International Trade & Finance Speech or Presentation

International Trade & Finance - Speech or Presentation Example Imports and Exports balancing Maintaining surplus balance of payments is critically important for the economic growth of a country. Exports bring more foreign currencies to a country which in turn can be used for making payments for importing necessary goods or services. Excess exports to imports result in favorable balance of payments whereas excess of imports over total exports of a country during a stipulated period of time result in unfavorable or deficit balance of payments. When there are surplus imports to US, for instance, since it largely depends on foreign oil products, the balance of payment can be said to be deficit. Until 2011, America’s dependence on foreign oil products such as crude oil, natural gas, fuel oil etc has always been driving trade deficit. In 2011, US imported $ 332 billion of petroleum related items and this was greater than what it exported (Amadeo, 2012). When there are surplus imports of a particular product or service in to a country, traders i nvolved in selling of the same will have to face import barriers if they are already in effect. Tariffs and quotas are thus examples of trade barriers and they cause traders increase their expenses of tax and other charges. International trade and GDP Foreign trade in goods or services is primarily a channel for economic integration and this seems to be a critically important tool for small countries since small countries are more integrated in relation to their gross domestic product. Small countries, in contrast to large countries like USA, Canada, India, China, specialize in a limited numbers of sectors and thus they need to export and import more goods and services to satisfy the domestic demands (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2010, p. 58). Within the domestic market, increase in exports mean that GDP is high and since exports bring foreign currency to the domestic market, more and more traders will be able to meet their payments for importing highly de manded products or services from other countries. Similarly, when there are surplus imports to the domestic market, it may adversely affect home products and balance of trade figures as well. For university students, international trade is benefitting in a way that they gain wider access to large numbers of universities abroad, scholarships, information, libraries and so on. Trade restrictions and international relation Trade barriers such as tariffs and quotas are found to have impacted adversely on the economic as well as political relation between countries. Tariffs are taxes imposed by a government on imports of certain products from certain or all other foreign countries. Quotas are physical limiting for importing gods from certain or all foreign countries. By imposing these two restrictions, for instance, the country attempts to minimize bringing of certain goods or services from certain countries and this in turn affect the exports of those countries. This is how tariffs and quotas impact the economic as well as political relationship between two countries. Foreign Exchange rates In international trade, countries need to exchange goods and services for currencies that are acceptable between buyer and seller. Different countries do accept different currencies and therefore buyer needs to exchange their currencies with seller’s currencies to make payment convenient between them. Foreign exchange rate is the price of one currency in

Learning Plan Essay Example for Free

Learning Plan Essay The learning plan described in this paper is to have students debate a topic related to the Civil War. The debate topic is â€Å"Was the Emancipation Proclamation enacted for moral reasons or political reasons? † The main concept of this learning plan is to have students work collaboratively to research facts, and recall and use facts from the Civil War unit to incorporate into their arguments. (It should be noted that the learning plan described in this paper will take several classes to complete, however the learning plan procedures will only address the class where the debate will occur. ) It is  assumed that debate skills were taught in a previous class. The learning theory certainly incorporates constructivist aspects. They are constructing knowledge rather than absorbing it. This is constructivist approach is illustrated through the collaborative nature of the assignment, as well as through the research that students’ must produce. In terms of the use of technology and media; the students will be instructed to research one source of information, from the internet, related to their argument. They must submit a one-page analysis of the information in which they found along with a references page. This must be submitted to the teacher a week before the scheduled debate. The teacher will assess the content of the paper, but the references page will also be important. Teacher must evaluate the kinds of internet sources that the students have used. The credibility of the internet source, and the strength of student’s research will be analyzed by the teacher. The purpose is to assess student’s traditional literacy and critical analytical skills (assessed when evaluating the content), and information 1 2 LEARNING PLAN: HISTORY DEBATE CLASS literacy/interpretation skills of online material (assessed by reviewing the  reference page). Finally, the teacher will hand back papers to the students, and he/she will instruct each group to use at least two of their group members’ papers into their group’s arguments. Media and technology will also be incorporated with the use of social media. The teacher will tell students that their debates will be recorded and submitted to youtube or a private school website (if issues of privacy are raised). Others will be allowed to view the video to evaluate the strength of each team’s arguments. Based on the comments of public viewers, a winner will be chosen (by popular vote). This popular vote will be incorporated as a small percentage into the assessment. This is being done as to allow students to participate in