The workshops will involve group discussions involving different topics of interest for diabetes management. Seminars will involve speakers in the health care professions. Fundraiser participation as well as task in the community garden will be based on the abilities of the participants. This setting creates four primary stakeholder groups in the study.
Participants:
The participants in the study will be expected to participate in at least 50% of the sessions. They will also be expected to monitor their blood glucose levels and to integrate the new health literacy into their daily lives. Barriers in this group would include failure to participate due to scheduling and other obligations, false information, and difficulties in lifestyle changes (Tress, Tress, & Fry, 2005). In order to combat these barriers, the researcher has scheduled sessions at various times of the day, ensured the participants of their privacy in their reports, and worked with each participant to determine areas of concern for implementing these changes.
Research Staff:
The research staff will consist of the researcher, the data collectors, and the organizing staff. The researcher will oversee all of the data collection and organizing of sessions. Barriers to this could be poor communication between the other staff members and the researcher. The researcher will schedule meetings with other staff members in order to ensure proper communication is taking place. The data collectors must not be bias in their collective methods and the researcher will frequently spot check the data to look for any areas of discrepancy. The organizers must maintain the scheduling as presented to the participants in order to promote attendance.
Community Members:
As much of the funding is anticipated to come from community fundraisers, it is necessary that the community becomes involved in the program. Not only will the community benefit by an improved health status for the vulnerable members of their community, but will also benefit from the goods and services that will be provided through these fundraisers. In order to promote participation and avoid a financial pitfall that could result from minimized participation, the researcher will work within the community to promote the program as a benefit to the entire community.
Expert Speakers:
Tress, Tress, and Fry (2005) explain that having knowledge and integrating knowledge can vary greatly based on the level of expertise that the individual has in the subject. Expert speakers such as medical doctors, dieticians, and nurses will be used to bring knowledge to the participants. However, many experts in the field are not able to speak to a group without either sounding too technical in effort to show their expertise or downplaying the seriousness of the information in effort to not come across as being egotistical. In order to overcome this, the researcher will speak with each expert speaker prior to scheduling their session. It is important that the information be delivered effectively to an audience of uninsured diabetics in order to make certain that they understand the material and how important it is to integrate these changes into their lives.
- Tress, B., Tress, G., & Fry, G. (2005). Defining concepts and the process of knowledge
production in integrative research (pp. 13-26). Springer: Heidelberg, Germany.
