Using the provided dataset in Excel, calculate the appropriate descriptive statistics for the following variables comparing diabetes with no diabetes status: gender, race, salary, education, height, weight, BMI, allergies, family history diabetes, family history allergies. For chi-square tests, report the chi-square value and the p-value (if p-value < 0.05, then the test is significant). For t-tests, report the t-test value and the p-value. Include a 2-3 page description of the descriptive statistics including tables of the summarized data, similar to a “Results” section in a published manuscript or journal article. Use the following online calculators to obtain the results for this analysis.
Chi-Square for Categorical Data: http://www.vassarstats.net/ (Choose “Frequency Data” from the far left, then “Chi-Square, Cramer’s V, and Lambda” from the middle of the page)
Enter in the number of people in each category (e.g. number of women who have diabetes, number of men with diabetes, etc.). Example of a table below:
Diabetes No Diabetes
Female 86 214
Male 36 264
Choose a 2 x 2 table and where A1 = 86, A2 = 36; B1 = 214; B2 = 264
Report the percent of people in each category and the chi-square and p-value. A possible sentence to interpret the results could be:
There are significantly more women (64%) who have diabetes than men (36%).
T-Tests for Continuous Data: http://www.vassarstats.net/ (Choose “t-Tests & Procedure” from the far left, then “Two-Sample t-Test” then click “Independent Samples” under Setup)
Copy and Paste the values for those with diabetes into Sample A and those without diabetes into Sample B, then click Calculate. For instance, copy and paste all of the ages of those with diabetes into Sample A and all of the ages of those without diabetes into Sample B. From the Data Summary window, report the Mean of those with Diabetes (Sample A) and those without Diabetes (Sample B); also report the “t” from the Results box, as well as the two-tailed p-value. A “P” that is <0.05 suggests the result is statistically significant. One way to report such a finding would be to use the following language:
The average age of those with diabetes is __ years and for those without diabetes is ___ years. Those with diabetes were significantly older/younger (p<0.05).
SLP Assignment Expectations
Length: SLP assignments should be at least 2 pages (500 words) in length.
References: At least two references must be included from academic sources (e.g. peer-reviewed journal articles). Required readings are included. Quoted material should not exceed 10% of the total paper (since the focus of these assignments is critical thinking). Use your own words and build on the ideas of others. When material is copied verbatim from external sources, it MUST be enclosed in quotes. The references should be cited within the text and also listed at the end of the assignment in the References section (APA format recommended).
Organization: Subheadings should be used to organize your paper according to question
Format: APA format is recommended for this assignment. See Syllabus page for more information on APA format.
Grammar and Spelling: While no points are deducted for minor errors, assignments are expected to adhere to standards guidelines of grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence syntax. Points may be deducted if grammar and spelling impact clarity.
The following items will be assessed in particular:
•Achievement of learning outcomes for SLP assignment.
•Relevance—all content is connected to the question.
•Precision—specific question is addressed; statements, facts, and statistics are specific and accurate.
•Depth of discussion—points that lead to deeper issues are presented and integrated.
•Breadth—multiple perspectives and references, multiple issues/factors considered/
•Evidence—points are well-supported with facts, statistics, and references.
•Logic—presented discussion makes sense; conclusions are logically supported by premises, statements, or factual information.
•Clarity—writing is concise, understandable, and contains sufficient detail or examples.
•Objectivity—use of first person and subjective bias are avoided.
I can send the provided assignment excel dataset download if you provide where to send to. Thanks
SAMPLE ANSWER
Descriptive Statistics
Using the provided dataset in Excel, descriptive statistics that are appropriate for variables concerning to diabetes including gender, race, salary, height, weight, as well as BMI. The descriptive statistics calculated using the provided dataset specifically include mean, standard deviation, variance as well as media. These descriptive statistics are mainly concerned with analysis of measurement of central tendency i.e. mean and median as well as measurement of variation i.e. standard deviation and variance.
Table 1: Descriptive Statistics
Age
Salary
Height
Weight
BMI
To feel depressed during the winter
To exercise during the summer
To overeat when stressed out
Mean
50
$54,498
66.98333
159.1133
24.63867
2.993333
3.373333
2.77
Standard Deviation
20
28923.783
3.750102
31.66517
2.231375
1.226773
1.227046
1.315116638
Variance
401
836585199
14.06327
1002.683
4.979035
1.504972
1.505641
1.729531773
Median
50
$50,012
67
161
25
3
4
3
In particular, this SLP assignment will be analyzed the provided dataset using chi-square tests and t-test. For the chi-square tests apart from the descriptive statistics, the report will also include chi-square value as well as the p-value. On the other hand, for the t-tests the report will include the t-test value as well as the p-value.
In addition, the specific numbers of people in the provided the dataset within their specific category i.e. diabetes and no diabetes are determined in order to enable the data analysis to be carried out. A summary of those statistics is presented in the table shown below:
Table 2: Data Summary
Diabetes
No Diabetes
Total
Percentages
Female
56
103
159
53%
Male
53
88
141
47%
Total
109
191
300
Percentages
36.3%
63.7%
100%
Based on the statistics presented in the above table concerning the chi-square obtained from the VassarStats website which is used for statistical computation, particularly in the context of Chi-Square for Categorical Data and specifically using Chi-Square, Cramer’s V, and Lambda in a 2 x 2 table; there are some inferences that can already be done. Some of the inferences based on percentages include:
There are significantly more women (53%) who have diabetes than men (47%).
Additionally, the results of the chi-square test show that the chi-square value is 0.09 and the p-value is <0.0001 an indication that the test is significant meaning that there a significant difference between the number of women who are diabetic compared to men who are diabetic.
T-Tests for Continuous Data
The t-test was used to compare the two groups i.e. Sample A (no diabetes) and Sample B (diabetes) and the t-test reported the t-test value as well as p-value. The t-test values for variables such as age, height, weight as well as BMI are reported in the table shown below. In addition, the two-tailed p-values are also shown and the are all below <0.05 and indication that the tests are significant which means there are significant differences between the two groups (i.e. Sample A and Sample B) with regards to the considered variables.
Table 3: Data Summary
A
B
Total
t-test value
Two-tailed p-value
N
191
109
300
Age
Mean
39.0052
70.5229
50.4567
-20.69
<0.0001
Height
Mean
65.0209
70.422
66.9833
-16.63
<0.0001
Weight
Mean
142.7016
187.8716
159.1133
-16.33
<0.0001
BMI
Mean
23.5628
26.5239
24.6387
-14.35
<0.0001
The average age of those without diabetes is 39 years and for those with diabetes is 70.5 years. Those with diabetes were significantly older/younger (p<0.05).
The average height of those without diabetes is 65.02 centimeters and for those with diabetes is 70.4 centimeters. Those with diabetes were significantly shorter/taller (p<0.05).
The average weight of those without diabetes is 132.7 lbs and for those with diabetes is 187.8 lbs. Those with diabetes were significantly heavier/lighter (p<0.05).
The BMI of those without diabetes is 23.6 and for those with diabetes BMI is 26.5. The BMI for those with diabetes is significantly higher/lower (p<0.05).
References
Corder, G. W. & Foreman, D. I. (2014). Nonparametric Statistics: A Step-by-Step Approach. New York, NY: Wiley.
Greenwood, P. E. & Nikulin, M. S. (1996) A guide to chi-squared testing. New York, NY: Wiley.
Markowski, C. A. & Markowski, E. P. (1990). Conditions for the Effectiveness of a Preliminary Test of Variance.The American Statistician, 44(4), 322–326.
Sawilowsky, S. S. (2005). Misconceptions Leading to Choosing the t Test over the Wilcoxon Mann–Whitney Test for Shift in Location Parameter. Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods, 4(2), 598–600.
VassarStats (2015). Procedures Applicable to Categorical Frequency Data. Available at: http://www.vassarstats.net/ (Accessed on November 26 2015).
VassarStats (2015). t-Tests & Procedures. Available at: http://www.vassarstats.net/ (Accessed on November 26 2015).
