For twenty- five years my work as an optometrist has placed food on the table. I have been blessed with a stable career that allows me to help others. For fifteen of those twenty-five years I have worked at the Salisbury Veteran Affairs Medical Center with a special group of men and women; specifically, veterans who have served our country. My interactions with veterans, over twenty- five thousand eye examinations, influences the intended project for this course. My questions deal with what it means to these veterans to be a “Veteran”. In addition, I hope to explore how the Veterans’ point of view, this veteran identity if present, may interact or influence the veterans’ health behaviors. This search will involve a structured interview
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My mere presence, the fact that I interact within the investigation, means that I am stimulus. Logically, my being is a part of the event. So, I must give consideration to both how I am perceived and how I perceive. Consequently, an ongoing review of my personal characteristics, biases, background, and influences are necessary for trustworthy interpretations. I am the only male and first born from a Caucasian, middle-class family. My childhood experiences came from rural, western North Carolina, a child of the 70s. This means that I am less familiar with urban culture, and had delayed experience with ethnic diversity. I did not experience military service, much less combat. Personal adversity sufficiently bent, but did not break me. My subjective and experiential world is very different from most veterans. My professional resume is substantial, not because of special personal attributes, but because of a curious nature coupled with the passage of time. For full disclosure I must admit that I am not typical, not quite normal, not representative of my cohort. As a part-time doctoral student in the Health Service Research (HSR) program, who has completed a doctoral degree and multiple master degrees, I am a peculiarity. In truth, this disclosure comes with a sense of awkwardness. There is the faint echo of “what do you want to do when you grow …show more content…
Ertunga Ozelkan from the UNCC- System Engineering department to explore the medication compliance behavior among veterans treated for glaucoma. This pilot study was an attempt to model the topic using data extracted by clinical chart review. A number of social determinants were included as independent variables in the factor analysis. These variables included marital status, diagnosis for depression, travel distance, race, diagnosis for post-traumatic stress disorder, among others. Select social determinants have been well documented to influence elements of health behavior, including medication compliance. Surprising, none of the social determinants reached a level for significance for veterans in this study. This came as a real surprise. Whether veterans travel a greater distance, live alone, are depressed, have more illness, deal with post-traumatic stress disorder, or take more medications, it did not statistically influence how they ordered their glaucoma medication. What is going on here? I have concluded that the answer to that question can best be addressed by first talking with the
My mere presence, the fact that I interact within the investigation, means that I am stimulus. Logically, my being is a part of the event. So, I must give consideration to both how I am perceived and how I perceive. Consequently, an ongoing review of my personal characteristics, biases, background, and influences are necessary for trustworthy interpretations. I am the only male and first born from a Caucasian, middle-class family. My childhood experiences came from rural, western North Carolina, a child of the 70s. This means that I am less familiar with urban culture, and had delayed experience with ethnic diversity. I did not experience military service, much less combat. Personal adversity sufficiently bent, but did not break me. My subjective and experiential world is very different from most veterans. My professional resume is substantial, not because of special personal attributes, but because of a curious nature coupled with the passage of time. For full disclosure I must admit that I am not typical, not quite normal, not representative of my cohort. As a part-time doctoral student in the Health Service Research (HSR) program, who has completed a doctoral degree and multiple master degrees, I am a peculiarity. In truth, this disclosure comes with a sense of awkwardness. There is the faint echo of “what do you want to do when you grow …show more content…
Ertunga Ozelkan from the UNCC- System Engineering department to explore the medication compliance behavior among veterans treated for glaucoma. This pilot study was an attempt to model the topic using data extracted by clinical chart review. A number of social determinants were included as independent variables in the factor analysis. These variables included marital status, diagnosis for depression, travel distance, race, diagnosis for post-traumatic stress disorder, among others. Select social determinants have been well documented to influence elements of health behavior, including medication compliance. Surprising, none of the social determinants reached a level for significance for veterans in this study. This came as a real surprise. Whether veterans travel a greater distance, live alone, are depressed, have more illness, deal with post-traumatic stress disorder, or take more medications, it did not statistically influence how they ordered their glaucoma medication. What is going on here? I have concluded that the answer to that question can best be addressed by first talking with the