Have you tried noise-canceling headphones? There are some that don't cost too much, you can plug into your laptop and not listen to anything (like music) but block out everything else.

Being here (in the U.S. and in a 'swing state') this is the first election I can ever remember with this kind of vibe - where people are so excited about their particular choice (vs. choosing the lesser of 2 evils). I have never seen early voting like this, in my county early voting this election was 68% higher than last election, and demand was so high the governer of the state had to extend to voting times so they were open 12 hours a day;even then the lines were > 1 hour. Lines are tremendous today as well. Typical voter turnout in the U.S. is about 60% or so, so we'll see what the turnout is this year...can't wait for tonight!

Can you work with a service or someone who has undergone Human Subjects/ethics training and signs a statement of confidentiality, maybe one that frequently works with the government or hospitals? When I was looking we also had to think about encoding the files to send back and forth - I was initially working with a transcriber who had ethics training, but I wanted to be sure there were no breaches in confidentiality sending the files via internet, so we worked with encryption software. In the end I transcribed all the files myself, which I'm not necessarily suggesting either, although it does act as a first level of analysis.

Congratulations, thats fantastic!! I just defended mine and have to hand in the revisions within the next 2 weeks, but only to the advisor, the rest of the members don't want to see them, so almost there. Everyone (myself included) thought I'd be so energized and want to party and all, and after the defense I was exhausted - for about 3 days, going to bed before the kids, I think it all just catches up with you!! But a good exhausted, its all wonderfully good!
Way to go!

Thanks for the replies. I've done a lot of thinking - and defending, I'm now official! - and finally spoke with my mentor/manager about this. While my main interest may be cancer research, the reality is there is not as much funding these days in my area (behavioral science/qual) and clearly qualitative research is not valued at the institution where I am; funding for all post-docs remotely in my area at my institution all fell through except for the one I was promised, so now we're all competing for one post-doc, and the institution is favoring the spouse of a biostats prof they are trying to woo into the department who needs the post-doc to seal the deal. Any other post-doc in the country is very competetive because of cut funding and they all pay awful, though at least here a move wouldn't be thrown into the mix. My kids are not little (8 and 12) nor am I young (42) and as a previous poster mentioned that makes a huge difference, I don't really want to uproot for a 1-2 post-doc somewhere and then again for a job after, and most academic jobs also require uprooting and don't start until next summer. The research position may be out of my research field (and comfort zone) but its about adapting these skill sets to any health topic;it is well funded, ridiculously well funded really, and gets me in the door of the federal government with many other well paying research opportunities, they also offered a paid fellowship for their research; benefits and pay are great and no move involved, and the research is completely translational, its a living lab with quant/qual/clinical research under one roof, very, very cool. As my manager pointed out, I'll still be publishing 3-4 papers out of my dissertation over the next year so I'll have a record of publishing in the field, I'll get a fellowship and hone some great qualitative skills on the job in an environment that values it with the opportunity to come back to cancer research or move to other fed jobs as the chances arise. . Plus, lets face it; no ones knocking on my door, and I have a family and not getting any younger, so I think I'm accepting today. Thanks again, it helps to get feedback.:p

I work full time and have kids and had a ridiculous deadline to finish - I ended up taking a leave up absence from work for 5 weeks and proceeded to drag my laptop under a rock with me and luckily my husband and kids and even the dogs left me alone...and it got done. Even my advisor did not believe it could, but I'm defending in 2 days. I found it helped to set small goals - work 2 hours, take 1/2 hour off, another 2 hours, etc. and goals with what I wanted to get done per chapter for the day. And work 6-7 days a week, minimal breaks, otherwise it will never end. I never answered the phone or turned on the TV during that time, or went online (that was tough) or showered most days...it was gritty, but if you can take some time off I highly recommend it and just burn through it. Good luck...

