Why Focus Groups?

Tomorrow, we have a number of focus group sessions set up to discuss our needs assessment.  So what is a focus group and why use them during a needs assessment process?  A focus group is one way to get qualitative research.  Unlike a telephone survey, for example, which provides quantitative information (where we will be able to say x% of people have a family doctor), focus groups consist of a small number of people who are asked about their opinions and attitudes about a particular topic.  For the focus group sessions for this needs assessment, we have nine questions that we will be asking each session that we hold.   If we hear themes arising from all of these sessions, we can probably focus on that issue as being an important one. 

One of the greatest benefits of focus groups is having the group interaction.  Listening to others talk can spark thoughts in others and result in great discussion.  One of the challenges of focus group is keeping people on topic.  It's very easy to get distracted and start talking about another topic.  Tomorrow will be a busy day!