new media opportunities within an educational context. Learning Plan Context Setting †¢The high needs school will be a High School in the Bay Area, either in San Francisco or Oakland. †¢There will be 25-30 students in an individual classroom. †¢The lesson will take place the week after the Civil War unit is finished. †¢It is anticipated that the unit will last about two weeks, therefore the debate class will occur during the third week. The actual debate class will take up one class period. †¢The content area is US History/Politics. The grade level is Juniors (11th grade). †¢In sum, the curriculum unit is 11th grade, US History/Politics, Civil War unit. 2 3 LEARNING PLAN: HISTORY DEBATE CLASS Standards †¢According to California standards for literacy in History/Social Studies in 6-12th grades. A student must be able to demonstrate analysis of primary and secondary sources, and connect these insights to the understanding of the whole text. This ability will be addressed and assessed when students must incorporate information learned from the textbook with information gained from the internet, and use both  sources of information, into their debate. The student’s ability to undertake this task will be evaluated by the teacher with the submission of student’s sources, and also during the debate. (http://www. cde. ca. gov/be/st/ss/documents/finalelaccssstandards. pdf. ) †¢ Also according to California standards, students must be able to evaluate various explanations for events and actions. This standard is illustrated in the nature of the activity. A debate, in itself, evaluates different explanations for one event, which makes it an ideal means of addressing this standard. (http://www. cde. ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/finalelaccssstandards. pdf. ) †¢Finally, according to California standards, students must be able to evaluate differing points of view on the same historical issue. Once again, this standard is illustrated within the nature of a debate. It is also illustrated when students submit their own analysis of internet research (http://www. cde. ca. gov/be/st/ss/documents/finalelaccssstandards. pdf. ) Learning Objective 3 4 LEARNING PLAN: HISTORY DEBATE CLASS †¢Students will be able to collaboratively demonstrate their knowledge of Civil War policy, events and information, from the textbook and from  online sources, by formulating arguments to be presented within a debate. Learning Theory Applications †¢Constructivism is certainly at play in this lesson plan: †¢The activity allows knowledge to be organized into schemas, concepts, and worldviews. †¢This activity is emphasizing the use of authentic activities by constructing knowledge through interaction with the environments (internet and peers), and applying it to real-life situations (debate). †¢The collaborative component certainly illustrates constuctivism; learners will help each other create conceptual connections. †¢Finally, students are working autonomously with the help of the  teacher as facilitator, supporter, and model (Ormrod, 2006). Learning Accommodations: †¢Individualized Education Plan for Special Accomodations: In each team, all students will be assigned a role. For example, â€Å"speaker†, â€Å"writer†, â€Å"time-keeper†. A student’s IEP will be taken into consideration when assigning roles. A student with an IEP, will be assigned a role that best fits their IEP. For example, a student with ADD, may be best suited to be a time-keeper since their attention span is not as focused. They may be anxious to change the pace of the group’s discussions, and therefore they may be eager to keep track of the time. 4 5 LEARNING PLAN: HISTORY DEBATE CLASS †¢Language Development needs: When assigning the internet-based research; the teacher will give ELL students a website to navigate to, instead of having the students navigate the internet themselves. Teacher will give explicit instructions as to where to look on the website so students do not feel too overwhelmed with the English language. Teacher will ask the students to try to comprehend some of the information, however if this proves too difficult, then the teacher will ask the students to find 15-20 words from the website that the student did not understand. The student will then find the meanings of these words in their own language. They must write at least a paragraph about the Civil War unit incorporating five of the words that they found on the internet. Also, at least two of these words must be incorporated into the arguments of their team. †¢Gifted and Talented needs: This is a challenging component to consider because a gifted/talented student does not necessarily mean an academic-rigorous student. To really tailor the lesson to address the interests of a gifted/talented student, then the teacher will have to be familiar with the personality of that particular student. However, some situations will be addressed here. First of all, from the research, the lesson itself befits that of a gifted/talented student. Competition, which characterizes a debate, usually suits the nature of gifted/talented students. (http://www. teachersfirst. com/gifted_strategies. cfm) The first situation to consider is a student who is gifted/talented, but not academically 5 6 LEARNING PLAN: HISTORY DEBATE CLASS rigorous. This student will be given a leadership role within his/her team. He/she may be assigned to organize/manage all the ideas of the students. He/she is the one who will be given the rubric for what the  teacher is assessing when observing the team’s discussions and arguments. He/she is the manager, and he/she will be assessed on their ability to keep his/her team on task. In this way, this student isn’t necessarily doing more â€Å"academic† work, but he/she is being challenged in a rather difficult manner. A second situation to consider is to have a gifted/talented student who is academically rigorous. The teacher will give this student a second component to add to his/her research paper. The student must connect textbook material and internet material to the US politics of today. This is increasing the  cognitive process from analyze (which all students must do with