Promoting Rational Drug Use in the Community

1. Promoting Rational Drug Use in the Community Fieldwork

2. Fieldwork objectives At the end of the session participants will: • Be able to define the research methods • Be able to develop research tools • Have experience with key methods to study drug use practices and ideas, e.g. semi-structured interviews, drug inventories in pharmacies and community drug stores, and simulated client visits • Have gained insight into strengths and weaknesses of various methods • Have an understanding of the way in which qualitative research can be used to re-focus and refine a problem analysis diagram. Fieldwork Promoting Rational Drug Use in the Community

3. Group activities Today: 1. Prepare appraisal matrix and revise/make tools 2. Pretest tools and prepare plan for field work Tomorrow: 3. Conduct fieldwork 4. Feedback in plenary on refinements in problem analysis and strengths/weaknesses of methods Fieldwork Promoting Rational Drug Use in the Community

4. How to conduct semi-structured interviews 1.Greet your informant in a culturally appropriate way. 2.Consider where you are sitting, and where the translator sits. 3.Jokes and friendly gestures can help break the ice. 4.Explain the purpose of the interview/informed consent. Fieldwork Promoting Rational Drug Use in the Community

5. How to conduct semi-structured interviews 2 5.Start with a topic that is not sensitive and is important to the respondent 6.Use open-ended questions 7.Avoid asking leading questions 8.Follow the flow of the discussion 9.Ask “probing” questions 10.Listen actively: do not only look at your interview guide Fieldwork Promoting Rational Drug Use in the Community

6. How to conduct semi-structured interviews 3 11.Pick up phrases that the informant uses and use for your questions. Instruct your translator to do this too. 12.Avoid passing opinions or judgements. Treat your informant as an equal. 13.Respond to issues raised by your informants. 14.Thank the informant at the end and give time for questions. Fieldwork Promoting Rational Drug Use in the Community

7. How to conduct simulated client visits • Make a realistic ‘script’ • Think of details -- you need money to pay for the drugs -- do you have a limited budget -- what do you do if the treatment is too expensive for your budget • Make sure the ‘client’ looks like a real client. What will the client wear? • Don’t step out of your role Fieldwork Promoting Rational Drug Use in the Community

8. Strengths of semi-structured interviews • Depth of information • Respondent can influence the topic so unexpected issues/topics emerge • Researcher can probe to understand perspectives and experiences • Topic guide ensures that a core list of questions is asked in each interview • Because order of questions not fixed, flow and share of views more natural. Fieldwork Promoting Rational Drug Use in the Community

9. Weaknesses of semi-structured interviews • Trained interviewers needed to probe without being directive or judgemental • Difficult to analyse findings -- must be done by people who did the interviews • Researcher has to avoid bias in analysis • Analysis is time-consuming • Difficult to generalise findings Fieldwork Promoting Rational Drug Use in the Community

10. Strengths of simulated client visits • If done well: give information on what drug sellers really do • Representative sample of pharmacies can be interviewed • Results can be generalised • Results can be quantified • Can be used to evaluate effects of training of pharmacy sellers • Can be used as participatory method Fieldwork Promoting Rational Drug Use in the Community

11. Weaknesses of simulated client visits • Difficult to do a lifelike simulation • Disturbances occur • Difficult to probe on why advice is given • Depth of information collected is limited Fieldwork Promoting Rational Drug Use in the Community