Monday, April 19, 2010

Our Presentation is Finally Over

Woohoo...the research conference was this past Friday. Thank goodness that is over with. I really can't believe it's finally over. And guess what?!?! We made a 94 on our presentation. (and I get to replace my lowest test grade with that -- which was much lower) Now we need to finalize the proposal. Have put it out there for peer review, so just waiting to get some feedback on that. OMG....I can't believe we're almost done with this research class.

Let me tell you about the results that we analyzed for the student research conference....We thought that younger people would be more likely to use Web 2.0 than older people - Wrong! In our sample, age was not a factor that influenced people's use of Web 2.0 for healthcare reasons. People of all ages are using the internet and Web 2.0 tools this day & age. Like I have mentioned before, 2 of my grandparents use Facebook, as well as younger members of my family (my cousin Sam is on FB and she just turned 10!) We thought that women would be more likely to use Web 2.0 than men - Wrong! Once again, gender was not a factor that influenced people's use of Web 2.0 for healthcare reasons. We thought that higher income individuals would use Web 2.0 more than lower income individuals - Wrong again! Now that the internet and Web 2.0 tools are so readily available to all, income is not an issue when it comes to people's use of Web 2.0 for healthcare reasons. Even if you don't have the internet at home, public facilities (including libraries) are available so even the poorest of folks can use the web. We thought that better educated and whites would use Web 2.0 more than less educated and minorities - wrong and wrong! There is no correlation between any of the factors that we studied and the use of web 2.0 for healthcare reasons. Therefore, there must be other reasons that people use Web 2.0 for healthcare reasons. Those other reasons should be determined and studied so that we as nurses can do our part to educate our patients on ways they can be involved in their healthcare!

Monday, April 12, 2010

The end is in sight.....

The end of the semester is near. I feel like I have so much to do. I have been trying to find different places around Milledgeville to put up flyers announcing the survey. The research conference is this Friday. I also have to be student moderator for part of the day, but that shouldn't be too bad. I have to work Thursday, but I will be off until then. Sonja and I are meeting every day this week until we are finished. It's getting pretty busy around here, but I will try to keep you posted.