create your blogger account, you will have to input your e-mail address, and a password for your account. Just follow the instructions and directions given on the website as they provide precise guidance on creating a blog.

Finally don’t forget to tick any “terms and conditions” box, if you want to read the terms and conditions following the web link.

And click the “Continue” arrow

Note: With the growth in Blog popularity your first choice of username might not be available – do be patient and try variations until you find one that is accepted.

Name your Blog

This where you can think of what you want to call your blog. This can be related to what you will write about, or named after a favourite pet, friend. The name can either be a phrase or one word.
You will then have the opportunity to choose your blog address .This does not have to match the name/ title of your blog although it may make it easier for you and for others to remember the name.
Blogger uses a word verification box to help with security and data entry. The text for the word verification will appear slightly distorted; simply type the letters you see into the word verification box.

Click the “continue” arrow at the bottom of the page and this will lead you to the next and final step.

Note: The web address for your blog may not be available if it is already used by another blog user. As with Step 2 try different combinations of web address for your blog until you find one which is available.

Choose a template

Blogger hosts your blog for you and provides you with options of what you would like your blog to look like with a series of different templates.
You have the opportunity to select from the list a template of your choice. Not only do the templates differ in colour, but also the settings and layout of content is different. Choose your template by placing your mouse pointer over the template name (e.g. minima, minima black, son of moto) and click.

Once you’ve highlighted your choice of template click on the ‘Continue’ arrow, and CONGRATULATIONS, you have created your blog.


Note: You can always change your template later if you decide you don’t like the one you’ve chosen. Once your blogger account is finalised you’ll find that you access to wider choice of templates than the ones you see at this set up stage.

GMS training

I havent blogged for a while, I know I have been so busy with my work.
Well just before Christmas vacation I went to a GMS Training with Nick in Liverpool. This is a tool that will be used for the Prison project. It was quite an intense time but was very interesting as well. It does look like a very useful tool although I think it is a bit too long. I guess for prisoners it isnt that bad, I mean they have all the time to offer for the interview.

The tool is called the Geriatric Mental State (GMS), and is self explanatory really. This schedule assess and records mental state in the elderly. After completing the interviews, the data is input into the AGECAT (The Automated Geriatric Examination for Computer Assited Taxonomy), which groups symptoms into symptom components. These components are further grouped, and these groups are used to derive levels of confidence of diagnosis for each syndrome cluster.
The syndrome clusters represent:
Organic
Schizophrenia and related paranoid states
Mania
Depression
Obsessional Neuroses
Hypochondriasis
Phobic Neuroses
Anxiety Neuroses

This is what I understood so far because we didnt actually use the computer tool. I will try and get hold of Nick at a later stage of his project and see what further analysis is done to the data

First Meeting this year of 2008!!!!!!

Supervision Meeting for Nothando Ngwenya on the 9th of January 2008 at 1pm in Paul Kingston’s Office.

Present: NN, PK, SM

1) I gave an update on the letters that we sent to the hospices requesting general patient population.
2) The LREC wrote a letter to say they had received all the amendments they had requested except for the hospice letters. They will therefore be waiting for the letters from the hospices before they can give a favourable opinion to the ethical application.
3) We discussed the placement opportunities that I was trying to arrange. I will contact both ……..Hospice and …….. to see whether I could do 10days work experience.
4) We then discussed the schedule for the data collection part of the project. Paul advised that I should include some time to go back to the hospices to motivate the participants to keep blogging.
5) I then shared my concern on using a questionnaire for the research. I was mainly concerned about the time I would have to analyse the interview data in order to create the questionnaires for the last part of the data collection section. We reviewed the need of the questionnaire and Stella advised that I could employ both unstructured and structured interview methods. If the first part of the interview is unstructured and the second part is more structured, then I could get both qualitative and quantitative data.
6) I informed my supervisors that I have completed my PgCRM (Postgraduate certificate in Research Methods) which is a requirement for my PhD upgrade.
7) Stella then advised that I start working on the user characteristics for the design of the website to help with the design guidelines.



Things to do by next meeting
1) Follow up on the hospice letters to the LREC committee.
2) Do some research and on user characteristics and develop design guidelines for the website.

Supervision meeting

Supervision Meeting for Nothando Ngwenya on the 11th of December 2007 at 4:30pm in Paul Kingston’s office

Present: NN, SM, PK

1) We discussed the feedback from the NHS LREC. The ethics application was approved subject to a few amendments and clarification on the following information:
· The committee requested that I ask the hospices to send information on their general patient population
· The second consent form could incorporated into the initial consent form
· The participant Information sheet and interview schedule should be rewritten in a more even handed way
· Roles of participants, relatives and staff should be clearly separated
· The poster should indicate the minimum time commitment from the participants – (3 months)
2) I would have to write a letter to the hospices and give them an update on the NHS ethical review outcome, and also to request them to write a letter to the Committee with a description of their general patient population.
3) We briefly discussed the health informatics paper and the feedback we received. Nothing was decided then, Stella advised me to just concentrate on the PhD Literature review at the moment and getting ethical approval.
4) I gave feedback on the Inverness conference, as all went well. It was quite an interesting event and I got some information on research being conducted in the hospice environment.
5) I also discussed the change to the web design for my project. I will no longer be designing a website that hosts the blogs but will design the front page. The website will then have links to the participants’ blogs. Participants will be advised to use blogger.com and will also be taught on how to use the website. This will enable users to continue blogging if they so wished after the end of the project.
6) I will be accompanying Nick to a GMS (Geriatric Mental State) training in Liverpool from the 17th to the 20th of December. Although the tool is not for my project we felt it would be good experience and opportunity to know it for future work.



