university of california, san francisco school of medicine Focus Groups For Educational Research and Evaluation School of Medicine Educational Skills Workshop Arianne Teherani, PhD Bridget O’Brien, PhD

school of medicine Overview Use in educational research & evaluation Benefits and limitations How to design a focus group protocol How to run a focus group & collect data Today we will cover the following aspects of focus groups:

university of california, san francisco school of medicine Qualitative Research Research about lives, behavior, organizational functioning, interactional relationships  Exploratory  Open-ended  Data = Words

university of california, san francisco school of medicine Qualitative Research Questions What are the qualities of an ideal mentor? How are the professional identities of students shaped during clerkship X? How does participation in a teamwork & communication skills curriculum improve small group process in Year 1 of medical school?

university of california, san francisco school of medicine Data Collection Decisions Methods Types of Data Focus groups Interviews Open ended prompts Observations Collect Artifacts How Interactive? Researcher’s Role? Audio Recording Notes Transcripts Written response Typed response Notes Video Documents Photos / Visual Video

university of california, san francisco school of medicine Focus Groups are: Moderated group interviews Concentrated data on topic of interest in short time span Insight into group interactions on topic (compared to interviews) Topic easy for participants to discuss in group

university of california, san francisco school of medicine Uses To understand phenomena To contribute to a needs assessment To generate hypotheses To develop items for a questionnaire To facilitate interpretation of quantitative data

university of california, san francisco school of medicine Considerations Scope of topic Group size Group membership and sampling: –Pre-existing vs. random –Homogeneity vs. heterogeneity –Interaction –Generalizability vs. transferability

university of california, san francisco school of medicine Considerations Location and timing Incentives Moderator –Role –Identity Note taking Audio or Video Recording

university of california, san francisco school of medicine Facilitation Skills Maintain neutral stance Sensitive to –number of agreements & disagreements –non participants / non respondents Notice and pursue opportunities for probing Establish and enforce ground rules

university of california, san francisco school of medicine Note Taking Skills Designated ‘note-taker’ Sociogram of the room Document level of agreement Document group interaction Document non-verbal communication

university of california, san francisco school of medicine Reporting Consensus vs. Comparison Interaction Transferability vs. Generalizability Anonymity Participant Verification Unit of Analysis

university of california, san francisco school of medicine Benefits Identifies issues that are salient to a group Captures the degree of consensus on a topic Captures multiple perspectives and group dynamic on a topic Participants may feel empowered by the opportunity to contribute expertise, participate in decision-making or problem- solving, help find solutions

university of california, san francisco school of medicine Limitations Time and resource intensive Training required Not a substitute for interviews or surveys Fewer opportunities for in depth probing Not necessarily representative of larger population

university of california, san francisco school of medicine Instrument Development  Purpose guides specificity, sequencing, # and types of questions  Open-ended questions  Probe as needed  Advanced decisions on adherence to protocol and time checks

university of california, san francisco school of medicine Activity 1 Small groups Develop 3 focus group questions to address the following research question: “How have furloughs impacted the work of faculty?”

university of california, san francisco school of medicine Activity 2 Select 2-3 focus group questions from activity 1 Conduct a focus group 2 volunteers to take notes

university of california, san francisco school of medicine Summary Focus groups are best used when –Qualitative data is needed –Insight into group interaction is useful –Concentrated data collection on topic is needed –Trained facilitator and note takers are available

university of california, san francisco school of medicine References Barbour, R.S. (2005). Making sense of focus groups. Medical Education, 39(7), Freeman, T. (2006). Best practice in focus group research: Making sense of different views. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 56(5), Gibbs, A. (1997) Focus Groups. Social Research Update. Winter issue. Available at: s/Focus_Groups.pdf Kitzinger, J. Introducing focus groups. BMJ 311, 1995.

university of california, san francisco school of medicine References  Lofland & Lofland. Analyzing social settings.  Rubin, H.J. & Rubin, I.S. (1995). Qualitative interviewing: The art of hearing data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications  Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park: Sage Publications

university of california, san francisco school of medicine Creative Commons License You are free: –to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work –to Remix — to adapt the work Under the following conditions: –Attribution. You must give the original authors credit (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). –Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. –Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one. See for full license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported