Meeting Minutes

 

Date: Wednesday Apr. 3, 2002

Time: 9-11 am

Place: Conference Room in School of Nursing

Attn.: Iokapeta, Eseta, Vipula, Tauaitala, Murraye, Ma (NUS school of nursing), Masayo, Maeda (NCN)

Recorder: Maeda

Agenda

1: NUS E-mail address

2: Research plan and framework

 

1: NUS E-mail address

We, NCN faculties, should know the e-mail addresses of faculties of NUS School of Nursing so that we can communicate each other by way of the Internet even after we leave. I know the faculty member of NUS School of Nursing have already had their own hotmail accounts (=e-mail addresses). It may not necessary for NUS faculty member of nursing to obtain another e-mail addresses so far. However I strongly feel that to possess an NUS e-mail address and to use it is supposed to be an identity as a faculty member of the University. Therefore, I suggest faculty members in School of Nursing make their own E-mail address of NUS. Of course, the new NUS e-mail address will not work very well until the computer for faculties is set in the faculty room. However, it will be utilized well if the computer is equipped and connected to the Internet. Faculty members in school of nursing do not have to give up their hotmail account even though they have another e-mail account. Both accounts can be used in accordance with the purposes or "Forwarding" can be set so as to forward e-mails one account to another. Maeda talked with a system administrator in NUS HQ yesterday, and it is possible for us to make new e-mail accounts in the NUS server if Maeda will show him e-mail accounts needed.

Conclusion: Faculty members in school of nursing will make NUS e-mail account. The format of e-mail address is as follows.

somebody@nus.edu.ws

The part, "somebody" can be freely decided by each faculty member. Form for making e-mail account will be provided by Maeda.

2: Research plan and framework

According to the agenda provided by Masayo, following discussion was done.

1) Title of research

Original title "A comparative study to evaluate the lifestyle of Samoan and Japanese children" was changed to "A comparative study to describe the lifestyle of Samoan and Japanese children", because the word "evaluate" is tend to be regarded as the situation that we already collected both data and grasped both status. However, this time, we have no idea about lifestyles in both Samoa and Japan yet. So, we use "describe" instead of "evaluate" in research title.

2) The purpose of study

Data regarding lifestyles of children,

Through the comparison between Samoa and Japan, factors, which effect lifestyles of children, will be clarified.

3) Sample

Age: 11 year-old, 14 year-old

Size: will be discussed after doing pre-test

Research design: quantitative and qualitative

Data collection method: questionnaire

4) Ethical issues

Informed consent: In a main survey, it is necessary for us that we will inform parents and school of the research outline and that they will give consent to our offer. For the children, following message is written on the cover page of the questionnaire.

"This questionnaire is filled of your own free will. You can quit to answer any time and you do not have to answer the question that you do not feel like to answer. This unsigned questionnaire is processed statistically and close attention will be paid so as not to be identified"

Ethical approval: Required application will be made for NUS ethical committee, Department of Education, and Department of Foreign Affair.

5) Possible Limitation to the study

Possible limitations are not clarified so far. Discussion need to be done after conducting pre-test.

6) Others

A)      A question need to be added in the questionnaire; that is;

"How many people in your family?"

B)      The questionnaire should be translated into Samoan, because Samoan language is supposed to be understood by infants in Samoa better than English. Faculties in NUS School of Nursing will put English into Samoan as soon as possible. It means that the English version of questionnaire will be a prototype when the questionnaire is localized.

C)      Education system in Samoa is as follows;

Primary School: 5yo to 12yo (1st grade to 8th grade)

Secondary School (Junior High/College): 13yo to 17yo (9th grade to 13th grade)

Tertiary School (NUS/Polytech/Privatetsch):18yo and above