their research papers) to evaluate (Anderson and Krathwol, 2001). The student can choose to incorporate this extra component into their team’s arguments. Resource Accommodations: †¢Low tech: There are no computers, projector, or internet access in the classroom. If this is the case, teacher may have to allocate time in different lessons to use school facilities where computers are available. Computers must be used so that the teacher can show students the kinds of websites that are credible, as well as to use sites, like youtube, to show students examples of debates. Computer use is necessary so 6 7 LEARNING PLAN: HISTORY DEBATE CLASS teacher may have to take time before or after school to meet with students (who are willing) to show them the above-mentioned websites. †¢Mid tech: One computer connected to a projector is available in the classroom. The teacher can use this computer to show examples of credible websites, as well as to show examples of debates online. †¢High tech: Class is equipped with several computers. Teams can go online themselves to view videos of debates and start research for their paper. In this way, the collaborative nature of the lesson will  start even earlier (in the pre-planning stage). Content-Based Literacy Skills †¢In terms of text-based literacy; students must incorporate information from their textbook into their arguments †¢Critical thinking, reflective thought, and text-supported thinking will be illustrated when students must draw connections between internet-based information and textbook information while doing their analysis/research paper. This connection will be evaluated when student’s cute their sources within their paper. (This explanation will also illustrate students’ information literacy. ) New Media Literacy Skills  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Performance: This skill is illustrated when students view sample debates on the internet and use this as models of performance in their own debates. 7 8 LEARNING PLAN: HISTORY DEBATE CLASS †¢Collective Intelligence: This skill is done when students are within their respective teams and they must draw upon their own and others ideas, research, and knowledge to formulate strong arguments. †¢Judgement: This skill is illustrated when students must judge which websites and information are to be included in their research/analysis paper. †¢Networking: Once again, this skill is illustrated when students must  search, connect, and analyze information on the internet for the purpose of their research/analysis paper (Jenkins, 2001). Learning Material: †¢Textbook: Learners will need textbook so that they can recall information. †¢Paper, pen: Leaners will need so that they can write down information. †¢Rubric: Both the learner and teacher needs. Learners need it so that they are aware of what’s expected of them while working in teams and formulating their arguments. Teacher needs it so that he/she can refer to it when assessing the team’s progress. †¢Notes: Learners will need them as a reference when formulating arguments. †¢Stopwatch/watch: This will be given to the student whose job is timekeeper. †¢Video Camera: Used to record the debate Learning Plan Procedures Phase I: Motivation Activity †¢Teacher will show a short clip of a very powerful, interesting debate. Possibly a presidential debate. The clip will only show the most 8 9 LEARNING PLAN: HISTORY DEBATE CLASS poignant part (according to the teacher) of the debate. Hopefully the clip will be no longer than 5 minutes long. (if there’s no computer available, then teacher must bring in her/his own computer. ) †¢In a class of 30 chair/table. There will be 15 chairs/ tables on each side  of the room. They will be facing eachother. †¢Learners will enter the classroom and sit down immediately with their team. †¢The teacher will then show the video as soon as the class is seated and quiet. †¢This activity is being done to motivate, encourage, and remind students of what a good debate looks like so that the output of the students’ debates can match skills such as speaking (clear and concise) and eye-contact of the debaters within the video. Phase II: Input (Teacher Driven) Activity: †¢During this class, the teacher will, serve only as facilitator, therefore not much activity will be driven by the teacher. However, after the video, the teacher will remind students of the rubric that was given to them, and tell students that she/he is only their to assist in the logistics of the debate (time, flow, managing emotions if this becomes a problem). The teacher will also instruct students to take notes on each other’s arguments because this assignment will be important for their homework assignment. She/he will also remind student that they will be recorded. †¢Teacher will tell all students to take out their rubrics. †¢She/He will go over some key point from the rubric as it relates to the debate. 9 10 LEARNING PLAN: HISTORY DEBATE CLASS. †¢The teacher will tell students to make sure that they keep these key points in mind because these points will be assessed during the debate. †¢The teacher will instruct students to have their rubrics out for the entire class so they can monitor their team’s progress by themselves. †¢Teacher will formally go over key questions from the rubric that he/she hopes the teams have incorporated into the nature of the debate (clear speech, eye contact, concise points, respectful behavior) as well as into the content of the debate. In term of the nature of the debate, questions might look like â€Å"Is my team being quiet/respectful as the  other team presents their arguments? †, â€Å"Are my responses to the other’s teams arguments not insulting? † etc. In terms of the content of the debate, questions may look like, â€Å"Did my team incorporate facts from the textbook? †, â€Å"Did my team use at least two credible internet sources within the argument? †, â€Å"Did my team follow special instructions assigned by the teacher (e. g. incorporating ideas from IEP students, ELL student, gifted students)?. † †¢This activity and these questions serve to remind students of the importance of the collaborative nature of the learning objective. They  