Triangulating Perspectives Summary
Dr. Jill E. Stefaniak, Dr. Misa Mi, and Dr. Nelia Afonso (2015), through their article Triangulating Perspectives: A Needs Assessment to Develop and Outreach Program for Vulnerable and Underserved Populations, demonstrate high quality and effective methodology for conducting a needs assessment. The interest of these researchers lies within the social science realm and focuses in on an underserved population, the homeless. The aim of their needs assessment is to channel the gap between this vulnerable population and multiple resources to healthcare information. This subject is of importance because of the growth in the homeless population and concern from policymakers on how to deal with this national growth (Stefaniak, Mi, & Afonso, 2015).
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The authors define needs assessment as “… a systematic process for gathering information to identify a specific need that can be resolved through concerted intervention” (Stefaniak, Mi, & Afonso, 2015, p.
50). They defend that this technique is used to gather data from various sources to identify health information needs among homeless individuals. An adapted three-tiered approach was used in this assessment to evaluate needs based from the perspectives of the vulnerable population, the care providers, and the educators responsible for creating and spreading intervention or educational materials. This approach considered homeless shelter clients, the staff of the homeless shelter, and members of the community, such as medical students and librarians (Stefaniak, Mi, & Afonso, 2015).
Methods utilized in this evaluation consisted of in-person interviews with homeless shelter clients and online surveys with shelter staff, public librarians, and medical students. A convenience sample was collected from the 4 sources and was comprised of of 22 homeless clientele, 10 staff members, 28 librarians from 17 public libraries, and 40 1st or 2nd year medical students. Needs assessment survey measures were constructed, administers, and tested for validity by applying suggestions and input from the multiple directors of the homeless shelter being evaluated (Stefaniak, Mi, & Afonso,
2015). Results indicated more than half of shelter clients had unmet health information needs to resources regarding diabetes management, mental health care, gynecological care, etc. Shelter staff reported the challenges of not being able to obtain completely accurate resource information online. Majority of librarians reported to assisting underserved populations ever day. Three-quarters of librarian respondents claimed to answer health related questions weekly and the majority feel successful in accessing reliable online information. Medical students identified educational materials, such as brochures, videos, health fairs, and handouts, to be helpful education tools for underserved populations (Stefaniak, Mi, & Afonso, 2015). This needs assessment used a collaborative approach from various sources to suggest strong implications for outreach partners. Outcomes from this project can provide guidance and input for employing innovative and educational outreach programs. The researchers discuss outreach programs and their potential affect for the four evaluated sources. Outreach programs could assist librarians on becoming better information sources for the general and vulnerable public. Outreach programs could aim to help homeless shelter staff by meeting clients’ needs. A number of medical students reported no experience with MedlinePlus, a health information resource and some reported using Google as their main source for health information. Outreach programs need to put effort into teaching students information literacy. Lastly, the researchers express that any proposed solutions or program proposals would need the coordination of health care providers, educators, and other health resources (Stefaniak, Mi, & Afonso, 2015).
The authors define needs assessment as “… a systematic process for gathering information to identify a specific need that can be resolved through concerted intervention” (Stefaniak, Mi, & Afonso, 2015, p.
50). They defend that this technique is used to gather data from various sources to identify health information needs among homeless individuals. An adapted three-tiered approach was used in this assessment to evaluate needs based from the perspectives of the vulnerable population, the care providers, and the educators responsible for creating and spreading intervention or educational materials. This approach considered homeless shelter clients, the staff of the homeless shelter, and members of the community, such as medical students and librarians (Stefaniak, Mi, & Afonso, 2015).
Methods utilized in this evaluation consisted of in-person interviews with homeless shelter clients and online surveys with shelter staff, public librarians, and medical students. A convenience sample was collected from the 4 sources and was comprised of of 22 homeless clientele, 10 staff members, 28 librarians from 17 public libraries, and 40 1st or 2nd year medical students. Needs assessment survey measures were constructed, administers, and tested for validity by applying suggestions and input from the multiple directors of the homeless shelter being evaluated (Stefaniak, Mi, & Afonso,
2015). Results indicated more than half of shelter clients had unmet health information needs to resources regarding diabetes management, mental health care, gynecological care, etc. Shelter staff reported the challenges of not being able to obtain completely accurate resource information online. Majority of librarians reported to assisting underserved populations ever day. Three-quarters of librarian respondents claimed to answer health related questions weekly and the majority feel successful in accessing reliable online information. Medical students identified educational materials, such as brochures, videos, health fairs, and handouts, to be helpful education tools for underserved populations (Stefaniak, Mi, & Afonso, 2015). This needs assessment used a collaborative approach from various sources to suggest strong implications for outreach partners. Outcomes from this project can provide guidance and input for employing innovative and educational outreach programs. The researchers discuss outreach programs and their potential affect for the four evaluated sources. Outreach programs could assist librarians on becoming better information sources for the general and vulnerable public. Outreach programs could aim to help homeless shelter staff by meeting clients’ needs. A number of medical students reported no experience with MedlinePlus, a health information resource and some reported using Google as their main source for health information. Outreach programs need to put effort into teaching students information literacy. Lastly, the researchers express that any proposed solutions or program proposals would need the coordination of health care providers, educators, and other health resources (Stefaniak, Mi, & Afonso, 2015).