Focus Group

Independent – Week 3

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I have decided to conduct an informal focus group with five woman who have children and four women who do not have children. I thought it would be a good idea to analyse women first as they are the ones who spend most of their time with the babies in the first year. Secondly, I thought it would be a novel idea to analyse men. I have spoken and selected to three males who have children and three males who do not have children. Although, there are more women in my focus group, the same concept still applies. The ages of my chosen focus group were not chosen by me, they were just people who wanted to participate. This worked out in my favour. Due to the nature of some of the ages, these ladies and gentlemen have asked to remain anonymous.

To begin with, the women WITH children are aged;

• 79 – 3 Children
• 52 – 4 Children
• 35 – 1 Child
• 26 – 3 Children
• 16 – 1 Child

The women WITHOUT children are aged;

• 40 – No Children
• 28 – No Children
• 23 – No Children
• 21 – No Children

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The men WITH children are ages;

• 55 – 4 Children
• 30 – 1 Child
• 27 – 1 Child / 2 Step Children (3)

The men WITHOUT children are aged;

• 28 – No Children
• 24 – No Children
• 17 – No Children

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Below is a detail conclusion of the conversations, questions, and answers of all fifteen participants. To have an even conclusion, I thought it would be a good idea to take some questions from the questionnaire to have a more in-depth discussion. Instead of pie chart results. I asked them a total of four questions, the answers were very interesting.

In this section, I will have questions for men and women with children, and in the next section I have will give the answers to the questions for those without children.

SECTION; One

The questions are as follows;

1. Do you think First Aid should be mandatory in schools, just like P.E?
2. (According to a source) School children believe, “if they knew more first aid, older people would respect them more” – Do you agree?
3. Would you personally go out and source a first aid course?
4. (If you have children) When pregnant or when your partner was pregnant, did you think about taking any first aid courses because you were nervous?

 

To begin with I will write down all the notes taken on people ‘with’ children, and I will display it in an interview style reply.

1. Do you think First Aid should be mandatory in schools, just like P.E?

To begin with they were very quiet and shy, however, once I opened the discussion they were very happy and open in discussing anything. When I asked if they think first aid should be taught in schools, they all came to life, and said yes. They believed if having being taught first aid at a young age, it will prevent any likely hood of serious danger to someone else. They will know what to do in situations and they will not be heavily reliant on the NHS or the ambulance service. There is one couple who both work for the ambulance service that said “we are too short staffed to cope with non-serious injuries, although, everyone is entitled to an ambulance there is not enough to go around. If more people were there who knew first aid, they would not need an ambulance as much. More lives would be saved” another man said “my nan fell down the stairs, and it took several hours for an ambulance to arrive. She died waiting.” This sent shock waves through the room. I said to this gentleman, it is not down to the ambulance not arriving, it is down to no one knowing what to do in an emergency. If we had more people who were there to act as a safe guard until help arrives, more peoples lives would be saved. The paramedic in the room added “we have been to calls from old people saying they have fallen over or they are having chest pains (this takes priory over anything else and we will get diverted). These people just want to have some company, or they just want us to make them a cup of tea and much worse. We know this will never stop, but it is things like this that get your family, friends, colleagues hurt further.” Overall, the conclusion was yes it should.

2. (According to a source) School children believe, “if they knew more first aid, older people would respect them more” – Do you agree?

This question actually took me by surprise. It was incredible to see the responses in relation to their age. Everyone that was over forty said that they do not agree. They said “respect comes from doing things worth while, it comes from not being distractive or selfish, it comes from being polite, amiable and approachable.” Everyone under forty agreed with the source, they said they feel if they new more in order to save someone they might be respected more, HOWEVER, they said just because they might know first aid, does not mean the older generation will be willing or letting for them to come over and assist. “They might think they are going to mug them while they are down”

3. Would you personally go out and source a First Aid course? 

Almost everyone said they would not go out and source a first aid course. A lady (C) said, “I would not go out and source one, I would wait for one to be here at my local school or I would get it through work (if offered)”. There were a few, “well it depends on the situation”. But overall, it was a big no and did not last long in discussion. The youngest girl in the group said “I have just left school, I accidentally fell pregnant at the age of fourteen (nearly fifteen). I openly admit, I was just a child myself and I did not know what I was going to do, unfortunately it was too late to get rid of it, so we had to keep it. I am only young – I could not afford to go get a training course done, I had to learn from my family and just learn on my own. If this was available in schools I would have been more prepared and I would have known what to do.”