Zimmerman, D. W. (1997). A Note on Interpretation of the Paired-SamplestTest. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 22(3), 349–360.
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following concepts when looking for appropriate resources:
•Variable cost per unit
•Direct labor costs
•Direct materials costs
•Cost based pricing
•Full costing
General guidelines for completing this assignment:
•You need to find at least three relevant and credible sources that can be used to support the concepts discussed in the case (Three sources is the minimum; having only three will not get you the highest grade.)
•The bibliography needs to be done as an APA formatted annotated bibliography. Please use the link below to see how an annotated bibliography is formatted.
•Each cited source needs to be specifically linked to the concepts in the case. Please do not cite random sources.
•Make sure your annotation captures the important point of the source. Please do not give a one-sentence summary.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Lipman Bottle Company Annotated Bibliography
Aurora, B.-B. C. (2013). The Cost of Production under Direct Costing and Absorption Costing: A Comparative Approach. Annals of the “Constantin Brâncuşi” University of Târgu Jiu, Economy Series, 2, 123-129.
The author of this article stresses on the importance of managerial accounting with regards to balancing production costs and pricing of finished products in a company’s strategic management, especially to help managers in optimizing their decisions particularly those concerning operating activities. The emphasis of the author is focused on the role of managerial accounting in calculating costs (both fixed and variable), measurement of inventory costs as well as prices and prices of services and products. As a result, the system of cost calculation is prioritized in this article because it tends to vary on basis of the type of costs assigned to items and according to the costing theory two main systems of cost calculation adopted are: full cost accounting, which comprise of all production costs, and partial cost accounting comprising of variable costs that vary with output. Hence, considering that full as well as partial costing in production in terms of fixed and variable costs play a crucial role in determining the prices of finished products, this article provides valuable insights on how the balance between costing and pricing can be effectively achieved. The author outlines a comparative approach with regards to the differences between cost of production calculation under absorption costing and direct costing. This article further examines the impact of utilizing each of these systems of calculation on companies’ financial performance as well as financial position with regards to reported income statement and financial position statement. This article concludes by discussing the benefits of direct costing use in manufacturing companies for their internal reporting, bearing in mind that this method of costing is unacceptable for external reports that are presented to shareholders as well as other external uses. However, direct costing method is very important for companies to appropriately make production decisions. The article also fits very into Lipman Bottle Company case because of the insightful information it can provide to the company management to solve its production dilemma and settle on the most appropriate and profitable production mix based on informed decisions.
Banker, R. D. & Hansen, S. C. (2002). The Adequacy of Full-Cost-Based Pricing Heuristics. Journal of Management Accounting Research, 14, 33-58.
Authors of this article base their discussion on performance investigation of a full-cost heuristic within a service setting focusing on costs involved in providing a service eventually influence the pricing of such services. Based on the full-cost heuristic model, authors of this article state that service companies periodically determines the extent of capacity, prices as well as price discounts. In the context of price, the article examines a scenario of a stochastic number of customers placing orders for a service and reports that when in a certain period there are too many orders; a service company offers price discounts to customers willing to come back for the same service later. The authors of this article further examines how closely a company’s optimal performance can be approximated using two heuristic approaches that are distinct such as full-cost pricing heuristic and modified full-cost pricing heuristic. The results of the analysis full-cost pricing is the best-performing heuristic when conducted upon a program towards firm’s optimization on basis of constrained version in which prices are set using full costs in addition to adjustments on basis of nonlinear elasticity demand. However, the article also suggests that in settings where pricing choices and capacity choices are made before and after demand information respectively, modified full-cost heuristic may be perform relatively well but not for long before it starts to deviate. These pricing models are highly applicable to the Lipman Bottle Company situation since the company needs to determine it optimal performance by setting prices of products based on its capacity, full cost of production and demand meaning that full-cost pricing heuristic would be highly effective to optimize the company’s performance.
Ghaemi, M. H. & Nematollahi, M. (2012). Study on the Behavior of Materials, Labor, and Overhead Costs in Manufacturing Companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, 3(1), 19-24.
The authors of this article examines the relationship between sales income and production expenses by analyzing income statements information for Tehran Stock Exchange listed companies over a period of four years ranging from 2000 to 2003 and subsequently evaluate costs stickiness. In this article costs stickiness is used to refer to a situation where increasing production activities result to faster increasing of costs compared to how decreasing production activities result to decreasing of costs. The results of the study reported in this article show that overhead costs are sticky but direct labor costs as well as raw material costs are not sticky. This means effective management of overhead costs by production companies can significantly reduce operational costs hence directly influencing product prices as well as overall company profitability. Thus, Lipman Bottle Company can utilize the findings reported in this article to reduce its production costs, which is critical in eventually determining pricing, sale revenues and profits.
Kimes, S. E. (2010). Strategic pricing through revenue management [Electronic version]. Retrieved [24th November 2015], from Cornell University, School of Hospitality Administration site: http://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/articles/346
The author of this article examines the importance of revenue management towards strategic pricing, especially in manufacturing industries where capacity of inventory is relatively fixed and cost of production is characterized by low variable costs and high fixed costs. This article reports that in industries where revenue management is used, revenue increases are typically reported. The insights provided in this article are highly applicable to Lipman Bottle Company where pricing of finished products can be strategically done through revenue management.
Bibliography
Aurora, B.-B. C. (2013). The Cost of Production under Direct Costing and Absorption Costing: A Comparative Approach. Annals of the “Constantin Brâncuşi” University of Târgu Jiu, Economy Series, 2, 123-129.
Banker, R. D. & Hansen, S. C. (2002). The Adequacy of Full-Cost-Based Pricing Heuristics. Journal of Management Accounting Research, 14, 33-58.
Ghaemi, M. H. & Nematollahi, M. (2012). Study on the Behavior of Materials, Labor, and Overhead Costs in Manufacturing Companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, 3(1), 19-24.
Kimes, S. E. (2010). Strategic pricing through revenue management [Electronic version]. Retrieved [24th November 2015], from Cornell University, School of Hospitality Administration site: http://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/articles/346
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Using only the following source: Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, found in the norton Anthology of American Literature, by Nina Baym 8th Edition, discuss the
following prompt:
Although the freedom-quests of Huck and Jim in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are aligned for much of the novel, they aren’t identical- which is to say,
freedom means something different to the boy than it does to the man. Or does it? Aren’t there moments of perfect alignment where the differences disappear?
Discuss.
Use at least three (3) quality references Note: Wikipedia and other related websites do not qualify as academic resources.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
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Read the Case Study below. Answer the following questions:
What are some of the planning strategies that Russ might have used that would possibly have positively affected the outcome of the strategic plan execution?
Discuss some things Marvelous Marvin could have done differently as CEO in order avoid the current situation?
What political factors created bias and clouded judgments in this situation?
Who’s to blame for the bad outcomes of this strategic plan?
If you were one of the OR Director’s direct reports/managers, what should your involvement in the organization’s strategy have been?
Guidelines:
Assignment should be a minimum of 5 pages, excluding the title page and reference page.
Utilize a minimum of 5 references, only 1 can be the text book.
Fully answer all questions above and follow proper APA guidelines.
Submit your assignment through the Turnitin link located in the “Assignment Dropbox”.
Assignments that have a Plagiarism Rate from Turnitin of higher than 30% will automatically receive a 0. I strongly recommend that you submit prior to due date so you can correct if your rate is higher than this.
No Assignments will be accepted late, No exceptions!
Last Chance Hospital – Case Study
Last Chance Hospital (LCH) is a 254-bed, community hospital located in a small, affluent suburb, just outside of San Diego, California. The hospital has historically been well-received by the local community, which demographically has a higher concentration of older age groups than most other local areas. The greater San Diego area is densely populated, and over twenty-five hospitals operate in the larger geographic area. Historically, LCH had always been financially sound, and had managed to remain independent as their local competitors joined
larger systems. But that was then, and this is now. About a year ago, Last Chance Hospital undertook a strategic planning process to encompass the next years. At the time, the hospital was doing okay financially, but was starting to dip into their cash reserves more often than the Board of Trustees liked; LCH was in need of an ideal strategy to bring them ahead of the market before things got out of hand.
As the strategic planner for LCH, Russ Newmarket reported indirectly to the CEO, Marvelous Marvin, but his immediate boss was Courtney Graveyard – and she had a lot on her plate. LCH did not have a chief nursing officer, and as COO, Graveyard was responsible for all of the nursing departments as well as surgical services, facilities, and information technology. A nurse by background, Graveyard spent the majority of her time trying to find different ways to recruit much-needed nursing staff. During the development of the strategic plan, Russ called together the usual group of senior executives, Board members and key physician leaders. He diligently developed the SWOT using their input and applying their assumptions. During his market research, Russ
became aware of some patient-centric trends emerging across the country, but he was also aware
that LCH had always strategically catered more to physicians due to the notion that physicians were the ones who ultimately referred patients to the hospital. Through the strategy development process, it became clear that senior management was stuck on this physician-centric mindset. Russ, ambitious and eager to make a name for himself, found and presented valid information that concurred with management’s mindset. At the end of the planning process, Marvelous Marvin felt confident that their solo, physician-focused strategy would give them a market lead–the plan was to attract more surgeons–and increase OR volumes. Graveyard was under intense pressure from Marvelous Marvin to make sure the operating rooms were as efficient as possible
to handle the planned increase in volume as OR efficiency would be a key recruitment issue for
surgeons. The LCH physician recruiter was under the gun as well. The remainder of the executive staff breathed a collective sigh of relief that their areas were not part of the strategic initiative. Russ suspected LCH needed more of a strategy than attracting new surgeons, but he convinced himself that senior management knew best. After the Board approved the strategic plan, Graveyard immediately met with her OR Director, and charged him with increasing the efficiency of the ORs. She then turned her focus back to her first love, nursing. The physician recruiter hit the ground running, developing an elaborate plan to increase surgeon recruitment. From all appearances, LCH was on a roll.
Over the next several months, the OR Director was able to reduce the OR’s operating budget by 13%, a result that made Marvelous Marvin very happy. At the same time, Graveyard made great strides in increasing LCH’s exposure to and status in the nursing community, and was able to decrease the nursing vacancies by over 6%. In a time of nursing shortages, the Board was impressed with Graveyard’s results. The physician recruiter was having only
moderate success at recruiting surgeons however, and her targeted volume projections were noticeably under budget. Marvelous Marvin approved her request to increase her staff, adding approximately $250,000 to her budget line. Overall patient volumes were steadily decreasing at what was becoming an alarming rate, and thus the financial picture for LCH was in critical condition. Marvelous Marvin couldn’t help but wonder aloud, “Why isn’t the LCH strategic
plan working?”
SAMPLE ANSWER
Case study: Last Chance Hospital
Strategic management in health care institution is crucial in determining long-term and short-term performance. In most cases, effective measures are the ones that bring in short-term success and sustain it in the long-term. However, there are situations where strategies may offer varied outcomes for both short-term and long-term. For instance, they could result in unfavorable short-term outcomes but end up being fruitful in the long-term. Likewise, strategies may at first appear to yield much, only for them to end up being faulty in the long-run. This paper considers the case of Last Chance Hospital (LCH). The hospital has been running a physician-centered system for long. In the earlier days, the hospital had secured a desirable position in the market. In a bid to increase the efficiency in operating rooms (OR), the hospital enhanced its physician-centered system. Contrary to the expectations of the hospital, the move did not attract as much surgeons, and to make it worse, it resulted in decreased number of customers.
Effective Planning on the Part of Russ
Russ stood an appropriate chance to direct planning strategies at LCH. There are some strategies that he could have employed so as to land the hospital to prosperity. First, he could have utilized his knowledge of the emerging patient-centered trends. On his part, Russ had made a mistake by assuming that the senior management was right before questioning their awareness of the recent trends. The strategic planner should have explored the trends further, collected sufficient evidence either approving or disapproving the approach, presented it to the board and advocated for its consideration. By so doing, Russ would have ensured that the organization deeply understood patient-centeredness. According to Rhodes, informing an entire organization about alternative strategies is a basic step for effective strategic planning (2010). Second, Russ should have advised fellow planners at LCH to make their plans flexible. Such an approach could have enabled the organization to shift timely and effectively so as to overcome the presenting challenges. Russ could also have advised the organization to consider equally the views of all parties rather than just those of a few leaders. This would have presented a better position for contrary views that could have possibly been accepted by the organization. Again, when conducting a SWOT analysis for the organization’s strategy, the planner should have adequately considered the impending threats. Russ knew that other hospitals were focusing their care on the patient. On the other hand, LCH was heading to the opposite directions. It was almost unquestionable that the threats that the hospital was to face would have been severe. Lastly, the planner should have used his position to protect the competitive advantage of the organization. Shifting too much to physician-centeredness was definitely a deviation from competitiveness, more so from the perspective of the patients.
Possible Effective Strategies that Marvin could have Applied
Hospital CEOs have the primary role to make strategies (Higginbotham & Church, 2012, p. 295). Marvin’s plans to have LCH stick to its physician-centeredness did not yield to his expectations. The executive made several mistakes in his projections. The greatest was an obsession with the institution’s cultural strategies. The obsession with the old ways blinded him so that he could not explore new approaches. The executive failed to notice the emerging trends of patient-centeredness. It is for this reason that he passionately advocated for the enhancement of physician-centeredness without any considerations for patient-centeredness. His obsession with old culture and ignorance about the new strategies placed him at the risk of making uninformed decisions. The other critical mistake that Marvin made was focusing on change rather than a sound plan. The executive purposed to institute change in the organization without necessarily fitting it to an efficient plan. For instance, Marvin pushed Graveyard to increase efficiency in the OR but did not necessarily establish how effective increasing the number of surgeons would have been in generating revenues for the institution. Considering that Marvin did not have efficient plans, it was not surprising that the organization did not manage to increase its surgeon staffing. Lastly, Marvin focused on short-term but did not address long-term problems. She addressed the problem of having many patients by thinking about increasing the number of surgeons. Definitely, sufficient surgery staffing meant facilitated service delivery to the institution’s large number of customers. However, centering too much on physicians at the expense of patients had certain long-term implications for the organization. First, the approach would barely be in the favor of patients, and therefore, it would have compromised their loyalty to the hospital. Again, the approach was contrary to that of neighboring hospitals. This meant that the institution competitors would have used the cons of the strategy in securing a larger market share. While advocating for the strategy, Marvin should have considered its impact on other competitors.
Political Factors that Influenced Decision-Making
The judgment developed at LCH concerning the strategy to adopt was impaired by political determinants. For instance, the influence of executives was too much and it was unbalanced with that of other stakeholders. The opinions of leaders counted more to decision-making than those of their juniors. An excellent illustration is the case of Marvin and Graveyard. Marvin was senior to Graveyard and he directed Graveyard to execute the plans of orienting service delivery to physicians. The interaction reveals that Graveyard’s opinions did not count as much as those of her senior. Another instance of political influence in the case is the position of Russ compared to that of the senior management. Though Russ had information about an alternative approach to service orientation, the weight of his opinion is compromised by the event that his seniors opted to stick to their old ways. Eventually, the strategic planner had to make a decision that impressed LCH senior staff by going by their opinion in undertaking his planning role. Al-Sawai noted that though leaders are expected to make strategic decisions for their firms, there is a need for them to do so upon considering the thoughts of their juniors (2013, p. 86).
The Blame
Different departments are charged with varied responsibilities in health care institutions (Al-Sawai, 2013, p. 85). In LCH, it could be argued that Russ and his department were charged with coming up with strategies for the hospital. However, there were other stakeholders playing within including Ms. Graveyard and her department. Russ was reporting to the hospital CEO through the COO. As such, the role of strategic planning was not placed on Russ solely, but Ms. Graveyard and Marvin counted more or less equally. On his part, Russ suggested a possible alternative that was the trend in running services in hospitals. However, the planner did not push enough to convince the management to buy his proposal. The case presents Marvin making uninformed decision, yet Russ had information concerning the patient-centeredness. It was upon Russ to gather sufficient evidence and advocate for patient-centeredness. In addition, the strategic planner should have informed the organization about the threats associated with their physician-centered approach. On her part, Ms. Graveyard was not proactive in determining the logic of implementing Marvin’s strategies. She should have evaluated the effectiveness of the approach in facilitating service delivery at the hospital as well as its possible impact on patients. Ms. Graveyard was heading service delivery and she should have been an advocate for the patients. Marvin is also to blame. As Farbrot noted, CEOs have the greatest impact on determining whether organizations would fail or not (2010). Marvin was too much obsessed with the old ways that he failed to appreciate the suggestions made by Russ. The CEO should have welcomed contradictory views and encourage their substantiation.
OR Director’s Direct Manager’s Involvement
Direct report employees are essential for efficiency of management in organizations. In the case scenario, direct report personnel to OR directors could have worked actively in helping managers implement their strategies. This would have involved giving instant feedback on adopted strategies and timely pointing out their shortcomings and strengths. This would have helped directors to learn the need to reconsider their strategies early enough and avoid heavy losses. The direct reports would also have facilitated interactions between managers by encouraging consultations. The move would have created high chances for the development of effective opinions. Direct reports would also have been involved in emphasizing the strengths of their directors. For instance, they could have pointed out strategies adopted by their managers that would most likely benefit their organization. In so doing, direct reports would have let their mangers know their strengths and how such strengths apply to specific tasks (Adkins, 2015). For the case of LCH, such strengths include advocating for patient centeredness.
Higginbotham, E. J., & Church, K. C. (2012). Strategic planning as a tool for achieving alignment in academic health centers. Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, 123, 292–303.
Politics of the Future First Midterm Essay
Choose one of the topics below and compose an essay that answers the set of questions asked and demonstrates that you are familiar with assigned texts, lecture materials, and topics discussed in class.
Three criteria will be used in grading these essays, which will be worth a total of 20 points: (1) Familiarity with the materials presented (worth 8 points).
The essay needs to demonstrate that you are acquainted with readings and lecture topics. In other words, you need to prove that you’ve done the work. It is not important that every point and textual nuance be perfectly understood, but some evidence has to be given that these questions have been encountered and contemplated. (2) Comprehension of materials presented (8 points). Again, there is no single correct way of interpretation, but this does not mean that every interpretation is as good as the next. Do you understand what has been presented, and, just as importantly, how effectively are you able to make the connections between concepts and themes that may not always seem to fit together in some immediately obvious form? (3) Clarity of ideas presented in the essay (4 points). How effectively and precisely are you saying what you want to say? How does the essay flow? Remember that excessive mistakes in spelling, punctuation, syntax, and so on, may disrupt clarity of the essay.
It is important that your essay take a critical perspective. Key terms and concepts need to be defined and explained in the overall context of what the author is analyzing. This is a process involving not just reading the text, but engaging it. What is being said? How is it being said? What assumptions are being made in order to say it? Thinking about these kinds of questions will give your essay a strong analytic focus and a critical edge.
There are no correct or incorrect answers. However, this does not mean you are free to conclude your argument self-evidently true. The thrust of the essay
should always be supported by relevant data and must anticipate counter arguments. The truth of one argument cannot be proven by claiming that other analyses are wrong.
You are expected to draw upon both readings and lectures by citing specific arguments, examples, cases, etc., where necessary. Footnotes, endnotes, or other methods of citing sources should be used where appropriate. Since there is a single textual source for this essay, citation of page numbers parenthetically
is probably the easiest approach. For example: “As Virilio argues, knowledge has supported militarism and warfare for at least the past fifty years (p.
145).”
Suggested length: About five pages, typed, double-spaced (about 1250 words). It may be longer–and very likely will be–which is fine.
Date due: Thursday, 20 February, in class. Late papers will have a mandatory deduction of five points per day, with the first five points taken off
immediately at the end of class (4:45 pm) on that date.
1. Paul Virilio states: “Globalization is the world becoming too small, and not too big” (p. 89). Critically and carefully analyze this, looking at the role
that speed plays in how we see and experience the world, how society is defined by and responds to speed, and how the world’s shrinkage contributes to a
collective desire to achieve what he calls “escape velocity.” What are we trying to escape from? Is this even possible? Where do we go then, that is, if
colonization leads to globalization, what is the next step or phase, according to Virilio? What possible danger might this pose to individuals, society, or
both?
2. Critically evaluate what Paul Virilio means by the “accident of science.” What has become accidental about science and scientific discovery, and what
relationship do accidents have to the speed with which research and development lead to technological change? He says that, “It [science] no longer has any
ethical or even any physical limit” (p.149). What is it about speed that contributes to accidents and what is it about accidents that make them inevitable as
science develops new (or different) technologies? What role might accidents play in militarism and war? How does this change the parameters of war and how
does it change the meanings of science? For Virilio, is the total accident—the ultimate catastrophe—unavoidable and thus inevitable? Does he offer any hope?
Do you have any hope? Why or why not?
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In your professional experience, have you been involved in the implementation of a performance management system? If so, you may have already posed questions about implementation to yourself, such as: how should such a system address employee engagement? What kind of online or technology-supported tools or approaches should be used? Are there specific practices or recommendations from management literature that can guide others?
In this essay, you will further explore the challenges of performance management implementation.
•Sharing alternative perspectives on the implementation challenges faced by managers and staff
•
•Synthesising specific recommendations for HR leaders to address these challenges
•
•Discussing the role of employee engagement in your recommendations and how it might be promoted. Include discussion about the relationship of the performance management system to other management processes and the viability of online or technology-supported approaches to performance management
Important note:
Please follow the exact instruction as provided above.
SAMPLE ANSWER
Perfecting Performance Management Implementation
Introduction
Observably, there are many challenges facing the implementation. One question that kept disturbing me was if employee engagement could have made the implementation smooth. In addition, online or technology-supported tools or approaches should have been used to make the implementation work easier. At the end, the implementation was full of flaws. Therefore, the following discussion will engage in illustrating how performance management can be made successful. This will be in the form of strategies from various literatures that give insights on the best possible approaches to handling performance management.
Discussion
One of the disturbing challenges during the performance management implementation in my organization was communication-related challenges (Gao & Gurd 2015, p,234). The organization embraces diversity. A proactive communication strategy was not used in the implementation. Communication challenge was observed in the implementation phase when there were observed conflicts between the employees. The presence of ineffective communication was observed by the failure of the managers to communicate adequately to the employees on the best approach to take after a method failed. In addition, more employees becoming resistant to the change observed failure of communication. The aspect that indicated that there was unclear communication was disorganized time frames upon which implementation was carried upon. Therefore, there was job confusion since every employee found himself or herself executing an assignment that was wrongly timed. Lawther & Martin (2014, p.219) argue that communication is important in an organization because it assist the employee to create a positive momentum. Sykes, Venkatesh & Johnson (2014, p.51) attest that effective communication is a prerequisite for a successful implementation since it enables the employee eradicate fears, take risks, and generate commitment into the system.
The other implementation challenge observed was the lack of leadership support (Van der Merwe & Nienaber 2015, p45). The top management in charged with the implementation never inspired the employees through physical and non-physical means. The leaders failed to encourage the employee in the effort to make the implementation successful. Van der Merwe & Nienaber 2015 (p47) argues that leadership support in implementing performance management is pertinent in creating a vision. Woodrow & Guest (2014, p.38) add that leadership support is crucial in ensuring that the employees are inspired. Some of the means the leadership can support the workforce in implementing performance management include rewards, sharing past successful implementations, and act as role models.
Another implementation challenge observed was the inability to keep the fire of the implementation burning (Gao & Gurd 2015, p,235). I observed that the employees were only interested in the implementation once in the organization. When the working hours were over, the employees forgot what they were doing and wait for the next day. The employees had no interest in the implementation a heart. Some of the employees argued that they wished if the implementation could come at a halt because it was just tiring them. Lawther & Martin (2014, p.221) argue that implementation of a project should be made a part of the employee. Van der Merwe & Nienaber (2015, p51) attest that there is a need to embed performance management as an ongoing process rather than a one-off event. This is where the concept of employee engagement is derived. The importance of employee engagement is that it enables an organization keeps the employee motivated towards the success of the implementation.
The employee, upon being engaged, finds himself or herself doing activities related to the implementation at non-working hours. This means that they take the implementation as a part of their mission, which they cannot like when it fails. Skes, Venkatesh & Johnson (2014, p.53) recommend that employee engagement can be achieved through online techniques such as video-conferencing. These online techniques will ensure that the strategy is communicated well as well as giving feedback to questions the employees might be interested in asking (Woodrow & Guest 2014, p.45).
The other challenge observed was poor monitoring. The monitoring method was blurred. The management failed to assess the progress of the implementation (Gao & Gurd 2015, p,236). Therefore, they were not able to find the emerging needs of the employees in the implementation. Lack of monitoring made the emerging problems to become huge irresolvable issues. For instance, it was observed that failure to monitor employee relationship in the implementation phase, the management was forced to halt the process first to mitigate a conflict that had arisen between the supervisors and the employee.
Lawther & Martin (2014, p.242) argue that monitoring should be made an integral part of the implementation. The author argued that monitoring enables the top management spot minor issues that could eventually lead to the dilemma in the implementation when not attended. Therefore, through monitoring, the management could have encouraged employee engagement, since it could have noticed the wrangles developing between employees and deal with them. Van der Merwe & Nienaber (2015, p48) add that monitoring revolves around earlier warning of a problem and taking a corrective action towards it.
Conclusion
In summary, the discussion has shown that the challenges that were present in my organization when implementing performance management system emanated from communication, problem, poor leadership support, ineffective monitoring, and inability to keep the spirit of the implementation burning. However, the discussion has drawn from the literature review that effective monitoring, effective leadership support, and good monitoring system are important in making implementation useful. This is because, at the end, they encourage employee engagement, which is very crucial in making performance management implementation successful.
References
Gao, T, & Gurd, B 2015, ‘Meeting the challenge in performance management: the diffusion and implementation of the balanced scorecard in Chinese hospitals’, Health Policy & Planning, 30, 2, pp. 234-241, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 19 November 2015.
Lawther, W, & Martin, L 2014, ‘Availability Payments and Key Performance Indicators: Challenges for Effective Implementation of Performance Management Systems in Transportation Public-Private Partnerships’, Public Works Management & Policy, 19, 3, pp. 219-234, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 19 November 2015.
Van der Merwe, MM, & Nienaber, H 2015, ‘FACTORS HINDERING STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION AS PERCEIVED BY TOP, MIDDLE AND FRONTLINE MANAGERS IN A SOUTH AFRICAN ELECTRONICS ORGANIZATION’, Journal of Global Business & Technology, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 45-57.
Woodrow, C, & Guest, D 2014, ‘When good HR gets bad results: exploring the challenge of HR implementation in the case of workplace bullying’, Human Resource Management Journal, 24, 1, pp. 38-56, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 19 November 2015.
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REFLECT about three topics it consist of tow presentations and one video. This reflections paper should include what I feel about the topic and
how it can affect me and my society and also some examples about my experience related to the topics. The first topic about high-context and low-context
culture and you can get that from the notes. The second topic is a video about finance and you can look at it in the link and write the paper. The third
topic is about religion, racism and the society classes and what I feel about these topics. And the sources should be from the notes and the video.
PLEASE AVOID PLAGIARISM. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nCvO6qEbJw
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Designing Experiments
It is critical that the writer pay attentions to details for this paper and respond to all questions mentioned here. APA is critical especially when using tables. The writer must read on how to use tables in word document. The are 4 main component to address here and the writer must clearly address this 4 main points while expanding and addressing all component of the assignment.
While it is important to master the use of SPSS software to conduct data analysis, it is equally important to ensure quality in the methods used to collect the data analyzed. Recall the familiar adage, “Garbage in, garbage out,” and consider that if data is poorly collected, the analysis of that data will also suffer. Think about how the interrelatedness of the hypothesis, data collection method, and statistical analysis impacts research quality.
Having reviewed the readings from Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research, by Campbell and Stanley, consider the hypothesis you have chosen for your dataset from Week 3.
How might you design an experiment that will effectively collect data for this chosen hypothesis?
How will you minimize threats to validity?
Will it be a true experiment or a quasi-experiment?
Why or why not?
I will email the Dataset for this assignment.
SAMPLE ANSWER
The core purpose of this paper will be to establish whether there is any causation relationship between the number of employees, the gender of the supervisor and the number of working hours with a rate of injury rate at a particular site. Thus, the analysis will revolve around finding evidence on whether there exists any relationship. This will help in determining the trend of the rate of injuries in these sites. This research paper will follow the Experimental design procedures since the sample to be studied will be randomly selected (Grabbe, 2015). This is a necessary and a sufficient precaution taken to ensure that the researcher’s biasedness does not affect the results of the study. Furthermore, it reduces the effect of confounding variables.
The research will be guided by the following objectives.
To establish whether some sites are safer than others.
To determine whether the gender of the supervisor facilitates the increase of injury rates in a given place.
To ascertain the existence and nature of the relationship between injury rate and working sites and gender of the supervisor and if it does exist, which nature of the relationship.
In agreement with (Zikmund, 2012), the fundamental of good research is based on the research objective. This they act as a map for the analysis and also the inference of any study. The research will be a completely randomized design for simplicity and convenience purposes. The sample will be randomly selected from the three sites (Seattle, Boston, and Phoenix). The supervisors, in this case, will act as the treatment, and through randomization the experiment will control the effect of extraneous variables (Grabbe, 2015).
One of the purposes of using this design in this research is to reduce the variability (Zikmund, 2012). This will make it easier for the researcher to detect and establish whether there exist a relationship between different treatments. Furthermore, to eliminate the threat to internal and internal validity, replication in the data analysis will be conducted so that the results can be interpreted at a certain level of significance. This is because (Zikmund, 2012) stipulates that all results of the research study are useful when they are accurately and confidently interpreted.
The following research hypothesis will guide this experiment design: H0: There is no significance difference in injury rate at different working sites when different genders are managing. Versus, H1: There is a significance difference in injury rate at different working sites when different genders are managing. This hypothesis will act as the backbone of the whole analysis, which will help in making an inference (Grabbe, 2015). Furthermore, this hypothesis is like a summary of the objectives of the research. Based on this hypothesis the research question that will be answered in this study is: is there any significance difference in injury rate at different working sites when different genders are managing?
Some of the analysis that will be carried out in favor of answering the research question are ANOVA. This analysis will help in establishing whether there exists a significant difference between injury rates at different working sites when there is increased the number of employees or working hours. Furthermore, correlation analysis will be conducted to find out the nature of the relationship between different variables. Just because, correlation can be used to predict the behavior of one variable based on the other (Grabbe, 2015). Also, regression analysis will be performed to come up with a model that will help in predicting the rate of injuries using other variables.
References
Grabbe, J. W. (2015). Implications of Experimental versus Quasi-Experimental Designs. The Palgrave Handbook of Research Design in Business and Management, 141.
Zikmund, W., Babin, B., Carr, J., & Griffin, M. (2012). Business research methods. Cengage Learning.
McDermott, R. (2011). Internal and external validity. Cambridge handbook of experimental political science, 27-40.
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Note: In order to fulfill this assignment you need to have read Hasker: ch 3. You also need to have viewed the video presentation “The Mind/Body Problem” and the PointeCast presentation “Proposed Solutions to the Mind/Body Problem.” If you have not done so, please stop now and read that chapter.
