Module 2 Reading Review (chapter 4-5)

This assignment has three parts. Please follow the directions below. Please upload your paper here.

Part 1 – Exercise: Access the Internet and locate a local criminal justice agency Web site. Using a systems theory perspective, describe a possible process, including inputs, outputs, feedback, and the environment, of the agency. 

Be sure to:

1) Describe the organizational environment.

2) Describe the interplay between the organization and the environment (process).

3) Describe the inputs, outputs, and feedback.

4) Discuss your “hypothetical” findings.

This part of your review should be about one double-spaced page, or about 250 words. 

Part 2 – Discuss how human relations or human resource theories differ from traditional theories of management. Give a (basic) hypothetical example of these theories in action and discuss the pros and cons of each.

This part of your review should be about one to one and a half double-spaced pages, or about 250-400 words. 

Part 3 – Reflection: This is your opportunity to reflect on any of your responses above. There is no right or wrong answer here – I would just like to provide you the opportunity to share any insight, thoughts, opinions, and questions, you might have. This section should be between one-half to one page in length, or about 150-250 words. 

In all, the written portion of this assignment, which you will upload here, should be no less than three to no more than four pages in length, double spaced. Please use 12pt Times New Roman font and standard 1″ margins. Please note: efforts to make more look less or less look more will negatively impact your grade. APA formatting should always be followed, including and especially proper citation and references. 

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Most healthcare organizations in the country are implementing quality improvement programs to save lives, enhance customer satisfaction, and reduce the cost of healthcare services. Limited human and material resources often undermine such efforts. Zenith Hospital in a rural community has 200 beds. Postsurgical patients tend to contract infections at the surgical site, requiring extended hospitalization. Mr. Jones—75 years old—was admitted to Zenith Hospital for inguinal hernia repairs. He was also hypertensive, with a compromised immune system. Two days after surgery, he acquired an infection at the surgical site, with elevated temperature, and then he developed septicemia. His condition worsened, and he was moved to isolation in the intensive care unit (ICU). A day after transfer to the ICU, he went into ventricular arrhythmia and was placed on a respirator and cardiac monitoring machine. Intravenous fluids, antibiotics, and antipyretics could not bring the fever down, and blood analysis continued to deteriorate.

The hospital infection control unit got involved. The team confirmed that postsurgical infections were on the increase, but the hospital was unable to identify the sources of infection. The surgery unit and surgical team held meetings to understand possible sources of infection. The team leader had earlier reported to management that they needed to hire more surgical nurses, arguing that nurses in the unit were overworked, had to go on leave, and often worked long hours without break.

Mr. Jones’ family members were angry and wanted to know the source of his infection, why he was on the respirator in isolation, and why his temperature was not coming down. Unfortunately, his condition continued to deteriorate. His daughter invited the family’s legal representative to find out what was happening to her father and to commence legal proceedings.

Then, the healthcare manager received information that two other patients were showing signs of postsurgical infection. The healthcare manager and care providers acknowledged the serious quality issues at Zenith Hospital, particularly in the surgical unit. The healthcare manager wrote to the Chairman of the Hospital Board, seeking approval to implement a quality improvement program. The Board held an emergency meeting and approved the manager’s request. The healthcare manager has invited you to support the organization in this process.

Please address the following questions in your response:

1. What are successful approaches for gaining a shared understanding of the problem?
2. How can effective communication be implemented?
3. What is a qualitative approach that helps in identifying the quality problem?
4. What tools can provide insight into understanding the problem?
5. In quality improvement, what does appreciative inquiry help do?
6. What is a benefit of testing solutions before implementation?
7. What is a challenge that is inherent in the application of the plan, do, study, act (PDSA) method?
8. What are the attributes of the outcome measure?
9. What are the attributes of the measurement for improvement?
10. Why is collecting the right data important?
11. What is a component of establishing a culture of quality improvement in healthcare organizations?
12. What knowledge do healthcare managers require to sustain a quality culture?

Scenario:
You have enjoyed your first year as the director of an early childhood center so much that you are surprised to find it is already March. Although you never imagined you would be hiring new teachers during your first year, three teachers on your staff announce that they will not be returning next year. Now what? So far, all of your experiences with the hiring process have been as a candidate—you have zero experience as a hiring manager. To better organize the process, you decide to review the necessary steps and map them out systematically, by creating a flowchart. You open your laptop and begin your design. So far so good, but you realize from your own experience that events do not always evolve in a perfectly linear manner. You decide that your flowchart needs to incorporate some of the unexpected things that may occur during the hiring process so you will be prepared. Last, you pull out your calendar and create several target dates for the various steps you have mapped out. You can find examples of how to create a flow chart by doing a simple Google search. Here is one example video I found. 

