Why research into Lone Parents...
You may wonder what made me decide upon researching the experiences of lone parents with cancer....
During my masters degree I wrote an essay about changing family patterns and focussed my work on the increase in single/lone parent families within the UK. There are many reasons that account for such changes and these also led me to realise that lone parents are a diverse group as many other groups in society, yet often they are stereotyped and considered a collective. This I had already found not to be the case, but there were many academics already researching into the changing family patterns and the increase in lone parents or about the negative aspects of being in a lone parent family.
Having now developed an interest in lone parents as a diverse group I used experience I gained whilst at my research positions to help me develop my own niche in this area. This finally happened 18 months later, whilst I was working on a research project looking at inequalities in accessing a cancer diagnosis. Lone parents were a group that I was asked to write a literature review on. This immediately led me down a long and unfruitful pathway...for that particular project. There was no research published that provided information about lone parents experiences of cancer, let alone experiences of at lone parents experiences with accessing a cancer diagnosis. I had finally found my research area....
Eureka! but what to do next....
Having found that there was a gap regarding research into the experiences of lone parents with cancer, I began at this stage to research into the area I would particularly want to start with. The cancer trajectory has many places, all of which result in unique experiences for suffers. So which aspect would lone parents find the most useful to be investigated? I spent the next few years refining the idea further and used my experiences of working on other research projects, that were not based upon lone parents or cancer, but other illnesses, to refine my topic area.
Why I feel it is important to research Lone parents experiences:
I feel my research has an important place for providing information from lone parents to health care providers. I hope my work is providing lone parents with a chance to voice their opinion regarding their cancer experience and I hope my work will help improve things overall for them.
The studentship was advertised at Middlesex University I jumped at the opportunity to apply, even after having been in the workforce for a few years. I really look forward to producing an enriching and informative document that hopefully will help enlighten everyone regarding the experiences of lone parents with cancer.
If you want to know more please feel free to contact me at loneparentscancer@gmail.com
|
