Training Intervention in Podiatry - Assignment Example

?Running head: Training intervention in Podiatry Training intervention in Podiatry Insert Insert Grade Insert February 11, 2012 Session plan The session will be divided into short periods that address different aspects: Identification of the learning style (4 minutes) Introduction to the session Target group Background of the workshop The learning objectives Interventions- discussions -Growing with the technological advances in the practice of podiatry -Improving on communication and interpersonal skills -developing a feeling of empathy/concern for the patients -Podiatry in the prevention of falls among the elderly Assessments - Short-term assessment of the session - Long-term assessment - Program evaluation Training intervention in Podiatry The learning style identification The participants have different preferred learning styles that reflect on the learning training approach to be applied. The style is identified using the Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic (VAK) survey. This survey comprises twelve questions for each of the three categories, Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic, totaling 36. The participants will take a short period responding to these questions by indicating against each question the numbers 1 through 5 that best describes the individual. After that, they are to total their results to identify their best learning style. Nonetheless, the session will involve a mixture of the learning methods. Introduction The human resource department in a given business organization is often concerned with ‘the recruitment, performance evaluation, compensation, benefits, and career development of the employees’ (Duggan, 2012). There is a strong relationship between personnel training and development carried out by the human resource department and the achievement of the objectives of a business organization. The traditional approach in which the human resource department was viewed as an administrative department is no longer applicable in the current business world (Mayhew, 2012). The human capital is an important resource that requires thorough development in order to ensure longevity and success of a given business. The goals of an organization are to be developed in line with HR strategic goals (Nielsen, 2012). As a business organization, one of the main objectives is the provision of quality services to our clients in order to attract and retain more customers. This will ensure our sustainable development. A training intervention of this nature is usually concerned with an improvement in the performance, conduct, or the behavior of the employees. Such a workshop becomes necessary because there is often a gap between what is known and recommended as the right practice and the actual practice at the workplace (Duggan, 2012). The needs of the clients to the may not be met fully by the practices our professionals. The clients have stronger bargaining power in this context since the cost of shifting to other service providers is often low, in case they choose to do so following dissatisfaction. The net effects are detrimental to our continued operations. Target group This intervention will focus on the improvement of our performance and the behavior of employees. In this regard, the training intervention targets newly recruited employees of the organization. The receptionists/front office operators and other clerical officers are the main targeted audience for this intervention. Purpose of the workshop The organization has the vision of being the leader and pioneer in the effective management of foot related infection in the region. We have always struggled to be charming host at every event, attracting suitors from all vertices of the polygon. This has often been enhanced through an effective organizational culture. The employees of the organization need to understand and adopt the cultural values and norms. The office etiquette, dressing code, as well as abiding by other rules like time of reporting on duty are essential tools in the effective delivery of services in a healthcare center. The employees must have a good mastery of the working hours and the shifting patterns used in this institution. Secondly, dealing with patients requires a feeling of concern in efforts to help the patients overcome the situation. The feeling of concern can be observed from the first encounter with the receptionists. The profession involves dealing with individuals of varied ages with various complications. We experience large cases of old patients as well as individuals in critical situations. The conduct of employees in these cases is guided by one simple ‘divine’ command: “You shall not express sympathy but empathy to patients and families.” The encounter between the clients and our professionals will also determine the image developed by the client of our organization. There have been cases in which the podiatrists and other support staffs become furious with their patients for one reason or the other. This calls for improved communication and interpersonal skills among the workers. To this end, am sure some of you are wondering whether they are in the right place and the right time, and whether you had all the senses while submitting the application. The recurrent answer is yes, and the human resource department was excellent in the recruitment and selection of the workers. However, those of you who made friends have a better understanding of the case. To make friend is often a simple small task following an initial encounter whereas to maintain the friendship involves many dynamics that require adjustments. Several unexpected social disasters can befall the intimacy prematurely. The learning objectives The objectives of this short workshop reflect on our business objectives of providing quality podiatric services to our clients. It generally aims at introducing you, the new employees to our workplace. By the end of the training, you should have developed an understanding of the appropriate dressing code that preserves and upholds our true organizational culture. The participants will also be able to develop good communication and interpersonal skills to accommodate individuals from different backgrounds. The other objective is to help the receptionists and other support staffs to develop a feeling of compassion and concern for the patients in order to enable them cope up with their situation. The participants are also expected to have a better understanding of the current trends of foot related infections, their common causes, and the most appropriate interventions mechanisms. Discussions and interactive session The Dress Code Our center has an established dress code that has to be adopted by all the employees even though they may vary across departments. The dress code may be waived in the emergency cases. The other factors like religion, culture, or disability may also be considered depending on their weights and the prevailing situations. The first observation is on body hygiene. As healthcare providers, you are required to be exemplary in body hygiene to the clients. You have to ensure maximum cleanliness of body including hair and fingernails. Beards and moustaches have to be trimmed and there needs to be no pungent odor from the body. A livestock farmer brands his cattle for identification purposes. This enables the farmer to identify his heifer among a large herd. Similarly, the organization has badges and name tags for the employees. The badges indicate your name and role, customer service. They are displayed all the times with the name and role facing out so that the clients can have easy time identifying you. While on duty, you will be issued with white laboratory coat with the organization’s logo. The coat will be worn over your usual light attires. You will definitely remote heavy clothing like jackets, lest you develop the odor of a beast. The organization does not allow shorts or miniskirts. The trousers and dresses should be neither tight nor