This assignment is worth 50% of your final grade. Presentation and hard copy submission of this assignment is due on December 8th, 2018.

So, the name of this course is Organizational Theory and Management. We are to incorporate a component of Organizational Behaviour into an individual research project in our department at our workplace. The component of Organizational Behaviour I chose to focus on is Workplace Communication.

SECTION 1 – PROBLEM STATEMENT 

Describe a problem that is related to the course content and is being experienced in an organization of your choice. Answer the questions: Who are the stakeholders and how are they affected? How do you feel about the issue/problem? What outcomes and strategic goals will the project support or affect? 

Feel free to reconstruct and rephrase this problem statement to include what the above is describing and requiring. I think a bit more needs to be added to it.

Problem Statement: There is minimal or lack of communication among the wards and the laboratory staff when blood units requested for transfusion are not used and therefore not returned to the lab on time. The units are not viable and are discarded instead of being used for other patients. As a result, other patients have to wait until blood is donated, thus delaying their treatment.

SECTION 2 – OBJECTIVES AND GOALS 

Clearly state a minimum of objectives that are concise, verifiable, feasible, and measurable. State the expected outcomes or benefits (what is the impact on the unit business processes, systems, people, the organization etc?).

I stated three objectives but feel free to amend

· To ensure effective communication between doctors, nurses and laboratory staff

· To record any blood units that returned to the lab

· To record any incidence of blood kept in unfavourable conditions

SECTION 3 – NEEDS ASSESSMENT AND RESEARCH METHODS 

In this section, you should conduct an assessment of the organization, in order to provide a diagnosis and to validate the problem as identified under the Problem Statement section. You are free to conduct site visits/observations,and state your findings of the current situation. Show evidence of how the client system is responding to the problem. Identify disparities in perceptions, strengths, weaknesses, problem solving abilities, support systems List the human and other resources needed to complete your project successfully. You are to assume the role of a consultant and to refrain from revealing the identity of the organisation while sharing ample details of the departmental or service setting. 

Feel free to include a sample questionnaire here as a means of research methods asking about the ineffective workplace communication. It can be included in the index. Maybe you can say the questionnaire was administered to approximately 25 people in the department.

Interviews with the head nurse(s) of the various wards and the medical laboratory technician should be done.

State what you observe as well.

There is also a logbook that contains patient’s name to receive transfusion, who collects the blood, date and time. Also, if blood units are returned to the lab, it is written next to the patient’s name with date and time. If blood was unfeasible, an incident form is filled out and kept on file. There is also a logbook that contains patient’s name who is to receive be transfused, person collecting the blood and date and time. If the blood was in unfavourable conditions, an incident form is completed and kept on file.

Below is just a brief outline how the blood units are requested for transfusion and dispatched.

The doctors in the wards, accident & emergency or ICU requests blood for a patient based on his current status through means of blood tests. If a previous blood sample showed a haemoglobin of 4 or 5, the doctor fills out a cross match form requesting so many units of blood and sends a fresh sample. So another complete blood count (CBC)test is done to determine the haemoglobin (Hb) and group & rhesus test is done to find the patient’s blood group. If the Hb is 7 and if the patient’s blood group is available in the blood bank, the laboratory technician does a cross match of the unit of blood available and patient’s blood to ensure there is compatibility. If there is no reaction between the samples, they are compatible. The blood unit is prepared and ready to be collected by the ward nurse or doctor. The wards would then contact the lab to find out if blood is ready for patient X and enquire about the quantity (1 or 2 units). A doctor or nurse would then collect the blood and sign for receiving it.

However, there are times, when the doctors on the wards don’t use the blood for the patient because it is unnecessary and leave the blood in the cooler with the thawed ice pack for 24hours, thus the blood is unviable and has to be discarded. Sometimes the nurse forgets that the blood is in the cooler and as soon she reaches ward does not relay the message to the doctor. So it stays in the cooler and cannot be used again. Also, the blood tends to be returned to the lab but on time since it is not in ambient temperature and so cannot be used. 

SECTION 4 – ANALYSIS 

This section should represent an analysis of your findings under the Section: Needs Assessment and Research Methods (Section 3 above) and should address the problem in the context of theories and concepts covered during the course. Assumptions may be made to fill knowledge gaps; they may later prove to be incorrect but may have a significant impact on the project. List only those assumptions that have a reasonable chance of occurring. List any known constraints imposed by the environment or by management.

This will obviously also have graphs/charts etc. Make up figures that conclude, there is ineffective workplace communication, that leads to the wastage of blood units. So when othe patients require blood, there is insufficient blood especially for emergency cases. It is to relate back to section 2 I suppose.

SECTION 5 – DESIGN TREATMENT, SOLUTION OR ACTION PLAN 

Your proposed solution to the problem and which follows from Sections 1, 2, 3 and 4. In this section, you should outline and discuss the specific strategic initiatives to be employed to problem solve the case e.g. develop an intervention / develop a training plan.

Below I have just briefly described a solution. This is just an example of something along the lines but way more is needed here. You are better at this ????. More solutions/action plans etc, the better it is.

Being a healthcare worker and a member of the medical laboratory department, in my opinion it is absolutely necessary for effective workplace communication to exist. Strategies and recommendations to overcome barriers must therefore be put into place or done to ensure that the communication process is improved. Ongoing team communication is key to effective communication since it creates that channel of openness and frankness. To achieve this, seniors and heads of departments need to allow for more informal meetings which creates an environment with no tension and workers feel comfortable to relay any issues. This encourages team members to communicate necessary information with each other. Overall, these strategies would enhance communication among surgical team members, other surgical healthcare staff and the surgical patients to provide effective surgical health care for patients.

SECTION 6 – BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Your project must include a bibliography 

SECTION 7 – APPENDICES 

These must be referenced in the body of the project and appropriately labelled.

Of course if you want to look at ineffective workplace communication in the surgical department from a different angle, feel free to change up everything according to suit. I believe you are an excellent writer and would not disappoint me. Remember everything relates back to Ineffective workplace communication in the surgical department.

The professor also stated she would like a literature review to be done with at least 6 references.

The entire paper and references used are to be done APA style.

CRITERIA TO FOLLOW 

Please use the following criteria to guide your individual project:

  

Topic Heading

Mark

 

Table of Contents

0.   5

 

Executive Summary

5

 

Introduction & Background

5

 

Problem Statement

15

 

Literature Review

7

 

Methodology

6

 

Data Collection

10

 

Presentation of Findings

10

 

Analysis of Findings

30

 

Conclusion

5

 

Bibliography

2

 

Appendices

0 .5

 

Presentation and Use of Language

4

 

TOTAL

100

Marks will be converted to the 50% for Individual Project

Word Count is 3000 excluding table of contents, bibliography and Appendices. 

The presentation and use of language seen in the criteria above is not part of this written paper. This order only involves the written individual research paper.