also serve to remind students that they must be able to demonstrate their understanding of the Civil War unit, as well as their understanding of outside sources within the context of an argument. Phase III: Output (Learner Driven) Activity 10 11 LEARNING PLAN: HISTORY DEBATE CLASS †¢Students will take part in a debate. The topic is â€Å"Was the Emancipation Proclamation enacted for moral reasons or political reasons? † This activity will illustrate the learning objective in several ways. First, the collaborative nature of the previous classes will finally be demonstrated. Second, the students must illustrate their knowledge of  Civil War policies within their arguments. Third, both sides’ arguments must include information from outside sources. †¢The teacher will select one team to present their arguments first. †¢Recording will begin †¢The speaker of that team will stand up and come to the front of the class. They will present their team’s argument. In the argument they must mention the sources in which they got their information. For example, if they got a particular piece of data from the textbook, then they must state â€Å"As is presented in the textbook†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . If they got a particular piece of data from the internet then they must state, â€Å"As is  presented on so-called website, or by so-called author†¦Ã¢â‚¬  They must also explicitly state how they used the â€Å"special instructions† from the teacher. For example, â€Å"(ELL’s student’s name) found that ‘compromise’ was not a possible solution of the Civil War. † In this example, it is assumed that compromise was on a list of words that an ELL student did not understand. He/she presented these list of words to his/her team. The team reviewed the list, and chose to use the word compromise as part of their argument. †¢The student will finish the presentation of his/her argument. 11 12 LEARNING PLAN: HISTORY DEBATE CLASS. †¢The teacher will tell the next team to present its argument. The team will follow the same procedure as above. †¢The teacher will then stop recording of the debate. †¢This debate will naturally lead to questions, comments from both the teacher and the students. Phase IV: Culmination †¢The teacher will ask the groups to clear up any misunderstandings or misinformation the teams may have had within their argument. This is to give other team members a chance to speak about the argument, which reinforces the collaborative effort of the lesson. †¢The teacher will also ask students how their team’s or the other team’s  information and debate skills differed and how these things were similar to the debate presented in the beginning of the class. †¢As a smaller activity, the teacher will instruct all the students to come up with one question, comment, critique of the other team’s argument. This assignment will illustrate each student’s understanding of the Civil War Unit because it challenges students to relate, connect, or counter-argue their own knowledge of the unit. This question will be submitted to the teacher. Phase V: Extension †¢For homework, students will write a one-page analysis of the opposing teams arguments. The student will address the opposing side’s arguments. He/she will evaluate the argument’s weaknesses, strengths; and why he/she disagreed or agreed with the points that were made. 12 13 LEARNING PLAN: HISTORY DEBATE CLASS Learning Plan Analysis Formative assessments will include analyzing the collaborative efforts of the team, the behavior of each team during the presentation of the opposing team’s arguments, how well each team member took on their role within their team, and how well the team incorporated textbook information, outside information, and ‘†special instructions† from the teacher into their  argument. A summative assessment will include the teacher’s evaluation of the internet analysis/research paper, the one-page analysis of opposing team’s argument, teacher’s evaluations of the strength of the arguments, and finally the â€Å"popular vote† (the results of youtube or school-based website). Weaknesses of this lesson plan include time constraints, and the many assessments involved. It may be difficult to accurately assess how well each team members took on their roles. Some students may still be taking on more work than others. Also, incorporating ELL/IEP students proved to be a difficult task.. Strength of the lesson is it fosters team work, analytical skills, and gives students more power in the direction and implementation of a lesson. The teacher will implement these varied assessments in its first year, and then will evaluate the effectiveness of these assessments for future classes. The learning theories applied in the first phase was Vygotzky’s Cognitive Process. Students are witnessing two adults debating and they are expected to try to learn/imitate the behaviors of those adults. In the second 13 14 LEARNING PLAN: HISTORY DEBATE CLASS phase, social cognitive theory is at play. The teacher both models desired behaviors/outcomes, as well as emphasizes self-efficacy and self-regulation. In the third phase, constructivism is illustrated. The debate is student-driven because the students are demonstrating their constructed knowledge within the debate. The assessments have a behaviorist component. Negative reinforcement (decrease a behavior) is illustrated when the teacher warns students that if they are not respectful or a team member does not contribute meaningfully, then they may be marked down (Ormrod, 2008). References Anderson, L. W. , Krathwol, D. R. (2001) . A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing, 28-31. California Department of Education. (2013) California Common Core State Standards. http://www. cde. ca. gov/be/st/ss/documents/finalelaccssstandards. pdf Jenkins, H. , Clinton, K. , Purushotma, R. , Robison, A. J. , and Weigel, M. (2006). â€Å"Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. † Chicago, IL: MacArthur Foundation. Ormrod, J. E. (2008). Educational Psychology Developing Learners, 8. 25-36. Teachers First. (2014) http://www. teachersfirst. com/gifted_strategies. cfm 14 15 LEARNING PLAN: HISTORY DEBATE CLASS.

