Something I've been whinging about a lot lately is the lack of sign ups by participants to my studies. I really need to make sure I get enough so I can finish my PhD. Finally in the past two weeks I've had a reasonable amount of people sign up, however...
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I unexpectedly had to stay in hospital for a few days this week (don't worry, I'm almost totally ok now), and I had to get my supervisor to email all my participants to postpone the experiments they'd signed up to. I opened my email later on to find many many emails from participants wishing to reschedule (usually they can just cancel, or if not enough notice is given, take the credit anyway) and also saying they hope I felt better soon, and they were looking forward to participating in the experiment later on. At first (besides thinking it was sweet they were wishing me well) I was a bit irritated, because now I have to reschedule many different timeslots - but then I remembered, I've been praying for more participants, and even though I was sick they still all want to come!
Two more things I'm thankful for - nurses, and family/friends. I already thought nurses had a tough job, but having to stay in hospital for a few days really showed me just how much they do. Even though visiting hours finished, one nurse let Husband stay in the room all night, because she knew I hadn't been in hospital before and was a bit scared/overwhelmed. As I mentioned, I'm also thankful for the family members and friends that came to see me and cheered me up, and especially for Husband. He got time off work so he could just sit with me for hours.
It's times when something bad happens, that you really get the chance to see the good in people, and I'm very thankful for that reminder.
Oh no, I hope everything's okay?? Hospital doesn't sound good! That said, it's great that people are happy to reschedule :)
ReplyDeleteYikes, sorry you had to go into the hospital! Hope you are doing better now.
ReplyDeletePart of my job is running focus groups, including recruiting people for them. I was trying to get people to sign up for a particular focus group that happened this week, and I had to contact 40 different people and only got 2 to sign up. (Probably because we were asking them to talk about something they didn't use -- who's motivated to spend an hour talking about that?) Anyway, of the two, only one showed up, but he was a dedicated soul -- he crashed his bike beforehand and had to go get bandages from a nearby grocery store and still showed up bleeding and sweating. So... hooray for dedicated participants? :)
Wow, now that is dedicated! I think although that may have been less than hoped, it is better to have 1 person who really cares and participates properly, than unmotivated people who aren't all that helpful!
DeleteOh no! I hope you're okay and everything is alright. Hospitals can be very scary. And lonely. But it sounds like you have an awesome husband and family and friends to help with the lonely part.
ReplyDeleteI hope you're feeling better! Nurses are amazing people. They work so hard and don't get nearly enough recognition.
ReplyDeleteHope you're ok! I would be scared/overwhelmed about staying in hospital too. Hope whatever it is is all sorted now.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got lots of participants for your experiment. I participated in a few Psychology experiments for friends when I was at uni, they were always pretty interesting :)
I always feel a bit mean in my experiments, because not only do I show some people a pretty gruesome and unpleasant film, but I also trick them and give them false memories. But they usually still find it pretty interesting, and some people are disappointed when they find out they were in the 'neutral' film condition and didn't get to see the bad one!
DeleteHope you are doing better now. Hospital is always awful especially when you aren't a pro at it :P
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry that you were sick! I hope you stay feeling better, and I'm glad to hear that you're getting responses for your studies.
ReplyDeleteGet well soon, I just go out of a nasty cold, spring time, wired time.
ReplyDeleteYou have a really cool blog here. Do you want to follow each other, I would love that.
Tereza
http://drastic-plastic-fantastic-plastic.blogspot.com/
Mate, I hope your okay! Being sick is never fun. Guess it's all that weird Sydney weather? At least your participants still want in.
ReplyDeleteI was procrastinating on pintrest (well, it's hard to study when you have the flu!) and saw this and thought of you http://media-cache9.pinterest.com/upload/221520875391324855_Zcm2z8sh_c.jpg
Get better soon!
That is awesome! You've inspired me to do a post (coming soon) called: "I saw this and thought of you" - due to how often people seem to say this to me and it turns out to be zombie related. I love it :D
DeleteOh goodness I hope you're feeling better? And I think it's lovely that the participants still want to be involved and sent you well wishes :) I hope you can reschedule them without too much trouble <3
ReplyDeleteI hope you're feeling much better!
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