Homeless Persons Management of Type 2 Diabetes

1.) Recruiting participant proved difficult for multiple reasons, the study that I was doing was looking at specific criteria (they had to be adults 18-65 years, English speaking, and have type 2 diabetes). There were several days that I waited all day to recruit a participant only to not have anyone that met the criteria. When a potential participant was identified, I would explain the project to them and give them the opportunity to participate; however, in some cases they declined because they were trying to get to another appointment to access social services or they did not want to run late for lunch or they not have completely understood the project. I remember having one participant decline to participate because he felt that his diabetes was well controlled. I tried to reiterate the purpose of the study and he continue to decline stating that his diabetes was fine and he knew what he needed to do for his diabetes.
2.) Scheduling time at recruiting facilities was difficult at times. I needed to be considerate of the needs of my community partners and make sure that I did not interfere with their workflow and I had to use vacation time for work to allow me time off to be at the facility. I was grateful that they often had 1-2 days a week that I could choose from and had a quite area for me to interview participants. When I first started this project I was working 40 hours week as a family nurse practitioner in Corpus Christi. The clinic that I work at require that I submit my vacation 30 days in advance, so I worked with my community partners to schedule days at their facilities and they cannot anticipate what potential participants they may show up. There were several days were I waited at the clinic all day for 8 hours an never talked to a participant. The clinic in Corpus Christi, had one family nurse practitioner saw smaller volume (sometimes 8-12 patients a day). There were about 5 times that I waited all day as there was not a participant that met the criteria. I San Antonio I had a couple of times where I waited until the end of the day but I was still able to recruit someone before the end of the day. I found that I was running out of vacation time. I eventually talked to my employer and changed my employment status from full time to 32 hours a week in November 2022 to allow more time off to due interviews.
3.) Follow-up interviews allows for one way to assess for internal validity and rigor in a qualitative study. It allows you to do member checking and confirm the findings with your participants. My mentor advised me that it would be difficult to obtain follow-up interviews, but did not dissuade me from pursuing follow-up interviews. Of 18 interviews I was able to obtain 3 follow-up interviews. I was surprised that many homeless persons did have access to cell phones only 2 out of 18 informed me that they did not have cell phones. They all agreed to participate in follow-up interviews. However when I reached out to them, they were busy in work programs and it was difficult for them to schedule time back at the clinic to have a follow-up interview. A few times I had participants agree to meet me and them they did not show up. It may have been beneficial to see if participants would be willing to participate in follow-up interviews by phone without compensation. Many seemed interested but their schedule did not see to permit them. One participant was going to meet me and when I called she said she forgot and could not meet me because she was supposed to meet a social worker. Another participant agreed to meet and them just did not show up. Several participants did not have voicemails set up, or their voicemail boxes were full.