Problems Encountered When Feed :: essays research papers

There are four problems that may occur in individuals with sever disabilities when feeding is taking place. These four problems, chin retraction, tongue retraction, chin thrust, and tongue thrust, all take place in the dental region of the face, and they all involve the muscles of that same region. Each one presents its own difficulties; however, sometimes the may occur simultaneously. The basis for the inner feeding team is the jaw, or chin. It controls and regulates the movements of the other muscles, (including the lips and tongue). The jaw may have two significant problems that accompany it. The first is known as chin retraction. This condition is found mainly in individuals with neurological impairments. The reasons for this being that these individuals tend to show more neck extension and shoulder retraction. With this poor development, the jaw is pushed forward by the rest of the skeletal structure. The jaw then opens irregularly and with no set pattern. It may even become stuck in an open position. Feeding is difficult because the child has little or no control over his jaw. Another problem that may occur with the jaw, but is less common, is chin retraction. This movement is a pulling back of the lower jaw, making it difficult for the mouth to open fully. Strain is placed on the mouth and air passage forming a smaller tunnel of flow. This then creates a problem with swallowing. A child with this type of problem must not be given solid, tough, or chewy food that is not already chopped up. Otherwise choking may occur. In addition to problems with the chin are problems with the tongue. The tongue is one of the major muscles of the mouth. The ability of the tongue to change shape contributes to the efficiency and skill with which food can be organized and controlled in the mouth. If the tongue becomes thin, thick, flat, bunched, pointed, cupped, or humped, then it cannot function properly. The first problem that can occur with the tongue is called tongue thrust. This is a forceful protrusion of the tongue from the mouth. Movement that is frequently arrhythmic characterizes it. With the tongue pushed forward, it makes it difficult to insert a spoon or nipple. Many times the food is pushed out of the mouth as it is inserted. A minor form of tongue thrust is known as exaggerated tongue protrusion.

Fyne Piece of Marketing Case Study

CASE STUDY 1. 1 A ‘FYNE’ PIECE OF MARKETING As the strode purposefully into the board room to make his presentation to the firm’s monthly director’s meeting, Fred Fahr, General Manager of Fyna Foods Ltd, felt just great. His confidence was that of someone who knows he has faced a problem and come up with the right answers. ‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ he began, ‘as you are aware, two months ago we were given the opportunity to supply the Beefies Hamburger Chain with their new Supa-Long French fries.At the time, we all agreed this was great potential business for Fyna Foods, but that it also posed a major problem for us – what to do with the excess potato left over after we supply Beefies with the extra-length fries. Unfortunately, we still haven’t been able to come up with a perfectly square potato! To dump this excess material would mean almost certainly making a loss on the Supa-Long Fires business. I am very pleased to be able to report to you today; however, that my team has come up with what we feel is a pretty fine solution. Fred deliberately paused as he sensed the increased air of anticipation around the table. Even old Thomas Fynaski, the firm’s octogenarian founder, seemed to rouse himself from his doze. ‘We found the answer by combining the excess potato material with other vegetables to create a breakfast burger,’ Fred went on. ‘I have to say the lab boys have done a really good job and created a product that Fyna Foods can be proud of. My family doesn’t usually eat hot breakfasts, but we all tried some the other morning and agreed they were really quite nice.Once we had the product developed I gave it to our marketing people and they’ve decided to call it â€Å"Bubble and Squeak† – it’s what we used to call leftovers back in the 1960s. I am sure we all remember when we were kids,’ he joked, ‘how good leftovers used to tas te the next morning. We’ve decided to advertise it as â€Å"The delicious breakfast alternative to bacon and eggs†. ’ ‘What about the factor? ’ one of the director asked. ‘This product doesn’t look like anything we produce at moment. ‘Well, you know how our Production Department’s managers are,’ replied Fred. ‘If the factory had its way, we’d never produce anything that wasn’t quick and cheap to run through the machines. Anyway, we have agreed to pack the new line in boxes of 24 burgers, which nicely fits our packaging machinery. The factory were pleased with that. ’ ‘How do the numbers stack up, Fred? ’ asked Daphne Green, the Finance Director. ‘Pretty good, actually,’ Fred replied as he flicked up a chart. See, we start with the excess potato tonnage from the Supa-Long contract. That’s equivalent to sales about 400,000 packs of Bubble and Squeak in the fir st year. We think the Supa-Long contract is going to grow at about 10 percent per annum, so we also need to budget to increase Bubble and Squeak’s sales by that amount each year. We do have a bit of problem with price, which I’m still working on. The Sales Department is concerned it won’t be able to move these volumes of product at the price the accountants have given us.I’m not too worried about that, though, because the product development people, in their normal way, have produced a super premium quality product in the test kitchen – a bit too good, really, for the market we’re aiming at. I’m confident that we can play around with some of the ingredients and quantities and get the product costs down to a level that Sales can live with. ‘We’ve got a few rough edges to smooth off,’ concluded Fred. ‘But, overall I think we’ve come up with an excellent solution that lets us take on the Supa-Long contrac t and gives us a great new product for Fyna Foods. There was a general murmur of approval around the table. As it subsided, however, Fred noticed that Bill Wyse, the recently retired Marketing Director of a large transnational food business had his hand raised waiting to catch the chairman’s eye. As silence returned to the room he spoke for the first time during the meeting. ‘Well, Fred,’ he said quietly. ‘You’ve obviously put a lot of work into this. I can tell you feel you’ve done a great job. But in my humble opinion, you don’t seem to appreciate what marketing is all about. ’ Questions 1.Collect three descriptions of marketing, one from a text, one from a marketing practitioner, and one form someone who does not work in the marketing fied. Which perception seems the closes to Fyna Foods team’s activities on the Bubble and Squeak project? Justify your choice. 2. From the perspective of Bill Wyse, what differences are th ere between the production stage, the selling stage and the marketing stage of marketing management evolution? 3. In what areas might a food manufacturing company such as Fyna Foods be subject to societal criticisms?

Nightingale Community Hospital Jcaho Audit Preparation: Information Management

Running Head: INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AUDIT 1 Executive Summary Nightingale Community Hospital is preparing for a Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, or JCAHO, audit. In preparation of the coming audit, Nightingale has released JCAHO’s Priority Focus Areas for the hospital. The priority focus areas outlined are Information Management, Medication Management, Communication, and Infection Control. The area of focus for this assessment will be Information Management. Information management is one of the most important systems in health care.Maintaining a complete and accurate record of the patient’s health care information. The patient’s health record includes all information about the patient, the health care the patient has received, and all practitioner’s notes pertaining to the patient’s care. Compliance in Information Management ensures that the hospital maintains a high quality of patient care. Information management, as outlined by JCAHO, includes three Joint Commission Standards in the audit. The ? rst standard, IM. 02. 02. 01, which encompasses whether the hospital manages the collection of information effectively.The standard includes three Elements of Performance, or EPs. The three EPs include whether the hospital uses standardized and uniform data sets to collect information, whether the hospital uses standard, consistent terminology, abbreviations, symbols and whether the hospital follows a policy of prohibited abbreviations, symbols, and dose designations among other performance measures (The Joint Commission, 2012). Upon review of the ? rst EP as well as the reports and documentation provided by Nightingale Community Hospital, the Admission Orders form allows for consistent, pertinent patient information to be collected to ensure optimal ontinuum of care for patients. The form should be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that critical data points are included in the data Running Head: IN FORMATION MANAGEMENT AUDIT 2 collection process and to include updated requirements. One piece of critical information that should be included on all Admission Orders is the admitting diagnosis. The forms also include pre-checked consultations and orders which may not apply to every patient who is admitted; this check marks in the boxes will need to be removed. In accordance with the second EP, the hospital uses standard terminology, de? itions, abbreviations, acronyms, symbols, and dose designations on the forms that have been provided (The Joint Commission, 2012). The third EP, which addresses whether Nightingale Community Hospital follows a list of prohibited abbreviations, is not in compliance with the Joint Commission’s standards. The graph on page three of the National Patient Safety Goal Data: Information Management report, shows the incidence of using prohibited abbreviations was not within acceptable thresholds for January or December; the goal for compliance is 99. 6%.To achieve compliance with the Joint Commission, the organization must not have more than 2 occurrences of non-compliance. The organization improved by eliminating the use of three abbreviations; qd, x3d, and sc. The organization’s graph shows that in January the abbreviation, u, was used 17% of the time and in December was used 63% which is an increase of 46%. To be in compliance with the hospital’s benchmark, the occurrences must be at or below the error threshold of . 