Friday 2 May 2014

The End....

I have now completed my project. Having done the write up and all the research to support it has been a massive but a very rewarding task. I have learnt some very valuable skills and techniques from this projet which will no doubt be very helpful in my furture studies and professional career. 

I have faced some challenges throughout the project but I feel that I have been able to come up with reative and effective solutions for them.

All in all, this project has been very enjoyable and I am very happy to have undertaken it as part of my A-level studies.

Tuesday 22 April 2014

Review Presentation

Today I did my presentation for the EPQ project reviewing the various aspects. 
The link is here: http://prezi.com/1vczakzzvv1b/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

I talked about the main motivation for my projet and also about the various pices of primary research I carried out for the project. I focused mainly on primary research because this was the main basis for my report. The use of secondary research was on the minimal side which, I feel made the report more authentic and less prone to any false information.

I also talked about the onclusions I had made and the positives about the project. Finally I outlined my reflections on the project.

The audience consisted of around 7 students, 2 teachers and my EPQ supervisor. One of the teachers is the Medical studies coordinator for our college and therefore was able to ask some challenging questions regarding the project and what I had learnt throughout and then applying this to perhaps new situations.

Overall, I feel like the presentation went well despite the fact that I was overwhelming tired after arriving in the UK just that morning from a week long trip abroad. I was able to communicate well with the audience and I felt they found the topic very interesting. Furthermore, I was able to use Prezi effectively without any guidance or assistance. 

Friday 14 March 2014

Review - March

A lot has happened and at a very fast pace since January. I have finalised the final topic and title for my project. I am going to be writing a report as the final pice which will be looking at the three major factors which affect the healthcare system and the provision of care in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. I have done lots of research and have found very good resources which are from very reliable sources such as the UN and the governement of India.

I have also started and almost finished the write up of my report and am nearing the very final stages of the project. 

The main aim now is to completely finsih off the write up and deliver this to my supervisor. Then the next aim is to start thinking about my review presentation which will come up after the Easter break.
Finally I need to make sure that the doumentation needed for the project is all in order so that I can easily hand it in to my supervisor.

Friday 21 February 2014

Source management

The Microsoft website page was a really good help to find out how to add citations, manage sources and do bibliography entries. Word has a really helpful "Source Manager" in which you can add all the sources that you have used and it automatically creates a placeholder for it so that when you want to do citations and footnotes, so it can easily link up the citations and the sources that you have used.

Here I have added one of the sources that I want to use while writing up my report. 


In the "Current List" box you can see that the program has created a placeholder for the entry.



Also the Bibliography entry has been automatically created for this particular source.



So, now I just need to keep adding the sources that I am going to use. However I need to check with my course supervisor that this is the format the bibliography needs to be in.

Thursday 20 February 2014

Citations, bibliography and managing sources

As I have started writing up my report, I need to learn how to do citations and bibliography in Microsoft Word. So I searched online and found help on the Microsoft help website (http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/mac-word-help/add-or-change-sources-citations-and-bibliographies-HA102929528.aspxwhich clearly goes through the steps to add citations and ways to manage sources. I need to try this out and see if this is what I actually need to do for the OCR EPQ.

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Idea for final piece

I have decided on the final structure for my report which I have attached. This includes roughly the sources I will be using an all the sub headings that I want to use and the different points that I would like to cover in each of the sections and subsequent sub-sections.

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Structure for the report
1)      Introduction
2)      Section 1 – only observations. DO NOT ANALYSE (INITIAL OBSERVATIONS AND FOLLOWING THAT SOME HYPOTHESES AS TO WHAT IS CAUSING THE PROBLEMS)
            a)      Observations from work experience
i)        Intro to the setting
ii)       What kind of stuff I did there
iii)     What I saw
iv)     Additional external factors
            b)      Research results
i)        R Srinivasan report
(1)    planningcommission.gov.in/reports/genrep/bkpap2020/26_bg2020.doc
(2)    planningcommission.nic.in/reports/sereport/ser/vision2025/health.doc
ii)       Health policy book –Ian Crinson
iii)     Asha workers
iv)     UCL report
v)      Miscellaneous websites/sources
(1)    (check the highlighted ones in the bibliography)
3)      Section 2 (CHEKING IF THE HYPOTHESES ARE CORRECT BY USING RESULTS FROM "INVESTIGATION")
             a)      Initial thoughts – what I thought it was like before this research
             b)      Analysis of research from sources
             c)       Draw conclusions from the analysis
4)      Section 3 (revise this order depending on how this section turns out and how the previous section influences it) (DO THE RESULTS CORRELATE WITH THE HYPOTHESES? IF YES THEN TO WHAT EXTENT? IF NO THEN WHY NOT?)
             a)      Why there is a need for change
             b)      List of improvements
i)        While explaining how this would alleviate the problems now being face
ii)       While also stating any counter arguments
             c)       Any major barriers that may be faced during implementation
5)      Conclusion
             a)      Ultimately the importance of healthcare system in India
             b)      The balance between the positives and the negatives (how there are more positives
             c)       How the improvements will change the system for better/ enhance the good already in the system
6)      Appendix
7)      Bibliography
8)      Sources
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Monday 10 February 2014

A book!!

After much searching through libraries and through the internet for a book to include in my research (as the assessment criteria states that candidates must use a wide variety of types of sources in their research for the EPQ), I have found a book that relates to my subject area.

The book is called Health Policy, a critical perspective. It is written by Iain Crinsion who is the leader of sociological research at St. George's University of London

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Dr Crinson’s research focuses on developing a sociological analysis of the decision-making processes associated with the implementation of health policy in the U.K. A particular focus is on impact of the emergence of a ‘Patient 2.0’ and the greater reliance on information technology in the NHS, collaborating with the Information security Group at Royal Holloway, University of London.
 - St George's University of London
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The book is a critical assessment of developments in the health and healthcare policy in the UK and Europe and looks both at the sociological and the political aspect of the situation to offer a holistic view of the healthcare system.

Although the book is not specific to the topic I am doing, the structure and the way it comments on the health care systems is very interesting and has given me some ideas about how I want to structure my report (as I have outlined in a previous post). 

The book is separated into 4 different sections in which the first section is just establishing the facts and the following sections examine and assess each of the facts outlined. This is the basic stricture that I would like to follow in my report.

Through research I have found that the author is very reliable as he is a senior lecturer at St. George's University of London in Health and Health Policy. I will give a full literature review once I have read the book (or at least relevant sections of it).