Strategy Development to Reduce Absence Due to Illness in East Sussex Fire and Rescue Operations - Example

Strategy Development to Reduce Absence Due To Illness In East Sussex Fire and Rescue Operations Strategy Development to Reduce Absence Due To Illness In East Sussex Fire and Rescue Operations Introduction Fire-fighters and rescue personnel face some of the most stress related factors at work. To assist these public safety professionals, it behoves fire and rescue managers to develop strategies with which to combat absence due to illness. “A project manager cannot take ownership of a project without believing in it. If the project manager cannot buy into the project then there is little chance that he or she can influence other project participants to buy in.” (Frigenti & Comninos, 2006). In the light of this insight, justification of the approach to planning this project hinges upon building value to the community as to why the development of the project is important, how it targets factors related to absence due to illness, and what it can due to reduce the frequency. Systematically applied theories to this complex problem solving task relative to Fire & Rescue Operations requires a interdisciplinary behavioural research approach. The overall goal of this project is to reduce incidence of absenteeism due to illness among fire and rescue workers in East Essex. Common Sources of Illness and Fatigue Among fire and rescue workers in East Essex Although the primary source of illness and fatigue among fire and rescue workers in East Essex can be simply described as work-related stress, work-related-stress itself takes many forms among this particular demographic. These range from exposure to heat, to aftermaths of fires and rescue operations, to traumatic stress prevalent in the workplace. These sometimes take the form of cardio and respiratory illnesses and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Another factor is simply the effects of ageing So, for the purposes of this project, managers will focus on behaviourally-related mitigation of these behaviourally-related sources of stress, illness, and fatigue among fire and rescue workers in East Essex in East Essex. Implementation Pitfalls The process by which these factors and their relevant solutions can be implemented and measured for effectiveness hinges upon an empirical modelling of the needs of the sample population. It takes so many resources to properly implement health programs that it necessitates a continuous process of evaluation to reduce the incidence of abusive policies. Following the planning phase, the implementation process is scrutinized by similar criteria. Poor allocation of resources reduces confidence participants may have in a project, and without effective mass communication, not enough people might even know about it. Furthermore, the actual method of implementation plays a huge roll in the probability of success. Whether evaluating, planning, implementation, or the evaluation method itself, it is hardly possible to separate one from the other in some cases. Logic Modelling The planning, implementation, and evaluation paradigm used in developing this project is known as logic modelling In logic modelling, empirical evaluation of public needs, program design, and evaluation are all part and parcel to the overall initiative. The process typically begins with identifying a public need based on some observation – like behavioural factorials in fire and rescue workers in East Essex. Based on the findings of this preliminary investigation and previously evaluated programs from whatever applicable source, a rudimentary program is put in place for a pilot study. The scientific evidence and cues from public opinion surveys of participants are fed back into the process to augment and bolster the procedures. This way the program becomes somewhat self-improving and self-governing to some extent. With such measures regularly monitored, ineffective processes and programs can be readily put on the chopping block. For example, parts of the this project program that are both ineffective and unaccepted by the demographic are scaled back to maximize the effectiveness of the program while reducing government expenditures on processes that did not work all that well based on the investment. Logic modelling helps government maximize the return on investment with respect to government programs. A logic model can contribute the proper planning, implementation, and evaluation of health programs two-fold. One is by defining an a priori guideline from which to systematically develop the project throughout its life cycle. The other is strictly empirical in that progress is monitored through evidence-based methods. Ultimately, the logic modelling can help save time and money with respect to public programs. It provides a concrete method of answering questions that address not only the feasibility but also the effectiveness of the endeavour at each stage. Focusing on the outcomes of public works from inception to planning to execution to testing, means using tax dollars more efficiently, cutting down on government waste and increasing community dissatisfaction. While constructing this project program, evaluators will study outcomes of enrollees, former enrollees, providers, and stakeholders with respect to the program objectives. Much of the data collected and analysed will be in the form survey data (Scicchitano & Johns, 2010). Some will be collected as the result from enrollee focus groups (Scicchitano & Johns, 2010). After these needs are assessed, the committee would set to evaluating the program itself (Scicchitano & Johns, 2010). They would want to make sure the program will be capable of meet its own goals and improve the health fire and rescue workers in East