Things to do by next meeting
1) Work on the issues raised by the North Staffordshire Research Ethics committee, and write to the hospices requesting the required information for the LREC
2) Continue working on the literature review

Supervision meeting

Supervision Meeting for Nothando Ngwenya on the 2nd of November 2007 at 10:00am in Paul Kingston’s Office.

Present: NN, PK,

1) We discussed the feedback from the NHS LREC. The ethics application was not approved for the 2nd time. We again decided to reapply and therefore needed to work on the issues raised by the LREC committee.
2) Paul advised me to contact some people with training and experience in palliative care who can give me support as required by the LREC committee. The people I suggested were:
a. …… from …… Hospice
b. …… from …… Hospice
c. …… from Staffordshire University.
3) I informed Paul that I have decided to cut down the sample size from 90 to 60 participants since the committee were not happy with the distribution of the sample amongst the hospices. Total number of patients would be 20 (5 from each hospice), 20 carers (5 from each hospice), and 20 staff (5 from each hospice). The sample size would still be good as I have the minimum number for a focus group.
4) We reviewed the poster I designed for the Inverness conference and decided to go ahead with the printing




Things to do by next meeting
1) Work on the issues raised by the North Staffordshire Research Ethics committee, and prepare a new application
2) Continue working on the literature review

Project plan

Envisioned Project timeplan
August 2007 - Complete PgCRM and Bath conference paper.
September 2007 - Annual Monitoring form
October 2007 - Lit Review, MREC,and Create Weblog Host site
November 2007 - Lit Review, weblog design and testing
December 2007 - Lit Review
January 2008 - Teach hospice 1 on blog creation and recruit
February 2008 - Teach Hospice 2 on blog creation and recruit
March 2008 - Interview Hospice 1 and Analyse the data, RDC2
April 2008 - Teach Hospice 3 and 4 on blog creation and recruit
May 2008 - Interview Hospice 2 and Analyse the data
June 2008 - Interview Hospice 3 and 4 and Analyse the data
July 2008 - Questionnaires to all hospices and analyse
August 2008 - Weblog content Analysis, Comprehensive analysis
September 2008 - Comparisons and A/L
October 2008 onwards - Write up.

DATA COLLECTION SCHEDULE (BROKEN UP INTO 2WEEKS)
JAN - week 1 - 2 - Recruit in Hospice 1
week 3 - 4, work on recruitment issues in Hospices
FEB - week 1 - 2, Recruit in Hospice 2
week 3- 4, recruit in Hospice 3
March - week 1 - 2, Interviews in Hospice 1
week 3 - 4, Recruit in Hospice 4
APRIL - week 1- 2, Interviews in Hospice 2
week 3 - 4, Interviews in Hospice 3
MAY - week 1- 2, Interviews in Hospice 4
week 3- 4, Questionnaires to all hospices

Busy busy

I have been so busy recently I havent had time to update my blog. Anyway like I said before about the conferences. I attended the conference in Bath and it went well, more than I expected. My presentation was great and lots of people asked questions. Stella came along and so she managed to answer some of the questions. I met some really interesting people and made good contact. I must say althoug the next conference I attend I will make sure to register for the whole time and not just the day I present. I realised that I did not network as much as I only went on the last day and I feel I could have made more contacts if I had gone earlier, which is what I will do next time.
I got so many resources as well, and I will try to submit a paper to the Mortality journal. This will be done a bit later next year as I am concentrating on the ethic approval at the moment. My application had ben rejected twice and I am feeling really low at the moment but I know everything happens for a reason, so we will see how everything works out. I would actually like to continue working with patients but it looks like the committee is not happy about that so I might have to drop them out of the project which will be quite a dissappointment.
Anyway its Friday and its time to go home.
Must remember to talk to Kamran about the website on Tuesday and then that way everything can start moving smoothly once more
Excuse me for any spelling mistakes I really have to go now.
Weekend yeah yeah yeah!!!!!!

Supervision meeting

Supervision Meeting for Nothando Ngwenya on the 18th of September 2007 at 11:00am in Paul Kingston’s Office.