I haven't posted for ages on here as it made me too anxious while I was writing up, but a quick update - I was gathering data and thought I had a post-doc lined up at the place where I have worked for 16 years, and just as I was getting ready to write up in August, found out that the post-doc most likely fell through and any chance of being able to get it relied on finishing write up by the end of September, so the mad rush was on and I defend Thursday! All wonderful, but the downside is my current funding for this position runs out December1, so I could graduate without a job, never the option I intended. I have been applying for everything that remotely is in my field, wherever in the U.S. although that is a hardship given uprooting my kids and the hard time it would be selling the house and my husband finding a job, plus most don't start until next academic year. I still have a shot at the post-doc, but if I do get it the pay scale is about 30% less than originally anticipated!! and than I make now. I just got offered a federal job that pays pretty well and is quite secure - but really out of my field. So here I am at a crossroads, albeit happier than expected a month ago - stay in my field (cancer research/health disparities) but take a huge paycut and struggle financially - which is a big problem with 2 kids, mortgage, horrendous economy and unsure future of better funding - but I get to stay on track - or go into new territory (healthcare qualitative researcher for federal gov/t) with great benefits/pay/stability, room for growth and challenge for myself, but veering way off of comfort zone and research ideas? A lot of mom guilt going on..I've put the family through a lot and the thought of more years of no pay is not good (I'm the main breadwinner) but I don't want to make it just a money thing...I could use some objective input. Thanks!

I have used meeting rooms in the public library several times for focus groups and interviews and it works beautifully, no background noise at all, and no issues with having to bring snacks or buy lunch.

How supportive your work and department counts a lot too. I can do school work at my work, and my academic department supports parents; lots of teachers there have kids and bring them in to class if there is a day off and would rather have a student bring in a {well-behaved} kid to class or have mom nurse baby in class than have the parent miss class. ARM - Association for Research on Mothering - has done a lot of research on this. Good luck!!

I think a lot depends on the age of your kid(s), if you have a mate and if you work in addition, plus how supportive your department is. I got my Masters with my first kid aged 1-3, and I'm working the last few years on my doctorate with my 2 kids now ages 11 and 8; I work fulltime too. My husband has been incredibly supportive and stepped up, which is why I've been able to do this. Its meant missing plenty of weekend activities and evenings the kids know past a certain time its my homework time. At age 3 its hard, but yours will grow up learning this and its a wonderful gift to give them; my kids now want to shoot for their doctorate (hopefully when they are younger than me)Its a balancing act, and realize sometimes you'll excel as parent, sometimes as worker, sometimes as student, or mate, rarely as all 4 at the same time; just don't be too hard on yourself, and seek out other student parents who you may be able to network with.

Hi Rick- I am definitely planning on publishing. I'm in the medical field as well, and thus far what I've been published for as coPI have been all quantitative methods. However doing lit reviews I have come across plenty of qualitative and mixed methods that have been published, more in medical journal, often in the social science medicine journals; I'm crossing over from straight biological sciences to med anthropology. I think editors have come around in the medical arena to accept qual methods; one cancer control(my area) researcher who comes to mind right away who has plenty of funding and articles with qualitative and mixed methods in top medical journals is Debrah Erwin who has authored or co-authored more than 30 journal articles and book chapters, and is a reviewer at Lancet; much of her work such as Witness project is based on qualitative methods.

I agree with really evaluating the reasons behind the use of focus groups, but it also needs to be weighed out with practicality of getting the project done; in my case I wanted the focus groups to help inform development of the interview guide - especially emerging themes or themes I ask about which repeatedly may not resonate. I originally considered doing the flip, first interviews, then focus groups to clarify emergent themes. The interaction can be great to bring out issues that a person alone may not consider; I still may attempt a few focus groups toward the end if I feel some issues need clarification. I also am thinking I may reach saturation faster than anticipated with interviews, based on the ones I've done already. In the end, for me going to interviews is a means to an end, and still a valid method, with triangulation possible by quant methods; when I have staff and funding, then I will perhaps go back to my original design; but for now time is of the essence.

I am still planning on using the data from the focus groups, in fact I'm presenting a poster with preliminary analysis of the 2 focus groups and key informant interviews.
I think focus groups could have worked better if I had more time (I work full time & have 2 kids, only one day/week plus weekends devoted strictly to this) and had funding to reimburse for mileage,incentives or someone to help me with organizing. When I am an funded, independent researcher and can hire some staff, I will definitely go back to them, the group interaction was great and sometimes its hard to pull what I'm looking for out of a person alone but in a group setting it works better.
I think the quant methods (surveys) will work for triangulation, and you're right, developing and modifying an interview guide with the help of focus groups is certainly better than the usual techniques.
For those doing well with their focus groups congrats, I can't imagine doing 6 in 2 days!! More power to you!

I was also hoping for focus groups to serve as a means of triangulation, but not at the expense of bringing the study to a (grinding) halt. I am doing mixed methods, so I have a few surveys which ask some of the main points of the interview in different ways, and that will work well too.