baggy. Working hours The health center is operational for 24 hours a day and seven days a week. The employees are then forced to work in shifts with much of the work performed in day shift. The day shift begins at 7 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. for weekdays. It begins at 8 a.m. on weekends and ends at 5 p.m. There is a schedule for the shifts. There are also provisions for employees who are not comfortable with either of the working hours. Strict adherence to time schedules is required here. Receiving the clients- a demonstration The effective reception of a friend does not require magic as some of you begin to imagine. In this case, the highly skilled individuals fail while the ones with mediocre talents score highly. You will encounter older people. Currently, one of the major public health problems is falls in old people with almost a third of the individuals aged 65 years and above falling each year (Spink et al, 2011). It may be necessary in the later stages to examine the footwear of the elderly people. This can be achieved through developing good relations with the elderly and their families. Develop a rapport with client through a brief inquiry about the client. Inform the client on the information that should be provided at this stage, its essence, and the security of such information. Explain to the clients the operations and procedures. Then direct the client or family members to the appropriate department according to their needs. Improving communication/interpersonal skills Developing good interpersonal communication entails speaking and listening and an individual should not just strive to put a point across (Communicate now, n.d). Instead, he/she should listen to the other party and ask more questions to get a concept. The following are some techniques of improving your communication skills when dealing with the patients and their families. Firstly, there is need to listen to the patient/families in order to understand the problem. This will also enable you to get your message across to the patient. Secondly, you should show interest in the patient. The patient will pay more attention to you if you show interest in him. He or she will not shy away but be free to speak what is affecting him, which will further help you give the appropriate direction. Similarly, you should be relaxed, composed, and jovial with a constant eye contact on the patient. Try to smile while receiving a patient, especially if you are meeting each other for the first time. You should also be objective and expect varied views and opinions. Diversity exists among individuals on their perceptions. Thus, you should strive to understand why an individual has a different feeling from what you knew or expected. Consider their observations and your understanding of the concept to develop a compromise. Finally, it is important to note an encounter with a patient or other clients that appeared successful so that it can be used in the next encounter. In the event that there was a positive encounter, try to examine the approaches that you applied that made it successful and use these approaches in the next conversation. Similarly, in the event that the encounter was not successful, focus on factors that could have led to the failure and fix them before the next encounter. Feeling concern and helping people cope with their situation Our organization deals with patients with different complexities. Some podiatric interventions involve limb amputation and the individuals may find difficulties accommodating their situations. To achieve this, employees have to express concern in helping these patients accommodate their current situations (Hiz, 2010). Other than the medical and surgical interventions, our organization applies some psychotherapeutic interventions to console the patients. You should not panic and feel sympathetic for the patient’s situation. From the reception point, you have to develop in the patients a feeling that they can still achieve their life goals despite the situation that they are undergoing. It is also important to include the patient and the families while making any decision on the appropriate intervention to be applied to the patient. This will help the patients have a feeling that the capacity to make decisions is still intact. Program evaluation Assessing learning objectives Before ending the training session, it is necessary to examine if the learning objectives have been achieved. To evaluate the short-term outcomes, we will have a short interactive session in which you, the participants will share your views. We will take two to three minutes for the demonstration. In groups of three or four, one individual will act as the receptionist, the other a patient, and the remaining to represent family members. At the end, you will take few minutes to respond to the following queries and submit your observations. What are some of the difficulties or weaknesses that have been encountered in this training session? Are there potential obstacles that can bar the participants from implementing the styles and skills that are learned in this session? If yes, then illustrate on these barriers and provide a suggestion on how best they can be managed. What adjustments are necessary in order to have a better training of this nature next time? In general, how would you rate the training delivery on a scale of 1-10? Assessment of Long-term objectives To examine the achievement of the long-term objectives, we will conduct interview some two months after the training session. The interview will entail various aspects touched in the training including developing relations with the clients. The clients will be interviewed on their perception o the quality of our services in relation to hospitality nature of the professionals. These later interventions will enable us identify the methods and techniques that are most successful and capitalize on them. To encourage the adoption of the new work practices, the management of the organization has arrangements to provide rewards and incentives to the employees who will successfully adopt the new behaviors. The management has programs to enable the workers advance on their careers through pursuing further studies and exploring the use of modern technology to facilitate our operations in podiatry. If there are barriers to changes at the early stages, the management will provide time to ensure the individuals adjust to the new ways of operations. Similarly, in the event that these interventions are not practical, the management will develop other new approaches to learning that can help achieve the organizational objectives. Reference List Communicate now. N.d. Interpersonal Communication Skills. (Online). Available at: http://www.communication-skills.info/interpersonal-communication-skills.shtml [Accessed February 10, 2012]. Duggan, T., 2012. Human Resources: How to Develop a Training Intervention Program. (Online). Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/human-resources-develop-training-intervention-program-2022.html[Accessed February 10, 2012]. Hiz, P., 2010. Podiatrist: Job Description, Education and Training, Skills, Duties, Earnings and Job Outlook. (Online). Available at: http://www.exammaterials.com/careers/podiatrist-job-description.html [Accessed February 10, 2012] Mayhew, R., 2012. Relationship Between HR Strategies & Business. (Online). Available at http://smallbusiness.chron.com/relationship-between-hr-strategies-business-2636.html [Accessed February 10, 2012]. Nielsen, L., 2012. HR Strategies with Business Strategies. (Online). Available at http://smallbusiness.chron.com/hr-strategies-business-strategies-2624.html [Accessed February 10, 2012]. Spink, M. et al., 2011. Effectiveness of a multifaceted podiatry intervention to prevent falls in community dwelling older people with disabling foot pain: randomized controlled trial, BMJ 2011; 342:d3411. (Online). Available at: http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d3411.full [Accessed February 10, 2012]. Read More