Essex. Furthermore, they evaluated program objectives to make sure the aim will be going to accomplish what will be intended (Scicchitano & Johns, 2010). Standardized steps of implementation will be compared to the process conducted by this project's program directors (McKenzie, Neiger, & Thackeray, 2009). Furthermore, tasks that will be implemented in the program are proffered along with the reasoning behind them. The actual implementation will be a matter of forming working groups of professionals, gaining government support, and recruiting participants (CHOICES Health Services, 2006). The organizational structure of the project will be defined at the outset (CHOICES Health Services, 2006). The program would account for government subsidies such that it will be sustained in the long-term (CHOICES Health Services, 2006). The main features of the project are initiation, development, implementation, and feedback. The logic model is represented in the figure below and an explanation of the figure follows. 1. Initiation The fire and rescue worker's health project is initiated in the project initiation documentation. Within this document the aim, objectives, benefits, costs, business case, activities, milestones, staffing, risk management plan, documents management plan, and Gantt Chart are presented as a framework by which work might begin. The Gantt Chart is a representation of work priorities. There are a number of methods to track the work being done against the availability of resources. As work progresses, project managers would want to resort to more complex charts where deadlines may be represented. 2. Development The development of the fire and rescue worker's health project would begin in the first stage of the logic model. This is where a baseline of health issues may become salient through the use of survey tools and focus groups. Once this initial data collection and analysis task is accomplished the first set of treatment alternatives may be engineered. 3. Implementation Implementation of the fire and rescue worker's health project occurs at this stage. This is when intervention and treatment take places. The strategies developed in the previous phase of the project are put into action to help address the health related issues of fire and rescue workers in East Essex. 4. Feedback The feedback phase of the fire and rescue workers health project. is where heuristic methods come into play. As fire and rescue workers in East Essex recover from certain health issues presumably as a result of the treatments and interventions issued, other health concerns may become more salient, and these newly salient issues may be addressed in subsequent treatment plans. Furthermore, the feedback phase may also investigate the effectiveness of treatment protocols at regular intervals throughout the protocol and/or at the end. The looping arrow in the figure above represents how such newly found information is injected back into a revisited development phase to target the most salient features of the newly found information. That is, the system learns from itself about where to start, what to focus on, and how well measures deal with the health issues at hand, and where to restart or modify the measures to make them more effective. Of course, the primary goal of the project is to reduce the incidence of absence due to illness among fire and rescue workers in East Essex. Ultimately, the effectiveness of the project over all is measured in the number of days lost due to absence because of illness for all such workers in East Essex. If the number of days lost decreases over some designated time-frame such as a fiscal quarter or a year. If within two years there is no significant change (decrease) in the number of work days lost by fire and rescue workers, the project should be abandon due to ineffectiveness. Implications Possible ethical or legal ramifications include mainly those having to do with the appropriate use of government resources. If the project had been botched, there is an ethical consideration in terms of the use of taxpayer money or failed promises for the effected demographic, and if due diligence had not been sufficiently included to prevent it, there could legal allegations of fraud. As socialize medical principles become more and more prevalent in the American health care system, it is incumbent upon planners to distribute resources as efficiently as possible to maximize positive outcomes. This is a far cry from 30 years ago when pork belly spending will be the status quo for the public service sector. Nowadays, both government employees and government programs are expected to be as lean as any business sector initiative. Logic modelling helps to make sure of this. Conclusion Systematically applied theories to this complex problem solving task relative to Fire & Rescue Operations requires a interdisciplinary behavioural research approach. Fire-fighters and rescue personnel face some of the most stress related factors at work. To assist these public safety professionals, it behoves fire and rescue managers to develop strategies with which to combat absence due to illness. “A project manager cannot take ownership of a project without believing in it. If the project manager cannot buy into the project then there is little chance that he or she can influence other project participants to buy in.” (Frigenti & Comninos, 2006). In the light of this insight, justify the approach to planning this project hinges upon building value to the community as to why the development of the project is important, how it targets factors related to absence due to illness, and what it can due to reduce the frequency. Perhaps, the most effective way of accomplishing this is by communicating facts. That is why the project would more or less sell itself if the facts are communicated effective. Furthermore, the project itself is corralled in facts. The empirical and heuristics processes by which the project is launch and operates is a testament to the importance of factual observation with respect to the overall goal of the project. References Frigenti, E., and Comninos, D., The Practice of Project Management, London: Kogan Page, 2006. CHOICES Health Services (2006). this project Provider manual. Retrieved from http://www.alachuacounty.us/Depts/CSS/Documents/this project/Provider_Manual.pdf. McKenzie, J., Neiger, B., & Thackeray, R.  (2009). Planning, Implementing, & Evaluating Health Promotion Programs.  San Francisco, California: Pearson Education, Inc. Scicchitano, M.J. & Johns, T.L. (2010). CHOICES: Program Evaluation. University of Florida: Florida Survey Research Center. Fire and Rescue Project Initiation Document A fire and rescue health program requires the development of a Project Initiation Document. This document will cover the aim, objectives, benefits, costs, business case, activities, milestones, staffing, risk management plan, documents management plan, and Gantt Chart. Aim The aim of the fire and rescue worker health program is to reduce absenteeism among members. Because fire and rescue workers are exposed to high stress, highly dangerous and sometimes toxic conditions on the job, the focus of the project is to improve the overall health of the member so as to make them less susceptible to illness and more resilient toward fatigue. Of course, how well this all works is ultimately expressed as the number of days lost due to illnesses. So, if the number of work days lost due to illness among fire and rescue workers decreases over time, the project logic model cycle should continue. If not, it should be abandoned. Goals The immediate goal of the fire and rescue health program are to delineate stakeholders, find out where the most impact can be made, and then following through with empirically supported methods of coping with the most salient health issues among the population. This is accomplished by surveying and focus grouping of the population of interest. Once investigators can confidently identify the most salient health concerns of fire and safety workers, they can go about developing strategies to reduce the impact of such concerns on attendance. Objectives In order to delineate these objectives, so-called SMART criteria are employed. That is, the objectives of the project will be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Specifically, the program will reduce absenteeism among of fire and rescue workers in East Essex. The people involved will be administrators, fire and rescue workers, investigators, and program facilitators. If it is shown that there is no measurable improvement in loss-time due to illness within two years, the program will be scrapped. The measure will be whether there is a statistically significant reduction in loss-time due to illness among fire and rescue workers in East Essex. The criteria for attainability is a statistical function expressing the significance of reduction (presumably) in loss-time. The relevance of the project is ensure by the logic model, an empirical method of finding and addressing health issues among fire and rescue workers in East Essex. The time-constraint is two years as previously stated. Benefits The benefits of the program will be better overall health for fire and rescue teams. The primary benefit to East Essex itself is reduced sick pay for fire and rescue workers. This can, perhaps, be best expressed as a rudimentary formula presented below. Savings Due to Reduced Absenteeism to Illness = Sick Pay x The Number of Sick Days + Overtime Pay Paid to Cover Sick Days x The Number of Sick Days Here is an example based on a £150 per diam average pay rate, where only half of the hours covered are overtime and the number of man-days of sick time is 200. 150 Sick Pay x 200 Sick Days + 225 Overtime Pay x 100 Sick Days + 150 Regular Pay x 100 Sick Days = 30,000 Sick Pay + 22,000 Overtime Pay + 15,000 Regular Pay = £67,000 Savings Due to a 200 Day Reduction in Man-Days Lost Due to Illness Still, if the project cost itself exceeds the annual savings gained from a reduction in loss-time, it may not necessarily be feasible in the long-run. Still, there are multifaceted benefits. Healthier fire and rescue workers perform better on the job, save the community money, and keep the community safer in their roles as public safety professionals. Furthermore, it will reduce incidence of absenteeism do to illness. Costs The costs of the fire and rescue health program will be commensurate with the systems development life cycle (SDLC). It will begin with the business case, continue into requirements definitions, then onto design and development. Logic planning will be built into the system so that it will be self-gauging. The hours that that this development process consumes can be expressed in the form of pay rates. Those will be the initial costs of developing and launching the project. There is an additional costs to actually implementing it. The cycle of data collection, analysis, and program development will constitute the bulk of the cost over time. Hopefully, this will be offset at least some by a reduction in overtime pay for workers who cover shifts of others who call in due to illness. The roles include administrators, investigator/analysts, and facilitators. The average pay of administrators is around £34,000 annually. For investigators, it is around £32,000, and for facilitators, it is around £30,000. There would be two administrators, two permanent members and a project manager. There would be six investigator/analysts, but these positions would become obsolete once the project is launched. There would be at