Unit Three Reflection Blog

I really enjoyed unit three of ENGL 301, but did find it to be the most challenging unit of them all to date. Attempting to get a decent amount of survey responses and interview responses from the very busy healthcare staff at the care facility was very difficult. I believe I accumulated enough to create a good formal report, but I also believe that I underestimated the difficult nature of getting people to open up about their jobs. This was a challenging task. Nurses specifically were not keen on helping me with my project, but healthcare aides and recreation therapy staff were more interested, which ended up being where I received the bulk of my info. I am very thankful they were willing to help. My findings were exactly what I had originally hypothesized – that inadequate pay and challenging patients with complex care needs would be two of the main reasons for the staffing shortage. The highlight of the research process was a healthcare aide providing a wonderful solution for me, without me even prompting her. She suggested that the care facility hire students currently enrolled in healthcare aide programs and nursing school to volunteer as healthcare support staff. This would be beneficial for the care facility, as there would be no added financial burden but they would receive healthcare support, and would also be beneficial to the students as they could gain valuable hands-on experience in their field. Organizing and writing my formal report was interesting as I have never created such a document in my academic career. Through the process of peer reviewing Thomas’s formal report draft, I learned from Thomas how to balance graphs and charts with the appropriate amount of text, therefore making it easily readable but also informative for the reader. I always enjoy the process of peer reviewing as it allows me to be open to different writing styles. Overall, this unit was challenging but beneficial to my learning and my growth as a writer.

First draft: vergouwen formal report draft