Science fiction literature often raises philosophical issues and is a great source for philosophical speculation. This is especially true for the mind/body problem. For example, it is common in science fiction literature to encounter androids. An android is a robot which resembles a human being in appearance and behavior. Examples of androids in science fiction books, television programs or films are numerous (Star Trek, Star Wars, Aleins, Terminator, A.I., I Robot, etc.). In reality many computer scientists are currently working in the area of “artificial intelligence” or machines that can “think for themselves.” Many computer scientists believe this is the first step in creating these androids of the future and that in time the distinction between man and machine will be practically erased. These scientists speculate that androids with super-computer brains will have thoughts, beliefs, feelings and desires just like humans. Therefore, some argue, they will also have the same rights, responsibilities, and privileges that all humans have and should be treated as thus. Do you see problems with this view of the future? Do you think machines can ever become persons?
In order to explore this question, let us consider an episode of the popular television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation. It would be helpful if you could view this episode (perhaps you can rent it from your local video store or Netflix), but I have provided a synopsis so that you can fulfill this assignment without viewing the episode. You will need to have read Hasker, Ch 3 in order to fulfill this assignment.
For your initial post: After reading the synopsis (or viewing the episode) write a substantive response (at least 350 words) and post it on the forum. Your initial post must address the first question below. You may also address several of the other questions as well but the bulk of your response should be on the first question and relating the story to Hasker, Ch 3.
• From your reading of Hasker, and using the categories he uses, what view of the mind/body problem do you think is exhibited by Picard? By Maddox? Support your answer.
• Maddox lists three criteria for a being to be sentient: intelligence, self-awareness and consciousness. Are these adequate? Can you think of other properties or characteristics a being needs to have in order to be considered a “person?” What might they be?
• Do you think that artificial intelligence to the level as it is presented in the story will someday be possible? Why or why not?
• Do you think Maddox is right when he claims that Picard is being “irrational and emotional” in his view of Data?
• Do you agree with the JAG officers final ruling. Why or why not?
• If A.I. does become possible, will we have obligations to treat machines “ethically?”
SAMPLE ANSWER
Androids and the Mind/Body Problem
Following a comprehensive reading of the text, Picard appears to have a materialistic outlook. On the other hand, Maddox portrays a dualistic view of the data. A cardinal component of Picard’s crew is data, and therefore, he has a strong belief that data makes cognizant decision independently and possesses feelings similar to the other members of the crew. This implies that Picard sees data as possessing a mind and body as one entity (Hasker, 1983). Maddox on the other side, has a belief that the mind and body are separate. He strongly holds that one must be self-aware, intelligent, as well as conscious so as to be regarded a human. His argument regarding the data is that it possesses no brain and is only a computer.
The three criteria listed by Maddox are cardinal as they sum up a person. All people possess all these traits and they have to interact for a person to be complete. There are no other traits that correspond to these already known three.
Without doubt, there are high chances of the presence of artificial intelligence in future as narrated in the story. To illustrate this, there are numerous people presently who own iPhones, which have the Siri program. This program is essentially a kind of artificial intelligence in that it learns as well as adapts to commands and personal habits. In addition, there are robotics companies that are developing adapting and moving machines. There is a great need for artificial intelligence to pull limitless information using the internet so as to learn (Hasker, 1983). Many people are most likely to side with Maddox and assert that data is basically a machine, and this involves disregarding what Picard is arguing.
Health and safety is always a crucial aspect that poses a concern to everyone with regards to day-to-day affairs. In health and social care settings, especially care homes for the elderly health and safety remains a fundamental consideration for all law enforcement agencies as well as practitioners. This makes the importance of continuous monitoring in addition to reviewing of health as well as legislations and safety policies’ implementation for health as well as social care workplace undisputable and this has been succinctly discussed and explained in this assignment. According to Graham & Steven (2008) this is attributable to the fact that, good health and safety of care home residents is the key to their happiness something which has made the management and staff of home care workplaces to be cautious enough in managing health and safety issues. As a result, health protective agencies have been emphasizing on the implementation of appropriate policies, systems, and procedures for health and safety in all health as well as social care settings to alleviate hazards. The context of this assignment will provide a clear view of policies, systems, and practices and their effect in the promotion of safety in health and social care home in the perspective of Silver Meadows Care Home. From the perspective of health and social care home, employees, patients and their relatives or visitors ought to be protected from hazards. Therefore, in health and social care working environment, the management, staff as well as individual patients have the right to participate in implementing health and safety plans for the benefit of all those involved.
This assignment intends to discuss and evaluate the necessary health and safety policies, systems, procedures, and practices in accordance with legislative requirements as well as possible solutions and the associated dilemmas based on the case study of Silver Meadows Care Home. Three major tasks are covered in this assignment. Firstly, the implementation of policies, systems, procedures, and practices aimed to communicate health as well as safety information; responsibilities of health and social care home management and staff in managing health and safety; as well as an analysis of appropriate health and safety priorities of case study health and social care home. Secondly, risk assessment and the importance of obtained information in health and social care planning; analysis of a particular aspect concerned with health and safety policy; as well as dilemmas that are encountered in implementing health as well as safety policies and systems in addition to potential effect of non-compliance with legislations concerned with health and safety. Finally, the process of how to monitor and review of health aa well as safety policies, systems, procedures, and practices and their effectiveness in promoting safe culture and a healthy workplace as well as evaluation of personal contribution.
TASK 1
Health is without any doubt the most important concern for everyone, and safety is inseparable from health service. As a result, this has been the key reason why various policies and laws have been formulated concerning health and safety with regards to health and social care working environments. Discussion of the details is presented in the sections below:
Task 1: (a) Implementation of Policies Systems, Procedures, and Practices for Communicating Information on Health and Safety
In conventional health care as well as safety settings communication usually involve various aspects, including information exchange among staff, management as well as patients and their relatives. However, due to technological advancement there has been continuous expansion of possibilities for storage, processing and retrieval of medical data. According to Tripathi et al., (2009) varied types of information technologies and applications in the medical field have continued to enormously grow and evolve to ensure effective management and communication health as well as safety in both social and health care settings. From a perspective of social and health care workplace, there are several legislations that aim to support health and safety that are discussed below:
The 2008 Act on Health and Social Care
In this Act information technology and communication (ICT) in health products are considered critical in disseminating important information concerning welfare, health and safety. This is attributable to the fact that, ICT can be used to allow control or combination of various sources of information in order to gain efficiency and provide better care within a health and safe environment while making sure that staff and resources are freed up. As a result, implementation of communication policies, systems and procedures in the Silver Meadow Care Home in accordance with this legislation will lead to various benefits, including:
Patient Safety: This is because they will result to reduction of medical errors such as surgical errors, adverse drug related admissions, transfusion errors, as well as professional negligence.
Quality of care: Health information technology (HIT) reduces paperwork and provides more time to nurses which can be used to attend to their patients (Tripathi et al., 2009). As a result, Silver Meadows Care Home residents can get quality care from the physicians, nurses and the cares due to the saved time.
Patient access to care: Access to health and social care is improved using Health information technology (HIT) by ensuring that processes that are ineffective are streamlined resulting to increased staff productivity. The indicators of success in provision of care includes: time-out results analysis, time taken to respond to patients’ inquiries, as well as improved self-management of chronic diseases.
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
This Act usually considers a variety of issues that are related to health, safety, as well as welfare of employees across various workplace sectors. With regards to requirements of health and safety, this Act delegate a general obligation to the management and staff of health and social care homes to cooperate and take care of others concerning issues pertaining health and safety.
Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992
The Act is a refinement of 1974 Act where it requires the management of health and social care homes to regularly conduct risk assessments and record findings prior to communicating them to employees and patients. This Act compels the management to arrange on implementation of health and safety measures for the purpose of improving emergency procedures as well as providing clear information and training to their staff and also work in collaboration with other stakeholders.
Health and Safety Regulations 1981
In order to boost health and safety, this regulation compels the management of health and social care workplace to provide information to staff, patients and visitors on first-aid arrangement. In addition, they must also ensure that there is provision of first aid equipment as well as availability of trained first aiders.
