Pre work for the Last Day of class

1.) If our class were to continue I would say our mission would be to learn about effective work skills in order to give us the best success down the road in our future jobs.  Our vision would be to discuss as many important topics as possible in order to expand our understanding of the important qualities of an effective worker. Our values are dedication, engagement, and quality learning.

2.) As an Individual I could have participated a little more in class while going over the presentations. I improved from the beginning half of the class but I could still engage a little more than I did.

3.) I think that the process that could really have improved the class would have been to sign a contract stating the responsibilities of every individual. I feel like this would make everyone do the same amount of work especially if there were consequences for not reaching the certain deadlines. Also, I feel like we could have been more organized with the syllabus and expectations. Personally it sometimes felt like we didn't know what the true expectations were.

4.) The one idea that I could think of that would improve the open ped model would be to enforce the use of more library books or data base articles. While Harvard Business Review articles are still scholarly, I feel like finding other sources could have been helpful as well.

Internship oppurtunity

With the semester winding now, it's almost time to start focusing on the summer internship that every junior Health Management and Policy major must complete this summer. My internship is at the New Hampshire Hospital Association in Concord and my preceptor is Kathy Bizzaro-Thunberg. I am very excited to put my foot in the actual health care setting and get a taste of what I could potentially being doing in the near future. Along with excitement, I am extremely nervous as I don't really know what to expect come my first day on the job. However, my preceptor is an excellent woman and really makes you feel comfortable while communicating with her. I feel as if she will make me feel comfortable right away and get me integrated into whatever projects they are currently working on. Another aspect of the internship that is exciting is that there is a past UNH HMP alumni that is only a couple of years older than me. This could really help because she could give me tips on what to do during the internship because she has been there for a few years.

Going into Concord, I would really love to experience as much as I can and work on any projects that will help the organization out. From the sounds of it, I'm going to be starting in the State building and learning about the background of the organization before I actually start working on any individual projects. This will get me integrated and up to par with all of the issues that the organization is trying to battle.

In my opinion, I feel like this course has really given me a handful of tools and tips on how to act in a professional setting. I learned that communication with my preceptor is very important along with the way I present myself. If I ever get stuck I know I should ask questions rather than do it on my own because I don't want to present a solution that isn't correct. Being confident in my abilities is crucial along with being polite and nice to everyone at the organization.

Overall, I am ready to start my internship in a couple of weeks and I have to gear my mind up for the switch. I'm used to working at Hannaford's all summer and this is obviously a huge jump/improvement than the produce department of a grocery store. As long as I keep the tools I learned from this class in my mind, I think I will be just fine at the New Hampshire Hospital Association.

Reflection on the class

With only a couple of class periods left, I wanted to give my personal opinion on how the class was run. Next week we have our primers, portfolios, and peer evaluations due and after that we are basically done with the course. I've never taken a course before where the students teach the majority of the time and it was definitely a learning curve for me. I thought this class was excellent and was designed perfectly for my major.

Student led presentations every class is an excellent and different way to learn new material. I feel like students pay more attention when other classmates are presenting because the information is being delivered in ways that we can understand better. Also, with all of the group activities integrated into the presentation, it forces the students to consistently stay engaged. Overall, I thought this part of the class was a great way to practice public speaking skills and get to know everyone better on a personal level.

I also really liked the blog aspect of the class as well. Personally, I liked how we could reflect on the class in a less formal way and jot down whatever thoughts come to mind. We were allowed to write about anything that we wanted which gave us a sense of freedom. Also, this was a creative way to enhance our writing skills and have something to show future bosses potentially.

Lastly, I like how a lot of the final grade is based on how the students grade you in different sections of the class. The students are the ones teaching the class, which means they should have some impact on how grades turn out to be. Peer evaluations are a great way to show students things they did well and things they could potentially improve on.

Overall, I thought this was a great class throughout the whole semester. There were only around eleven kids so we were able to get to know one another at the individual level. This class improved my public speaking skills as well as my writing skills. Finally, this class gave me a portfolio that I could show my boss and tell them what I actually learned.

Presentation on Team building

Yesterday, Shayna and I presented on the topic of teams and the making up of these groups to be successful in the health care field. While I have discussed this topic a couple of times already I thought it was a good discussion because it summed up everything that we have learned in the class. Also, having an immense amount of knowledge in team building is a crucial skill because hopefully in the long run I will be developing one myself.

We started the presentation on by discussing the different type of teams that can be created in today's world. One of the teams that I thought was the most interesting was the cyber team because in the future these kind of groups will be prevalent. I gave an example on how my stepdad is a manager of a engineering company in Portsmouth New Hampshire and he frequently contacts his manager in Wisconsin over Skype. This is very important because my step dad obviously cannot fly out to Wisconsin every time there is a problem or an issue has to be discussed. Professor Bonica also agreed that these types of teams could become the future of health care and people can be treated by doctors that might not be in the same state or region as them.

We continued the presentation by showing a couple of videos that showed the negative aspects of teams along with one that showed different group activities being performed. Also we had a group activity where we asked some individuals to tell us two truths and a lie. While everyone knows what this activity is I thought It was a good way to represent how to read individuals before you assign them to a team. Reading body language can be tough, but as a manager it is a critical skill that must be developed.

