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Tried and True Strategies for Identifying and Valuing all Stakeholder Perspectives in a Large-scale Needs Assessment
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| Presenter(s):
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| Kara Smith, Kids Included Together, kara@kitonline.org
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| Abstract:
Kids Included Together (KIT) is a non-profit organization that specializes in providing training for out-of-school time organizations committed to including children with and without disabilities into their programs. In 2011 KIT was contracted by the Department of Defense to provide their services to child, youth and teen programs on all United States military bases in the world. The initial goal of the contract was to conduct a needs assessment that was comprehensive of all branches and unique to each as well. KIT's evaluator included perspectives from all levels of the field were included and valued. This paper provides a model for identifying and valuing all stakeholders in a large scale, multi-level needs assessment. It discusses the challenges faced when identifying all stakeholders, managing challenges faced when soliciting opinions and being reflective of all perspectives in the subsequent evaluation plan. The resulting needs assessment was useful and respected by all stakeholders.
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Measuring Collaborative Integration to inform Needs Assessment: The Massachusetts Medication Safety Alliance Promotes Responsive Regulation in Nursing Homes
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| Presenter(s):
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| Teresa Anderson, University of Massachusetts, terri.anderson@umassmed.edu
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| Michael Hutton, Woodland Associates, michaelhuttonwoodland@gmail.com
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| Abstract:
The Massachusetts Medication Safety Alliance (Alliance) is a fifteen member inter-organizational collaborative of state regulators, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and health professional organizations, purposefully developed to design a systems approach to safe medication administration in nursing homes. The Alliance is engaged in a strategic planning effort to promote a 'responsive regulation' (Stone, et al 2009) approach to addressing medication events in nursing homes. Responsive regulatory mechanisms rely on leadership, shared decision making and open communication. With National Council of State Boards of Nursing funding, University of Massachusetts Medical School evaluators used Woodland's Collaboration Evaluation Improvement Framework (CEIF) (Gajda, 2004) to measure both the Alliance's current level of integration and that needed to sustain its Nurse Employer Safety Partnership Model (Anderson, et al, 2011). State regulatory members have demonstrated full partnership. Further collaboration development across the Alliance is needed to introduce the responsive regulatory model as planned.
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Listening to Ordinary People
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| Presenter(s):
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| Zoe Barley, zbarley Consulting LLC, zbarley@earthlink.net
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| Abstract:
This presentation discusses a revised approach to needs assessment necessitated by changes in the USDOE's Regional Educational Laboratory contracts. The portfolio of work was to strongly emphasize research and to be based on specific regional needs. For us (central US REL) this rethinking was coupled with a new awareness of the issues Kellerman framed for needs assessment in 1987 How can ordinary people make themselves heard and participate in decision making? And for needs assessors: Who are we as assessors? How can we get respondents to articulate their own agendas? And Do we have a responsibility for follow-up? We selected a three pronged approach: framing a series of applied research projects based on the broad needs; holding discussions with key groups to probe more deeply, and collaborating with constituents to use data they had on hand, or would collect. Ordinary people made themselves heard and expected us to respond.
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