This means that it is inevitable for the implementation of health information technology in Silver Meadows Care Home to step up health and safety in its settings, which has to be carried out in accordance with the entire raft of standard, legislation, as well as guidelines altogether referred to as “Information Governance” in UK. It has been operational for sometimes and cover issues of accessing and disclosing health information as well as confidentiality. The 2008 Act on Health and Social Care establishes the National Information Governance Board for Heath and Social Care, (NIGB) which is mandated to carry out a statutory duty of supervising the governance of information (Tripathi et al., 2009).
Using the guidelines provided by the above legislation and regulation, information about health and safety can be effectively communicated and implemented in Silver Meadows Care Home. In the UK, implementation of health as well as safety policies in social and health care workplaces is conducted by the Department of Health based on the model provided below:
Figure1: Implementation Model (Source: Pall, 2012)
According to Stranks, (2005) Health Department is obliged to formulate policies regulating provision of services related to health and social care to people across UK. Even though implementation of these policies and procedure may be compromised by non-compliance, rectification can be achieved through regular monitoring by supervisory agencies shown in the above figure which ensure home cares oblige to specific health and safety policies at all levels.
Task 1: (b)Responsibilities of Management and Staff in Managing Health and Safety
Management and staffs of Silver Meadows Care Home just like those in other home care settings have certain responsibilities that they are supposed to adhere to. Elderly people are without any doubt the most vulnerable age group of the population implying that special consideration must be taken towards their safety, care, and security (Fisher, 2005). According to Sowers & Catherine (2008) all the staff of elderly home care must be able to readily access up to date policies for nursing care and medication guidelines. On the other hand, the British National Formulary must also be readily accessible to nurses working at Silver Meadows Care Home.
In the UK, planning of health and safety in health as well as social care workplaces is conducted by both non-government institutions as well as government institutions. There exists a public health and health care system in the government of UK. In this system, there is distribution of responsibilities from the department of health down to the local authorities. As a result, the system includes health and social care providers and takers, NHS commissioning board, clinical commissioning board, monitoring system as well as public and local health (Pall, 2012). There is an integration of this system where responsibilities are delegated to all organisational bodies based on health and safety which ought to be provided by social and health care homes.
Management is the other crucial aspect of safety and health with regards to organisational structure, particularly in relation to the management and staff responsibilities at health and social care home. In the management of health and safety responsibilities of management as well as staff include: systemic utilisation of standardised techniques which are important in the identification and removal of impeding hazards; and controlling potential risks by influencing behaviours as well as encouraging attitudes during techniques (Pall, 2012).
As a result, the responsibilities of management and staff in relation to health as well as safety management at Silver Meadows Care Home can be assessed in the context of care and support plan for a physically disabled individual because palliative care is offered.
For example: A Care and Support Plan for a Physically Disabled Individual
Based on the care and support for the physically disabled individual, the plan includes taking the person to a restaurant once per week to take dinner since he/she is unable to this individually. However, the person wants to eat a burger at the restaurant every time when taken out, but the carers or support workers are of the opinion that burgers are not healthy and the person should not eat them that often. Here the management and staff of Silver Meadows Care Home through their responsibilities with regards to management of health and safety can devise individualised mental capacity for making a better decision. But within the responsibilities of management and staff is it a good decision to hinder such a person to take fatty foods? From this perspective, the answer is yes; however, they should ensure that they use in supporting and encouraging tone of voice so that they feel as though they are being bullied. They should also concern them in taking responsibility when they eat foods that are unhealthy. This implies that responsibilities and management of health and safety are related to individuals as well as the organisation. Furthermore, the example of care and support plan provided shows how the management of health and safety can be comprised and the appropriate steps that can be used to rectify it also discussed.
Task 1: (c)Analysis of Health and Safety Priorities
Care homes should be maintained in a manner that portrays a home in order to be pleasant to live in by providing safe and healthy environment. Hence, the management and staffs of care homes should prioritise the most important issues with regards to maintaining high quality health and social care for the residents. In the context of Silver Meadows Care Home, which offers dementia care, palliative care, nursing care, and residential care for the elderly people, it is clear that there should be some appropriate health and safety priorities. For instance, since Silver Meadows is taking care of elderly people whose movement is limited there is need to prioritise the safety of entry and exit in the workplace to allow easier movement in case of an emergency (Moonie, 2000; Sprenger, 2003). Also considering that elderly people are not stable and vulnerable to, the floors should always be maintained in good state and not wet or slippery through better housekeeping practices (Sprenger, 2003). In health and social care settings, infection is the main risk and its prevention should be prioritised since elderly people often have compromised immune systems meaning new infections or cross infections may pose a significant danger to them. This can be controlled by limiting the number of visitors or employees to an area considered risky; using measures of hygiene which reduces or prevents transferring of infectious agent through regular hand washing and ensuring that the work environment is maintained in a hygienic condition. Reducing the risk of sharp injuries should also be prioritised at care home through engineering controls and elimination of risks as well as safe usage and disposal of sharp objects (Sprenger, 2003).
Task 2
In order to understand the impact of requirements of health as well as safety on practitioners and customers of health and social care homes, there is need to carry out risk assessment, as well as impacts of policy on customer and care practice, care planning, encountered dilemmas, as well as effects of non-compliance. Details of these aspects are discussed in the contents that follow:
Task 2: (a) Risk Assessments’ Information and Care Planning for Residents
Information on the services offered by health and social care home constitutes an important element of ensuring services are provided and taken in the context of health and safety in care planning. This can either be in the context of organisational decision making as well as individual care planning. Risk assessment is the most appropriate method to collect this information because it involves identification of impending hazards, possible severity of harm likely to result from of the identified hazards, calculating the extent of risk, monitoring as well as reappraisal of the risk (Grinnell & Yvonne, 2008). Hence, there is need for regular risk assessments in order to assess the risks associated with health and safety of individual care planning.
In most instances, the nature of risk assessments tend to be simple and can be done through direct observation/examination, but some are more complex and requires lengthy procedures to ascertain. The process of risk assessment involves several steps which have to be executed as follows: (1) significant hazards are identified through observations or interviews; (2) making a decision on who is likely to be harmed by the hazards; (3) evaluating the risks and deciding on the effectiveness of existing precautionary measures followed by implementation of proper measures if the existing ones are ineffective; (4) recording the findings and communing them to the staffs; and (5) reviewing the risk assessment and if necessary revisiting it (Lishman, 2007). The model of risk assessment in health as well as safety management is illustrated in the figure below:
Figure 2: Model for managing health and safety in work place, (Source: Dowding & Barr, 1999)
The information obtained from risk assessments plays a critical role in informing care planning for residents and organisational decision making concerning policies and procedures because its inherent features which include: it is recognised as a risk control, its implementation is done in accordance with modern procedures to manage risk, the risk assessment needs to be reviewed and revisited or amended if necessary, it ensures that there is control of all hazards, and it results in mitigation of any residual risk to be reasonably practicable. According to Carr (2010) getting information from risk assessments can be of considerable benefits; for example, at individual care planning they include: knowing different care services offered by various health and social care facilities, knowing better providers of health and social care, knowing the rights of getting the services of health and social care homes, appraising services offered by health and social care homes, as well as helping to make decisions on services to be sought. In addition, in the context of organisational decision making benefits include: an organisation gets to be aware of different procedures policies that concern social and health care, an organisation can get to be aware of new procedures and policies concerning health as well as safety management at care homes, it helps an organisation to decide on the services to give to a client and how to give, and also the information helps organisations to be conscious with regards to their right, client right as well as obligations (Carr, 2010).
Task 2: (b) Analysis of a Particular Aspect of Health and Safety Policy
In UK, various health and safety policies do exist with regards to regulation of different aspects of health and social care settings. There are both positive and negative impacts of these policies. One of safety and health policy is the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992. This regulation is the basis of the policy made against aggression and violence in care homes and has varied impacts care home service users and the care providers (OSHA, 2012). This is because aggression or violence expressed by some service users is a source of distress and injury to care providers at work. This policy helps in reducing aggression and violence which positively impact the care providers. Alternatively, it may hinder health care provision to service users with aggressive or violent behaviours, especially those seeking dementia care due to their limited cognitive ability. The policy also causes financial burden to care providers since they have to continuously train their staff on how to effectively handle patients who are potentially aggressive or violent.