Present: NN, PK, SM

1) I received feedback of an article / paper that I submitted on phenomenology and Grounded Theory methods from Stella, Paul said it would be best to ask Lou to read the paper and offer advice on the content.
2) We then discussed the feedback from the NHS LREC. The ethics application was not approved, and we decided to reapply after attending to the concerns brought up by the committee.
3) We discussed the development of the website to be used for the project. I have to find out where to purchase the URL for the website and what tools I need to create the website. I have spoken to Kamran to get assistance with Content Management Systems creation.
4) The content of the Literature review chapters has not changed but I have asked for an extension on the deadline as I cannot proceed with writing until positive outcome from the ethics committee as I might need to change the project.
5) We reviewed the feedback received from the reviewers of the Health Informatics journal of the paper I had submitted.
6) An abstract I submitted to ‘The Space between’ conference in Inverness has been accepted as a poster presentation. The conference is organised by the Highland Hospice and will explore the use of technology in palliative care

Things to do by next meeting
1) Work on the issues raised by the North Staffordshire Research Ethics committee, and prepare a new application
2) Continue working on the literature review
3) Explore the design and development of the website
4) Design the poster for the Inverness conference
5) Work on the changes and amendments suggested by the Health Informatics Journal reviewers.

Envisioned Project timeplan in August 2007

I am at present waiting for feedback from the LREC and then I will probably rearrange my schedule. The revised project plan is upto date although I should say I am behind by a month on what I had hoped to be doing, but anyway I am hoping that once the ethic part of the research is done away with I can progress at a steady pace. Not much hiccups thankfully. Just need to complete the Bath conference paper and the scotland poster then concentrate on creating the website for the blogs. I was actually hoping the University would be able to host the site and give me a few pages but apparently they are going through changes and no more personal space will be given to employees, so I guess there goes one of my plans. I have to start looking for webiste host packages. Its a bit tiresome but it is still reasonably cheap or should I say affordable. Most of them range from between £60-£120 a year and some offer really good deals

At present this is the outlook of my project plan:

August 2007 - Complete PgCRM and Bath conference paper.
September 2007 - Annual Monitoring form, Lit Review, and Create Weblog Host site
October - teach hospice 1 on blog creation and recruit
November 2007 - Teach Hospice 2 on blog creation and recruit
December 2007 - Teach Hospice 3 and 4 on blog creation and recruit
January 2008 - Interview Hospice 1
February 2008 - Analyse Hospice 1 data
March 2008 - Interview Hospice 2
April 2008 - Analyse Hospice 2 data
May 2008 - Interview Hospice 3 and 4
June 2008 - Analyse Hospice 3 and 4 data
July 2008 - Questionnaires to all hospices and analyse
August 2008 - Weblog content Analysis
September 2008 onwards - Write up.

Conference 1

I am at the moment working on papers to present at 2 conferences. I will be attending the DDD - Dying, Death and Disposal conference in Bath. It is on the social context of Dying, Death and Disposal. 8th International Conference on the Social Context of Death, Dying and Disposal.The paper I am writing is on the use of weblogs in hospices so I am hoping that I will not have to search for too much information as I have papers for my literature review with similar content.It looks like it will be an interesting conference as it is a major multi-disciplinary conference. To see more information on this conference go to their website.
http://www.bath.ac.uk/cdas/news/conferences/
I hope it will be a good event with lots of contacts and good networking

Updated timeplan

Envisioned Project timeplan
July 2007 - Create Weblog Host site
August 2007 - Complete PgCRM and Bath conference paper.
September 2007 - Annual Monitoring form, Lit Review, and teach hospice 1 on blog creation and recruit
October - Teach Hospice 2 on blog creation and recruit
November 2007 - Teach Hospice 3 and 4 on blog creation and recruit
December 2007 - Interview Hospice 1
January 2008 - Analyse Hospice 1 data
February 2008 - Interview Hospice 2
March 2008 - Analyse Hospice 2 data
April 2008 - Interview Hospice 3 and 4
May 2008 - Analyse Hospice 3 and 4 data
June 2008 - Questionnaires to all hospices and analyse
July 2008 - Weblog content Analysis
August 2008 onwards - Write up.

Supervision meeting

Supervision Meeting for Nothando Ngwenya on the 6th of July 2007 at 2:30pm in Paul Kingston’s Office.

Present: NN, PK, SM

1) I submitted an article / paper that I have written on phenomenology and Grounded Theory methods. I have asked the supervisors to analyse my style of writing and offer any advice on how I can improve.
2) We then discussed the user characteristics. Both supervisors advised that since there is no literature on website design for the palliative care setting, I should adapt design principles and characteristics for similar impairments such as:
- Physical disability
- Cognitive disability
- Attention Deficit disorder
- Mental disability
- Mental and physical exhaustion syndrome
3) Paul offered to go through the LREC form over the weekend and make any changes or suggestions before submitting it. LREC meeting is on the 8th of August 2007 with the North Staffs Ethics Committee.
4) University ethics IPR has been approved and the letter of indemnity received.
5) We had a brief discussion on the content outline of the first 4 chapters of the thesis. Necessary changes were made which I will update and consider when I start writing the chapters.
6) We set the deadline for the literature review as mid-September.