Hello all!!

Hello all!

For me, the two papers I am taking over summer school are my sixth and seventh papers for the year. So here I feel like I have learnt to adequately research for an assignment. However, I have not written a position paper before. I wish this paper for me had of been in the first semester. And so, for anyone who is a first time student over summer school, what an excellent choice!

I chose to do the immunisation topic, all the other subjects were extremely interesting as well, but I personally wanted to know more on the subject and the reasons behind why people choose not to immunise their children. For example, fears that vaccinations cause Autism (not proven). I also wanted to find out more on why we need to keep immunisations up to date, and how we differ from other countries. Like in Africa, millions of lives could be saved by simple vaccinations. But, unlike New Zealand, they don't have easy access or a timetable to go off.

What I found hard was to stay on topic as the information on immunisations is huge, with research being conducted all over the world on the pros, the cons, along with the history of a number of diseases, what has and hasn't worked, and some really scary stories from parents who had immunised or not immunised their children with extreme reactions.

What I could have done better in my research is writing down some ideas before I began. There is so much information out there I kept getting lost and compiling too many ideas instead of focusing on a set of points I could have written down first and stuck to. After reading in Week One about position papers, I used these to come up with some ideas and set these in stone. I have started my draft, and I am extremely happy with my introduction.

Good luck for Week Three!

Son's ordeal was our fault, say parents (Here is a story that broke my heart, a story on vaccinations).

Kia ora, from Katikati!!

Kia ora!

My name is Jaimi, I am 27 years old, I have two children, and I currently live in the small town of Katikati. This year I am completing the Diploma in Health Science.

Writing a blog is completely foreign to me, and something I am looking forward to completing week by week.

After watching the first lecture slides on Stream, I thought to myself, I really had no idea what this paper entailed. It was a compulsory paper and so I didn't look further into it until day one. 

But what did I think communication was? Something along the lines of a text to hubby to bring home some cheese, and when he turned up with cheese and the right kind, Voila! successful communication. But then I thought how can we communicate to others outside of our own realm of friends and family? How do doctors, scientists, journalists and so on spark the interest of their readers? So I picked up my trusty New Zealand Listener. A magazine I try to walk past every week in the supermarket, but like this week in big black bold letters it questions "Why us?". Why us? Let's look into that a wee bit. Below in smaller writing it then questions why New Zealand has such a high cancer rate. Well now I want to know why, and also how much danger I am in living in this beautiful country of ours. And so, the magazine has effectively caught my attention from two words on the front cover. The fact that inside the magazine the first sentence states how an Auckland dietitian thought developing bowel cancer was a huge slap in the face sets in stone to me that this will be a very interesting read,

Learning to write in a way that will capture an audience or readers attention like that is a skill worth learning for many reasons beyond this paper. I think this will help me next year as I move from extramural to internal and start my social work degree. I decided to complete the diploma in Health Science as I was torn between two completely different degrees. The electives, and the compulsory Health studies papers I had to take confirmed the degree and direction I wanted to go in.

Communication will be vital to me as a social worker and I find as I meet new people I can be quiet and a little shy. I am hoping that with this science communication paper I will gain some confidence in communicating with new people from the beginning. My ambitions are to help people in the long run, and to have a helping hand in society. I want to show my children that hard work, perseverance, and helping others pays off with more than a pay check at the end of the week.