** Discussion Due Thursday and FInal Paper due Sunday ***

1. Communication Challenges
    
   Select either Option A or Option B and indicate in your post which option you have selected.  

   Option A: Compared to a non-healthcare organization, a manager must have a special skill set for communicating with health professionals and non professionals within a health care organization. What do you believe are those particular skill sets? What are the ethical, financial, and legal implications for communication within a health care organization? What are the some of the primary barriers to communication between a manager and his/her staff?

   Option B: Case Study: Your Word Against His

   Review the details of the case “Your Word Against His” in your course text. Describe in detail any options you could pursue to set the matter straight for all parties who received the wrong information, while incurring the minimum possible public disfavor by the vice president. In addition, describe what you think went wrong this in case. Where was the communication breakdown, and how could it have been avoided?

   Guided Response for Option A and Option B: Review several of your classmates’ posts. Provide a substantive response to at least two of your peers. Discuss the reasons why effective communication is so important in organizations. What tools could managers use to foster better communication in both cases?

    

2. The Health Professional as Manager
    
   Select either Option A or Option B and indicate in your post which option you have selected.

   Option A:  Imagine your colleague and friend, Jane Smith, has recently been promoted to department manager for your facility.  You have worked side-by-side with Jane for the past ten years and can speak to her excellent skills as a health professional.  However, Jane has no prior management experience and  many of your co-workers are fearful that she does not possess the necessary leadership skills to effectively lead the team.  You feel conflicted because you agree with your colleagues but you also have faith that Jane will do her best.  Considering Jane’s situation, describe the dual role of the health professional as manager.  What challenges do managers face when they make the leap from health care professional to manager?  What are some of the common complaints to indicate the presence of ill-fitting management?

   Option B: Given the effort and creativity that you have put into your Senior Projects for this course, use this discussion board as a forum to share your topic with your classmates.  Provide a comprehensive description of the topic you chose, discuss your reason(s) for choosing the topic, and present some of the key information that you learned throughout the research process.  For example, what did you learn about the role of management in influencing health care decisions?  How do you think the future of healthcare will be impacted by your topic?  Are there any current events and/or media stories that relate to your topic?

   Guided Response for Option A and Option B: Review several of your classmates’ posts. Provide a substantive response to at least two of your peers.  Do you agree or disagree with their opinions?  Would you offer any other insight?  Discuss any personal and/or professional experiences with ineffective managers.  What issues were caused?  What was done to rectify these issues?  
   

Assignment
To complete the following assignment, go to this week’s Assignment link in the left navigation.

Senior Project

To start, select one of the following approved topics for your Senior Project. You may also have a topic of your choice approved by the instructor in Week One.  Many of the approved topics have specific subtopics outlined and, while these topics are not all-inclusive, they do provide insight into specific areas to consider.

Approved Topics:

1. Examine how participative leadership functions in today’s modern health care organization and compare it to other types of leadership styles. Evaluate how each type of leadership style may impact organizational culture, employee performance, and how it may help or hinder the legitimacy of authority.
2. As an administrator, address the challenges of employee recruitment and retention of health care professionals. Additional subtopics may include trends in the nursing workforce, shortage of primary care physicians, staff turnover, retention, and staffing patterns.
3. Analyze the dual role of a manager and healthcare professional. Examine challenges that the health professional compared to those of a non-health professional, may face in terms of leadership style, and the impact these challenges have on organizational culture. The benefits of a health professional manager as an organizational resource may also be included. Explore the career trends of health professionals in organizational leadership positions, such as the types of health professional training that leaders tend to have in common, and the typical demographic background of health professional managers.
4. The health care industry must anticipate and monitor trends that could possibly affect its overall survival. Analyze how regulation of the health care industry impacts a health care organization. Explore some of the possible survival organizational strategies such as, but not limited to, mergers, and affiliations, achieving accreditation status, professional licensure.
5. Analyze the impact of technology on how health care services are delivered. The impact of technology on employee performance, organizational structure, and management planning may also be considered.
6. Analyze the impact of any recent social and/or ethical trends on the health care industry. Discuss at least two issues.

After identifying your topic, choose a health care organization in your area. This organization may be small or large and may provide single inpatient health service or multiple outpatient services; it is your choice. Consider your topic in light of the leadership of this organization and research the challenges and successes it has faced in managing operational effectiveness.  You are welcome to use as many research methods as possible to obtain information for your organization and its managers (e.g., web-based resources, electronic articles, or personal interviews). The more informed you are, the better prepared you will be to complete your project.  

Finally, develop a management training program that includes relevant guidelines and information to combat the issues identified in the selected topic, as well as recommendations for managers to more effectively lead health care organizations. Your training program should be in the form of a 20 to 25 slide PowerPoint presentation (excluding title and reference slides) that includes comprehensive speaker’s notes (i.e., at least 150 words) for each slide. Utilize at least three to five scholarly sources from the Ashford University Library and two to three current, scholarly web sources (total of five to eight references required). All sources must be cited according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. Your presentation must be engaging and relevant to your audience. Lines of text on a slide will not be sufficient for this project. It should contain at least five images, graphics, and/or multimedia that communicate your training clearly to your audience. For tips on creating an excellent presentation, read this
overview.

Creating the Senior Project

The Senior Project:

1. Must be 20 to 25 PowerPoint slides (excluding title and reference slides) in length. There are 20 content criteria worth a total of 10 points.  
2. Must include a title slide that contains the following:
   1. Title of project
   2. Your name
   3. Course name and number
   4. Instructor’s name
   5. Date submitted
3. Must include an introduction with a succinct thesis statement.
4. Must address the topic of the project with critical thought in the areas of:
   1. Organization details
   2. Challenges and opportunities
   3. Training program outcomes
   4. Impact on at least three stakeholder groups involved delineated by cost, quality, and access to service
   5. Suggested actions
5. Must include a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis.
6. Must use at least five supporting graphics (images, graphics, and/ or multimedia) are included and relevant communicating the training content (two points).
7. Must include speaker’s notes that have evidence of critical thinking and application (content analysis, synthesis, evaluation) related to the research methodology used to develop (six points):
   1. Project content
   2. Practical and relevant solutions to the organizational challenges/opportunities
   3. Appropriate evaluation of individual stakeholder groups involved
8. Must use at least three to five scholarly sources from the Ashford University Library and two to three current, scholarly web sources.
9. Must document all sources in APA style, as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
10. Must include a separate reference slide, formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.