I went on to discuss the different problems that teams may face while in the workforce. One of the major problems that I found consistently was social loafing. This is the idea that people slack off or don't work as hard because the consequences wont be as severe and the others will be expected to pick up their workload. This is a common problem in every group setting whether its at work or in a school setting. Future managers must be able to keep everyone on track with everyone splitting the workload fairly.

Why is Teamwork important in the healthcare system?

While researching about team building and effective teams in the health care field I came across an interesting article that described the importance. the link to the article can be found here: http://www.hrhresourcecenter.org/HRH_Info_Teamwork. There are two broad categories of the article which consists of collaboration and the overall importance of a team, specifically in a health care setting.

When discussing collaboration, the goal Is to expand the purpose of traditional roles of workers and to make decisions as a unit to work toward a common goal. A study done by the Canadian Health Services showed that teams function better when they have a clear purpose with the goal of implementing protocols and procedures. Health care is a multidisciplinary profession in which nurses, doctors, and administrators must work together in order to deliver the most efficient care to patients. Each profession in health care have their own specialties and knowledge based on what their job is and what they learned in school. These different professions have to collaborate with one another to bring all of the knowledge together in order for the patient to be satisfied. With many different minds coming together discussing a patients health conditions, the most efficient solution can be implemented.

When discussing the overall importance of a team the first important aspect is that primary care is becoming more advanced and specialized which makes the workers have to perform complex tasks and learn new methods quickly. Also, with obesity, diabetes, and addiction being common themes in the United States, these workers also have to work on preventative measures and teach patients the importance of how terrible these diseases are. Lastly, many doctors have to manage patients with MANY different conditions which involves a team of health care workers tending to these people. These three reasons are why a team setting is so important in health care to enforce quality of care for the patients being treated.

Overall, I thought this article did an excellent job summing up what we already learned about team work in the health care field. The first step is having collaboration, involving many different doctors with different specialties coming together to treat a patient in a safe and healthy way. With many different diseases and personal decisions being made in the United States, Doctor, Nurses, and administrators must come together to treat the patient.

Having Effective Meetings

On Wednesday, my class got a presentation on how to have an effective meeting and what types of people are the best fit for these groups. The two people presenting were business majors in this topic directly related to what they do in the Paul School of Business. This topic was especially important to me because down the road I will have to be doing the same exact thing at my future place of employment.

In the beginning of the presentation, they talked about some "bad" people that can sometimes negatively affect the team with their actions and personalities. Some of the examples of bad individuals are the ones that are always late, leave early, on their technology all the time, the interrupter, and the one that drags every idea out. These types of individuals can really impact the team whether its due to being late or not prepared to discuss the topic at hand. To combat this, there has to be a good enforcer/leader. This individual has to always stay on topic and make sure the other teammates are sticking to the agenda. Also there has to be an individual that makes sure the team is on track and have the skills to bring them back onto the topic being discussed.

After we discussed all the negative types of people that could impact a team, we did an in class activity where we had a short amount of time to fill out an agenda that would typically be used during meetings. Some of the categories on the sheet were objective, start and end time, duration, and individuals attending the meeting. Whoever could fill out the greatest amount of the sheet accurately one a little prize. I really thought this was an interesting way to demonstrate how tough and stressful meetings can be, especially when everyone isn't on the same page.

Lastly we watched a video that showed how some of the personalities discussed above can affect the team. While it may have been over exaggerated, the video really depicted some of the issues that managers face today. During the clip, people were late, on their phone, discussing ideas that were off topic, and the leader didn't listen to anyone's ideas besides his own. This video summed up why a team that works together makes an organization run smoothly. A successful manager will be able to sort through individuals in order to find the ones that fit the team the best.

Crisis Leadership overview

Yesterday, we learned about crisis leadership and how an effective manager communicates and acts in these types of situations. The presentation was excellent in my opinion, and really showed us real life examples on mangers who have effectively and ineffectively acted in times of crisis. The first part of the presentation went over the steps on how managers should act in times of need. A manager who acts well in stressful situations will remain calm, announce plans on how they plan to fix the situation, and than act accordingly. On contrast, a manger cannot panic and cause the population to freak out with them because the situation will only become worse.

One of the situations the group showed us was how a mayor (I believe, cant quite remember his name) acted when the planes hit the twin towers. When asked in a news conference he remained calm and told the people that they were working on a plan to save as many people as possible. Also, another thing that really struck me was that he never mentioned the number of deaths from the attack because that would cause the United States to go into a frenzy. In my opinion, he was a perfect model of a higher end individual acting in the most appropriate way during an ultimate time of crisis.

On the other hand there was controversy on how the president, George W. Bush, acted when he heard the news of the attacks in New York. Mr. Bush was at an elementary school reading a book to a classroom of children when he heard of the attack. Instead of acting, he waited seven minutes until the book was finished before he acted on the situation. Many people were infuriated that he didn't respond immediately and address the nation in a time in need. Mr. Bush argues that he waited the seven minutes because he didn't want to scare the young kids. This was a major controversial issue and many people have differing opinions about it. In my opinion, I think that Mr. Bush should have quietly announced that he had to leave early to deal with an issue. He didn't have to mention that it was about the twin towers but could have instead said that he had a major issue to deal with.

The last thing we did was practicing scenarios by breaking up into groups of board members and people addressing the board. There were four scenarios ranging from internal scenarios in the organization to personal problems that individuals could face while working. I thought this exercise was a great way to portray this topic because we only had five minutes to come up with a plan to address the board. While this may seem short it does portray how quickly individuals have to respond in times of crisis.