A
research team arrived in a small mountain village to conduct a focus group on
communication between patients and clinicians about traditional medicine in New
Mexico. But the matter of establishing trust had to come first.
This reflective vignette about community engagement was published in the Sep/Oct
2008 issue of the Annals of Family Medicine (AFM) , titled "'Be
Gentle and Be Sincere About It': A Story About Community-Based Primary Care
Research" (PDF download)
“Amidst the piles on my desk, I keep the piece of yerba mansa that Marcos gave me. Often, as I’m preparing to head out, I glance over at the shriveled herb and am reminded of his words that provide perhaps the simplest and most important guidance to conducting both clinic- and community-based research: be gentle and be sincere about it.”
