Scriven Case Study - Assignment #2

The model I would use for the case study is the Scriven approach.  The Scriven approach focuses on goals and outcomes of a program.  It also focuses on looking at the reasons for the program and identifying the motivation of those involved.  I felt this approach would be most beneficial as it would allow the evaluator to look at a few key components of the program.  Firstly, it would be important to look at what the intended goals of the fitness program were before it began.  There is not a lot of information provided on what the program was hoping to achieve.  There were general and very broad goals but no expectations for numbers of participants or goals for achievement.  This approach would help to identify if the program was meeting its goals by clearly laying out what they were hoping to achieve.  At first glance, the number of participants would indicate that the program was very unsuccessful based on what numbers they were hoping to participate.  Unfortunately, we don’t really know those numbers and what methods were used to advertise the program.  Perhaps this could have been an initial flaw for the program.  Secondly, there are no fitness goals to be able to correlate to decreased chance of developing diabetes.  It’s hard to meet a goal and project an outcome, from a medical point of view, if there isn’t information to identify what fitness accomplishments would increase the chances of less acquired diabetes cases.

I also felt that the motivation of all people involved would be an interesting concept to investigate.   There is no mention of who decided this program was needed and who agreed to develop and run the program.  Part of the success of establishing a program of this nature is identifying the need for the participants involved and having motivated staff to implement the instruction and guidance.  If the participants didn’t find the exercise, nutrition, and education on diabetes valuable to them then they would be very unmotivated to follow through with the program.  I would not include this information in an evaluation, but it seems as though someone else decided this program was necessary and did not poll or survey aboriginal women to decide if this was a program that is needed or would be utilized by the intended participants if created.  It seems like the need by participants should have been the guiding influence on the creation of this program.  In addition, if staff members, who likely already have enough work to handle, are “forced” to implement a program that they don’t believe in or wish to participate in then the entire morale and motivation from the staff would influence the participants.

This model seems to be the most appropriate for deciphering the intended goals and objectives of the program and following them through to see if they meet the outcomes.  By carefully investigating the goals, outcomes, and role motivation, using the Scriven method, an evaluation would be able to efficiently outline the positives and negatives of this particular program.

ETAD 809 Assignment 1: SHR Hospital Evaluation

This evaluation intrigued me as I recently broke my right arm and became very familiar with Royal University Hospital’s emergency room.  Without going into too much detail my experience was not a positive one.  Therefore, I was determined to discover the literature I have read in the newspaper explaining reports outlining evaluations done on Saskatoon hospitals and their lengthy wait times.

The report would be classified as a goal-based evaluation as it is identifying the problems previously discovered for our city’s hospital emergency rooms.  The evaluation was thoroughly laid out by first discussing some of the issues facing the hospitals that lead to the need for an evaluation.  It continues by explaining the issues faced by the hospital, which has contributed to increased wait times.  Therefore, anyone reading the evaluation is well informed on the current issues and the key focus of the report.  The report also identifies the goals previously set out by the Saskatoon Health Region and how they are struggling to achieve these goals by their projected time frame of March 2017.

The evaluation continues to explain current figures and statistics on patient volume and current triage practices.  What I found very beneficial is that the evaluation clearly identifies four major boundaries to patient care and how these inefficiencies are preventing future progress.  The major issues are identified as: lack of alternate care, use of emergency for specialist consultation, lack of beds available for urgent care, and physical layout of the emergency rooms.  Each section identifies and explains the problem and recommends that the Saskatoon Health Region prepare an action plan, which had not been done at the time of this report.

Another strength of this report is that it proceeds to make conclusions, based off of the data collected, on how the ER’s can make some improvements.  It clearly lays out what the specific problems are, within each category listed above, and how these issues are contributing to the larger problem.  The key suggestions for focus were: give better directions to emergency patients, follow practices more closely on how to identify triage patients and their urgency for care, and periodically review waiting patients for comfort and health deterioration. Overall, the evaluation is very thorough on identifying the problems and making some suggestions on how these problems can be overcome.

It was difficult to identify any major weakness in the report other than suggestions for improvement were not available.  The report seemed as though it was giving suggestions for improvement in some areas but when problems became more deep-rooted the problem was only identified and not given solutions.  I don’t really want to suggest this is a weakness as an evaluation’s purpose is not to solve any problems but simply identify and report on the findings. It just became confusing for the reader once some suggestions to solutions became evident.

By laying out these goals for the SHR it will hopefully help them to focus in on their major issues in Saskatoon hospitals. The report clearly laid out several facts and figures collected over a period of one year that suggests the need for change.  It now becomes the goal of the SHR to make solutions to address these problems in the timeline previously set out by them in the past.  This is classic goal-based evaluation that serves the purpose of reviewing staff performance and if objectives and goals are on target to be achieved in a specific amount of time.