04%. To accomplish the task, the organization will need to implement a corrective action plan.To begin, the organization will need to appoint an Information Management compliance team. The compliance team’s primary responsibilities should be limited to auditing the non-compliant records to determine trends in usage of prohibited abbreviations. When the audit is complete, the results will determine the source of the usage of prohibited abbreviations. The possibility of a speci? c department or an individual within a department making the error will be reviewed. After identifying the cause of the increase in abbreviation errors, the team will make aRunning Head: INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AUDIT 3! recommendation for departmental compliance training or organization-wide compliance training. The departments leaders will be responsible for developing a compliance training plan, performing the designated training, then documenting who attended training as well as the training dates. Additional audits will be performed at three month intervals post-training to ensure Nightingale Community Hospital’s and The Joint Commission’s standards are met on a consistent basis. The next priority focus area is RC. 1. 01. 01 which ensures that the hospital maintains a separate, complete medical record for each patient. The EPs for this priority focus area include the medical record retention policy and the release of medical records policy (The Joint Commission, 2012). Nightingale Community Hospital appears to be compliant with the Joint Commission’s standards in this priority focus area. The ? nal priority focus area, RC. 01. 04. 01, which ensures that the hospital audits their medical records, has three signi? cantly more detailed EPs: 1.The hospital conducts an ongoing review of medical records at the point of care, based on the following indicators: presence, timeliness, legibility (whether handwritten or printed), accuracy, authentication, and completeness of data and information. 2. The hospital measures its medical record delinquency rate at regular intervals, but no less than every three months. 3. The medical record delinquency rate averaged from the last four quarterly measurements is 50% or less of the average monthly discharge (AMD) rate. Each individual quarterly measurement is no greater than 50% of the AMD rate (The Joint Commission, 2012).The organization appears to be compliant with all three of the EPs. However, the organization fail s to provide documentation to reflect the interval in which audits are performed Running Head: INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AUDIT 4! on the medical records. The medical record delinquency rate also needs to be documented and graphed along with other measures of delinquency. The current graph outlining patient identification documentation errors shows data for two different years. Audit data needs to be consistent in all quality improvement graphs and reports.The lack of adequate documentation on policy and procedure for the various measures makes it difficult to accurately assess whether Nightingale Community Hospital is in complete compliance with the Joint Commission’s standards. The suggestion for the team members responsible for ensuring accurate data is collected for the Joint Commission’s future audit, is to create a spreadsheet listing the Priority Focus Areas as well as the Elements of Performance. The spreadsheet should reflect which EPs require documentation and wh ich require a Measure of Success as well as the Scoring Category of each.The spreadsheet will help keep the data organized and the team members can quickly see what information is missing. Staying organized and thoroughly researching each performance measurement will help ensure a successful Joint Commission compliance audit. Running Head: INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AUDIT 5! References The Joint Commission. (2012). The Joint Commission Comprehensive Accreditation and Certification Manual. Retrieved from https://e-dition. jcrinc. com/MainContent. aspx. Running Head: INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AUDIT 6!Hospitalaccreditation,Hospital,JointCommission,Healthcarequality,Internationalhealthcareaccreditation,TheComplianceTeam,Healthcare,MedicalrecordRunning Head: INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AUDIT 1 Executive Summary Nightingale Community Hospital is preparing for a Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, or JCAHO, audit. In preparation of the coming audit, Nightingale has released JCAHO’s Priority Focus Areas for the hospital. The priority focus areas outlined are Information Management, Medication Management, Communication, and Infection Control. The area of focus for this assessment will be Information Management. Information management is one of the most important systems in health care.Maintaining a complete and accurate record of the patient’s health care information. The patient’s health record includes all information about the patient, the health care the patient has received, and all practitioner’s notes pertaining to the patient’s care. Compliance in Information Management ensures that the hospital maintains a high quality of patient care. Information management, as outlined by JCAHO, includes three Joint Commission Standards in the audit. The ? rst standard, IM. 02. 02. 01, which encompasses whether the hospital manages the collection of information effectively.The standard includes three Elements of Performance, or EPs. The three EPs include whether the hospital uses standardized and uniform data sets to collect information, whether the hospital uses standard, consistent terminology, abbreviations, symbols and whether the hospital follows a policy of prohibited abbreviations, symbols, and dose designations among other performance measures (The Joint Commission, 2012). Upon review of the ? rst EP as well as the reports and documentation provided by Nightingale Community Hospital, the Admission Orders form allows for consistent, pertinent patient information to be collected to ensure optimal ontinuum of care for patients. The form should be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that critical data points are included in the