This is just to document how much of a geek I really am.  Today, while flipping through the chapter on qualitative data analysis in Qualitative Methods in Public Health: A Field Guide for Applied Research, my heart actually started beating faster.  Yep, in anticipation of learning how to properly analyze qualitative data.

Somehow during grad school, I managed to be convinced that if I had quantitative training, I could skip right on over the qualitative stuff.  Boy was that dumb.  In order for it to provide you with information that is at all reliable and valid, you still have to apply the same methodological rigor that you would to any sort of quantitative endeavor.  Make sure you take courses in both methods, so that you use qualitative methods correctly and appropriately!

Anyway.  If you can’t already tell, I am so looking forward to conducting my own research project this year, thanks to my super cool fellowship.  And when I was told that it might be possible to have my own medical student to assist me with the project, I started dreaming big!  I love thinking through the research questions, coming up with the methodology, and imagining possible analysis plans.  These kinds of things just excite me.  And I don’t actually mind having to slog through a 300-page book to learn a thing or two.  Even though the medical doctors and lab technicians at my host institution seem to find it a little funny that “all” I am doing right now is reading and writing.

Yep, I already said I am a geek.  Good thing that I can make a fulfilling career out of it.