A Dissertation in 60 Days?

I have now conducted three of my key informant interviews.  I am so thrilled to have real data.  Lee Strunin and Barbara Bokhour (my qualitative methods professors) would be very proud of me as I am diligently taking detailed field notes after every interview and have begun my transcription.  On Thursday, I had my first interview at 11 and my second at 3:30.  I managed to start transcribing the first interview before the second, and I was so glad I did!  My incessant use of verbal cues (“okay,” “right”) makes transcription a big pain in the butt, so I tried to use more nodding and smiling in my second and third interviews.  Do I really need to transcribe every “Mm hmm”?

People have been so generous with their time.  My first interview went a full hour and then the interviewee took me to her office and loaded me up with all kinds of useful documents.  My second interview lasted an hour and 20 minutes…20 minutes past closing time.  And I was afraid that it would be difficult getting people to talk!  My first interview transcript is 16 pages single spaced!

I had to do my third interview this afternoon without Elena since she was coordinating logistics for next week’s focus groups at the hospitals.  I realized that a hidden benefit of having a second person present is that it’s a lot easier to break eye contact with your interviewee when a second person is present for the interviewee to talk to.  I found it rather awkward to break eye contact to look at my interview guide, so had to rely on memory more than I wanted.  I covered all the major points and I think it went well, but I think it flowed a bit smoother with Elena present.

Her visits to the hospitals were certainly well worth it though.  I’ve now got 3 focus groups scheduled firmly, and one that is scheduled, but questionable.  Getting Elena to work with me was certainly one of the best moves I could have made!