Hello again readers! Just a quick recap- I’ve been working with Dr. Lederer this summer composing a literature review of the public health community’s current knowledge about factors relating to STI knowledge. We are right on schedule as we have officially completed this first phase of the project! Looking forward, the next step is to draw conclusions from the published research to lead our research question and analysis.
Concurrently, I had the pleasure to form a relationship with the Public Health Research Librarian, Elaine Hicks, whom I met with twice. She helped cultivate my research skills especially in advanced-line searching and determining which research database is best for different topics of interest. I also became very well-versed in Refworks for citations. I’m really grateful for all of her help as I can use these skills in future research projects in my undergraduate studies and into medical school.
In addition, I participated in a newly created journal club with fellow women in research. At our first meeting, we explored a new perspective to contraception in which the article’s authors believed that the discussion should focus more on fertility awareness than pregnancy prevention. This challenged some of our views and led to a lively discussion. We also brought challenges in our own research to the group to search for other perspectives and ideas. I thoroughly enjoyed this meeting especially because it was a mix of faculty and students, but the environment felt like we were peers. I look forward to attending these meetings this Fall.
I’m eager to continue this research, learn more about research dissemination, and publish our paper this coming semester.