 Using digital tools, create a flowchart to show the steps involved in hiring a new teacher—from developing a job description to selecting the employee. Then add in several branches to your flowchart to show how the real-life hiring process might be a bit more complicated than a straight line. Next, incorporate several target dates for when you would hope to attain each goal in your flowchart.

Self Reflection: 50 points 

1. For each item of your flowchart, explain how this guideline addresses the issues in the scenario 

Q1

I feel that the electoral college should be abolished. Hillary Clinton even tweeted that even though she has a seat in the electoral college she too feels it should not exist. It doesn’t make any sense for the popular vote to not win as this country is considered a democracy by the people FOR the people. It makes individuals feel as if their vote is not heard if their state is traditionally more left leaning or right leaning. 

Regions should not determine who wins the president, the people should. The existing system also can be used in the wrong way because it is not stated that electoral votes coincide with poplar vote, which is why even if the electoral college is not going to be abolished atleast the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact should be implemented to keep it somewhat realistic with the majority vote.

More people would also be inclined to vote if individual votes mattered more than what state they lived in. The arguement that without the electoral college, America wold be at risk of tyranny (unreasonable use of power/control), is untrue, as it has been over 200 years and the United States is still pretty split on whether they are on the left or right side. It is also logically wrong to not want a majority to overule another party because isn’t that what a democracy is supposed to be about?

The system is outdated and should be re evaluated, a majority of ways of life back in the 1800’s is different to today so the government should also be changing and adapting with the people. The party system has even changed as they had different types of party’s and sometimes even more than three were prevelant and major at that time so that is proof that the ways of government has changed. The main issue we have been running into and that has been a debate over the last 20 years is the effectiveness of the electoral college if the popular vote has been losing, adn it should be clear that the elctoral college should be abolished due to this circumstance.

QUESTION 2

In my opinion, I think it is true that the Electoral College no longer serves its original purposes, and that it creates a grave risk that a candidate not favored by a majority of the people will, from time to time, be elected president. There have been three: John Quincy Adams, Benjamin Harrison and George W. Bush. We survived. Not one was a first-rank president, but their selection did not seriously injure the democratic character of our system.

The founders opted for the Electoral College because the two leading alternatives, election by Congress and by popular vote, were thought to have serious defects. Moreover, the electoral college method preserved the two compromises over representation—the three-fifths clause and the big state-small state compromise—and guarded against a fracturing of votes for many candidates, which they thought might occur once George Washington was no longer available as a nationally respected consensus candidate. The three-fifths clause became irrelevant with the end of slavery, and the big state-small state divide no longer animates our politics, if it ever did. The two-party system solves the fractured vote problem more effectively than the Electoral College ever did, and the electors never exercised genuine independence. The Electoral College thus presents democratic risks without serving any of its original purposes.

That is not to say the Electoral College is without its advantages. It gives a slight edge to candidates with broad-based support in many states over those who rack up huge majorities in just a few large states. That probably promotes a more national and less regional vision. It channels presidential politics into a two-party system, which is superior to multiparty systems where fringe factions can exercise too much leverage. It probably reduces the cost of presidential campaigns by confining television advertising to the battleground states. And it confines vote-counting disputes to just one, or maybe a few, states. Imagine a Florida-style recount in every precinct in America.

Still, the advantages are uncertain and relatively minor. Almost no one would adopt an Electoral College today if we were starting from scratch. But reforming the Electoral College does not rank high among our national problems. Given that a change would require a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress and three-quarters of the state legislatures, it is not going to happen. We should be talking about other things.

The great problems with our presidential selection system today stem from the haphazard way we choose the two major party presidential candidates. This year is the poster child for the need for reform. The two parties have chosen the same year in which to nominate a person whom large numbers of Americans, probably a majority, regard as unfit. Generally, we count on the Republican and Democratic parties to nominate not the best people, but candidates who combine a degree of popular support with the experience and temperament to govern

you need to complete at least two responses “the “Final Posts”) of at least 200 words each to classmates