It’s been very humid and hot in Tokyo.
I started conducting my preliminary fieldwork. This week I was allowed to make observations in seven medical consultations and take notes. In each, a doctor, a nurse, a patient and the patient’s family were there. The doctor introduced me to the patients; it was an opportunity for the patients to understand who I am and what I am studying. I also had a great opportunity to meet several doctors who are likely to participate in my research. I am really grateful for that.
Initially, I had planned to observe two different kinds of settings. One is a physician home visit, and my observations of the home visit have been going very well. The other one is care homes for older patients, which turned out to be a very different setting than I expected in terms of the interactions between the residents and the professionals.
Some healthcare professionals gave me advice, telling me that I might need to focus on a physician home visit setting. Home visits can be a type of social situation involving multiple people, such as a doctor, a nurse, a patient and the patient’s family members for most of the cases. In addition, doctors who are willing to go for home visits to patients’ houses are highly likely to have an interest in patient-centred styles.
My achievements in Week 32
- started networking with professionals and made observations in seven consultations
Goals for Week 33
- complete the translations of consent forms
- complete my field notes from the first observations