Another policy is Health and Safety Regulations 1981 which compels the management of health and social care workplace to provide information to staff, patients and visitors on first-aid arrangement as well as ensuring that there is provision of first-aid equipment and presence of trained first aiders (AHS, 2010). This policy helps care providers or other patients to immediately get first when injured by violent patients or from any other accidents. However, it increases cost of running care home in purchasing first aid equipment and recruiting first aiders. Both policies seem to have both positive and negative impacts, but it is also clear that their overall impact is good to care providers and patients even though they may hinder service provision (Balarajan et al., 2011).
Task 2: (c) Addressing Dilemmas Encountered Implementing Systems and Policies for Health, Safety and Security
Silver Meadows Care Home is faced with dilemmas in ensuring that every legislation is adhered to because of their budgetary implications as well as quality care improvement or staff performance and also security measures. Popple & Leslie (2008) asserted that based on required expectations and stakeholder needs implementation of necessary systems is needed with emphasis on government requirements. Dilemmas are the concerns the facility face to ensure security and safety of patients is guaranteed (Popple & Leslie, 2008). Thus, the specific dilemmas include the need to ensure security and safety of patients always since it is the responsibility of the facility to guarantee the well-being of patients within a secure environment. In addition, budgetary requirements to implement the appropriate systems for assured security and safety of patients is another dilemma because the facility is faced by financial constraints and needs to outsource for the required capital. Considering Silver Meadows Care Home is considerably large, there is need to maintain high security levels as well as safety processes. Through implementation of new technology for operating systems and departments, it is possible to effectively manage time and increase the quality of care. However, these dilemmas can be addressed by liaising with management through which services of consultants can be used to monitor the activities through which the performance of employees can be improved. In order to increase the quality level of health and social care, continuous training programs need to be provided for the staff in order to ensure standards are developed. Finally, the dilemma with security can be addressed by implementing security camera system to increase safety at home care. According to Mizrahi & Larry (2008) implementation of a process of performance evaluation can maintain standards of employees with regards to Health and Safety Act 1981. Stringent adherence to policies, legislations and codes or standards of practice is also essential in achieving this goal as well as reducing risk irrespective of investments required since through cost benefit analysis should obviously give more benefits than costs.
Task 2: (d) Effects of Non-Compliance with Health and Safety Legislation
In case, health and social care home is non-compliance with a legislation or regulation which govern health as well as safety, its performance becomes ineffective and clients are dissatisfied. This means that when standards are not maintained in a home care, clients become unhappy and often seek health care services from other providers. According to Mathis & Jackson (2010) failure of a home care to provide the necessary training programs to their employees on existing legislation, regulations and standards often results to non-compliance subsequently hindering performance and quality service which eventually reduces the profits. According to Rosenfeld & Russell (2012) non-compliance to legislation may result to legal actions, especially when patients’ rights are violated as a result of failure of home care to maintain the legislation or the standards. The legal actions may also incur the home care a significant financial burden in terms of compensations and legal fees. Also, the home care may be banned to operate by the government due to gross violation of patients’ rights arising from non-compliance to legislation. Furthermore, when a home care is non-compliance with existing legislation the overall impacts may be increased risk, customer dissatisfaction, poor performance, poor levels of productivity, and a possibility of a ban from the government.
TASK 3
Understanding of the process of monitoring and review of health as well as social care workplace policies, systems, procedures, and practices is central to success in health and safety implementation. This section covers the monitoring and review of safety and health policies, systems and practices as well as their effectiveness in the promotion of safe culture and healthy workplace as well as evaluation of personal contribution. Details of these aspects of health and safety have been discussed in the following contents:
Task 3: (a) Monitoring and Review of Health and Safety Systems, Policies, Procedure as well as Practices
Health as well as safety systems, policies, procedures, and practices monitoring plays a fundamental role in managing safety and health in home cares. However, writing and launching of health and safety policy does not mean that is the end of responsibilities. In fact, it is the initial step in implementing a safety and health policy, which is vital in ensuring the required standards and codes or procedures are outlined alongside the need to ensure that they are always adhered to by everyone. Since there is a continuous change in safety and health management, the monitoring of the policies’ effectiveness needs to be done proactively for the purpose of regular evaluation of the progress and timely identification of deviations. Hence, monitoring and review of social and health care is required due to legal, morale as well as cost reasons. However, two general ways of monitoring as well as reviewing health and safety policies exist such as: proactive and reactive monitoring. Proactive monitoring which involves taking precautionary actions prior to a hazard constitutes the checking of implemented standards as well as control of management needs through regular inspections in addition to safety audits. This plays an imperative role in ensuring that preventative or protective measures and interventions are developed and implemented. As a result, this leads to significant reduction of risks as well as considerable gains in terms of costs reduction through minimised damages. Alternatively, reactive monitoring involves examination of events upon their occurrence and constitutes learned lessons from previous mistakes. Regular inspections of health and safety policy are an appropriate method of reviewing the progress of implementation. This approach is important in ensuring that risks or damages are mitigated in a timely manner for the purpose of abating their negative effects, which if left unaddressed would result to significant liability or taint the reputation of the facility. Thus, the need for devising the correct interventions is very important for long-term impact to be felt.
Task 3: (b) Effectiveness of Safety and Health Policies, Systems, Procedures, and Practices in the Promotion of a Positive, Healthy and Safe Culture
Health as well as safety systems, policies, procedures, and practices’ effectiveness is depended on social and health care promotion by focusing on several factors such as: the promotion of non-occupational factors and healthy lifestyles, as well as the organisational environment. Non-occupational factors are: home and community conditions as well as family welfare. On this aspect, emphasis should be directed to improving home and community conditions mainly by devising an appropriate approach through which collaboration between all the concerned parties can be achieved. Healthy lifestyles can be achieved through heightened awareness creation programs across all groups as well as encouraging change of lifestyles by highlighting the envisaged benefits. In addition, organisational environment is achievable through implementation of the necessary occupational safety and health standards as well as developing and implementing appropriate workplace designs and organisation. WHO proposed an effective model presented in the figure below:
Figure 3: Effectiveness Model of Health and Safety (Source: WHO, 2013)
The policies discussed previously such as the Management of Health and Safety at work Regulation 1992 puts more emphasis on risk assessments and reporting of findings, while Health and Safety Regulation 1981 compels home cares to provide first aid. These two policies play a critical role in promoting healthy workplaces as well as safe culture.
Task 3: (c) Evaluating My Personal Contribution
From perspective of personal contribution, two aspects of evaluating my personal contribution exist, i.e. personal evaluation as well as professional evaluation. Contributing to health and safety as own, it is crucial to make sure own actions are taken to reduce health and safety risk including identification of hazards, risk’s evaluation, understanding responsibilities, monitoring and reporting as well as making and application of policies. In particular, identification of hazards will play a crucial role in ensuring that preventive interventions are implemented prior to any damage occurring. Evaluation of risks is also imperative as a personal contribution, because through appropriate assessment of risks helps in choosing the correct measures that are necessary to prevent damage from the risks or mitigating such risks to ensure their unwanted effects are minimized or mitigated. Furthermore, succinct understanding of responsibilities will be vital in ensuring that, my mandate is always fulfilled with a goal of achieving an optimal working environment. On the other hand, monitoring and reporting will also be crucial in evaluating the progress and ensure improvements are made on areas where underperformance is identified. From own health and safety practices, it is clear that Health and Safety Regulations 1981 implementation is well to allow immediate first aid service to people. However, more interventions are required for discrimination to be removed. An illustration of the evaluation model is shown below:
Figure 4: Evaluation Model (Source: Self Study)
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is safe to state that health and safety implementation in home care, an integrated policy is required through which everyone will get surety to equity in health and social care. For the development of competence of health service providers, there is need for an integrated training since without such policy individuals will be taking their health risk responsibility.
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