4. When you ladies were pregnant, did you think about going out with your partner and participating in some sort of baby help group / safety course / first aid course? 

As you can see, this question was told differently than what was intentionally written down, due to the response I got for the third question. This was a very straight forward answer, it was a fifty / fifty response. Half said they would go and source one and the other half said there was no point. One lady said “I got so caught up with the pregnancy, I did not even think about it until after the baby was born. When the baby was born and I wanted to do one, I just did not have time, and months went by and I just forgot about it until now.” Another man added, “My wife and myself went to a course and it cost us about £50 – £60 each, I do not really remember everything, but I remember enough. However, my wife does not remember anything” I think this is due to women getting ‘baby brain’, it is a whole different part of your life, and most will not remember the pregnancy. This man, told us how long his course lasted and how many hours it was for. It seems to just be a way to get money out of people, because these courses only last for one or two days. How are you meant to learn all that stuff in around four – five hours? If they knew it from the start they would not need to put themselves under the pressure to learn everything. However, if we already knew it and there were some ‘refresher’ courses then it would be more beneficial to everyone.

This concludes the informal focus group on Women and Men with Children.

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To have an even conclusion, I thought it would be a good idea to take some questions from the questionnaire to have a more in-depth discussion. Instead of pie chart results. I asked them a total of three important questions, the answers were very interesting.

In this section I have will give the answers to the questions for those without children.

SECTION; Two

The questions are as follows;

1. Do you think First Aid should be mandatory in schools, just like P.E?
2. (According to a source) School children believe, “if they knew more first aid, older people would respect them more” – Do you agree?
3. Would you personally go out and source a first aid course ready for when you have children?

 

 I will now write down all the notes taken on people ‘without’ children, and I will display it in an interview style reply.

1. Do you think First Aid should be mandatory in schools, just like P.E?

To incorporate people without children into the equation, is a bit tricky in terms of subject matter. They do not really know what they want nor do they know if they want children, this focus group was really only to see what they thought and what they would do in preparation to having children. However, everyone in this group said “what is the harm in having this taught in schools”. “It could prepare a lot of people for all sorts of troubles”.

2. (According to a source) School children believe, “if they knew more first aid, older people would respect them more” – Do you agree?

“it is not a matter of respect, it is a matter of old vs. young” I loved this statement from one of the group members. I asked him to elaborate on this and (in short) he said “old people do not respect the young, and young people do not respect the old. It is a vicious cycle and it is a matter of life experiences, my grandad has always used the phrase ‘in my day’, and it just annoys me because in them days most things were a lot easier. Houses were cheaper, cars were cheaper, everyone was in close proximity to each other. Today, we have our phones to connect us to thousands of people and everything is much more expensive. So, no it is not about respect. It is about doing the right thing and knowing the right people.”

3. Would you personally go out and source a first aid course ready for when you have children?

This question took a while to take off, because a lot of people were unsure on how they felt. They want to know what to do when they have children but most of them do not know. A few have said they have first aid training given from their work and they feel this is “probably preparation enough”. Not much was really said on this topic, apart from one of the men who said “I do not want kids, so I am not really worried about it”. I did think to myself, but what about other peoples who need help?…

This concludes the focus group content.

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It has really helped me explore my problem further, and it has helped me display further thinking into what everyone else thinks about it. In the next post I will provide further primary research, I will do this by conducting questionnaires.