Scholarship

scholarship : Knowledge resulting from study and research in a particular field.

It's always interesting to look at how information is gained, but the key really isn't in finding out information - it's in putting that information to work. The idea of information dissemination is especially key in health and health promotion. People can know about health risks (and that knowledge is important) but until they can (and do) something about it, there is no difference in their outcome.

This idea is especially important for our group. If we're looking at access to care by women in the Netherlands, that care needs to be accessible. Women can have knowledge about what they should be doing, but if there aren't culturally appropriate clinics available, then quality care isn't possible. Taking it back a step, if women don't have culturally appropriate information, then they can't know.

I feel like the most useful way for us to present our information would be on a pamphlet or info sheet, giving statistics and useful practices. This could be a quick way to illustrate what is being done.

Reflecting on our project- I feel like it's going to take two focuses. Emily, as an anthropologist, is really interested in the differences of knowledge about health, and how the cultural practices of our focus groups interact with and affect health and health knowledge. This would best be researched by surveys. My interests lie more in how health care can assimilate and respect the differing beliefs, while still maintaining the integrity of the care. This would be best researched with interviews with professionals. What is being done? Is it effective? What are they thinking about doing in the future? How can a healthy society be formed when there are so many factors that go into creating health in general.

I think that these two focuses will combine well together to create a good overall picture of health care and knowledge in Amsterdam. Obviously, there's way too much information to present and learn it all, but maybe we can use our interests to focus our question.