data Running Head: INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AUDIT 2 collection process and to include updated requirements. One piece of critical information that should be included on all Admission Orders is the admitting diagnosis. The forms also include pre-checked consultations and order s which may not apply to every patient who is admitted; this check marks in the boxes will need to be removed. In accordance with the second EP, the hospital uses standard terminology, de? itions, abbreviations, acronyms, symbols, and dose designations on the forms that have been provided (The Joint Commission, 2012). The third EP, which addresses whether Nightingale Community Hospital follows a list of prohibited abbreviations, is not in compliance with the Joint Commission’s standards. The graph on page three of the National Patient Safety Goal Data: Information Management report, shows the incidence of using prohibited abbreviations was not within acceptable thresholds for January or December; the goal for compliance is 99. 6%.To achieve compliance with the Joint Commission, the organization must not have more than 2 occurrences of non-compliance. The organization improved by eliminating the use of three abbreviations; qd, x3d, and sc. The organization’s graph shows that in January the abbreviation, u, was used 17% of the time and in December was used 63% which is an increase of 46%. To be in compliance with the hospital’s benchmark, the occurrences must be at or below the error threshold of . 04%. To accomplish the task, the organization will need to implement a corrective action plan.To begin, the organization will need to appoint an Information Management compliance team. The compliance team’s primary responsibilities should be limited to auditing the non-compliant records to determine trends in usage of prohibited abbreviations. When the audit is complete, the results will determine the source of the usage of prohibited abbreviations. The possibility of a speci? c department or an individual within a department making the error will be reviewed. After identifying the cause of the increase in abbreviation errors, the team will make aRunning Head: INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AUDIT 3! recommendation for departmental compliance traini ng or organization-wide compliance training. The departments leaders will be responsible for developing a compliance training plan, performing the designated training, then documenting who attended training as well as the training dates. Additional audits will be performed at three month intervals post-training to ensure Nightingale Community Hospital’s and The Joint Commission’s standards are met on a consistent basis. The next priority focus area is RC. 1. 01. 01 which ensures that the hospital maintains a separate, complete medical record for each patient. The EPs for this priority focus area include the medical record retention policy and the release of medical records policy (The Joint Commission, 2012). Nightingale Community Hospital appears to be compliant with the Joint Commission’s standards in this priority focus area. The ? nal priority focus area, RC. 01. 04. 01, which ensures that the hospital audits their medical records, has three signi? cantly mo re detailed EPs: 1.The hospital conducts an ongoing review of medical records at the point of care, based on the following indicators: presence, timeliness, legibility (whether handwritten or printed), accuracy, authentication, and completeness of data and information. 2. The hospital measures its medical record delinquency rate at regular intervals, but no less than every three months. 3. The medical record delinquency rate averaged from the last four quarterly measurements is 50% or less of the average monthly discharge (AMD) rate. Each individual quarterly measurement is no greater than 50% of the AMD rate (The Joint Commission, 2012).The organization appears to be compliant with all three of the EPs. However, the organization fails to provide documentation to reflect the interval in which audits are performed Running Head: INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AUDIT 4! on the medical records. The medical record delinquency rate also needs to be documented and graphed along with other measures of delinquency. The current graph outlining patient identification documentation errors shows data for two different years. Audit data needs to be consistent in all quality improvement graphs and reports.The lack of adequate documentation on policy and procedure for the various measures makes it difficult to accurately assess whether Nightingale Community Hospital is in complete compliance with the Joint Commission’s standards. The suggestion for the team members responsible for ensuring accurate data is collected for the Joint Commission’s future audit, is to create a spreadsheet listing the Priority Focus Areas as well as the Elements of Performance. The spreadsheet should reflect which EPs require documentation and which require a Measure of Success as well as the Scoring Category of each.The spreadsheet will help keep the data organized and the team members can quickly see what information is missing. Staying organized and thoroughly researching each performance me asurement will help ensure a successful Joint Commission compliance audit. Running Head: INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AUDIT 5!References The Joint Commission. (2012). The Joint Commission Comprehensive Accreditation and Certification Manual. Retrieved from https://e-dition. jcrinc. com/MainContent. aspx. Running Head: INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AUDIT 6!