least four facilitators. The estimated time from initiation to implementation is six months. So, the start-up costs of the project would be between £150,000 to £200,000 as would the annual cost of the program thereafter. Some of these costs may be controlled by requiring individuals to fulfill multiple roles throughout the start-up and implementation process. Business Case The business case for the fire and rescue health program is very straight forward. Administrators are looking for a way to reduce absenteeism among this demographic in East Essex. It will make fire and rescue workers more effective on the job and will save the municipality money. It is a win-win situation for all of the stakeholders. The community wins in that they will have healthier, presumably, more effective fire and rescue service. The fire and rescue workers themselves benefit from an increase in health and health consciousness in the workplace, and administrators win because they can clock less loss-time due to illness. Activities The activities that will constitute the development and implementation the fire and rescue worker health program can be delineated from the SDLC and Logic Modeling. In SDLC requirements of what the program should do and how it should work is gathered from steak holders. From there, health data will be collected from fire and rescue teams and analyzed for the most salient features. Then, treatment suggestions can be made based upon the results of ongoing data collection protocols. Thus the activities are divided into the start-up protocol and the implementation protocol. Start-up 1. Administrators initiate project. 2. Investigator/analysts conduct focus groups with fire and safety workers. 3. Investigator/analysts develop pilot measures (questionnaires) based upon the results of the focus groups. 4. Investigator/analysts implement pilot measures. Implementation 1. Facilitators develop interventions based upon the results of the pilot measures. 2. Facilitators execute interventions. 3. Administrators monitor effectiveness of interventions based upon exit measures (questionnaires). 4. Administrators modify measures to address emerging issues as necessary. 5. Administrators implement modified or unmodified measures as the case may be. 6. Facilitators develop interventions based upon the results of the (renewed) measures. Milestones Milestones for the fire and rescue health project are basically linear until the project is implemented. Then, it becomes cyclical (non-linear). The first milestone is the gathering of the project requirements. It will answered questions about what is to be done. Next, the development of the project ensues. This milestone has two subsets. 1. What does the project need to target in terms of illnesses, stress, and factorials of fatigue. 2. What can be done to mitigate these targets and factorials? Once, stakeholders are clear abut how the project is supposed to work upon implementation and how those objectives might be met, it will be ready for the implementation phase which is cyclical. Upon subsequent surveys of fire and rescue workers who attended suggested therapy, administrators will be able to see how effectively the programs may be working and adjust them accordingly. Also, they will be able to understand what other suggestions and programs might help the individual fire and safety worker who may need a little help battling a work-related injury or illness or suffering from stress or stress related fatigue. Milestones are delineated here. 1. Focus groups are targeted for completion within 120 days after the project initiation. 2. Pilot measures are targeted for implementation 30 days thereafter. 3. Initial interventions are targeted for development within 30 days following implementation of the pilot measures. 4. Implementation of initial interventions is targeted for 180 days following initiation of the project. 5. Exit measures are targeted for completion within 2 to 6 weeks following implementation of initial interventions. 6. Modified measures are targeted for delivery within 2 weeks of exit measures. 7. Modified interventions are targeted for implementation within 2 weeks of the delivery of the modified measures. Staffing Staffing needs of the fire and rescue workers health programs are dependent upon the roles that must be filled in order to accomplish the aims and objectives of the program. The major delineations include stakeholders, developers, participants, and administrators. The stakeholders include the East Essex Fire and Rescue Department, the municipality, and the community. Developers will be paid for their role in the project as the primary research coordinator, system analysts, and project managers. The administrator positions will be permanent as long as the project is being executed. Their responsibilities will be to ensure timely data collection and analysis from the participants and the coordination of therapy referrals. Risk Management Plan The risk management plan of the fire and rescue health program is dependent upon the monitor and controls of the development and implementation procedures. Budget considerations will be outlined in fiscal documentation of the project. This will be monitored and controlled to achieved the necessary ends within a financial framework set forth. As resources are consumed, the money that supports the execution of tasks will be tallied and reported on a regular basis to prevent cost over-runs and the achieve deadlines to the best of the ability of people working on the project. A line of demarcation should be set. 2 years is recommended. If there is no significant decrease in absenteeism due to illness among East Essex fire and rescue workers, the project should be abandoned. Documents Management Plan Project documents will be written in sections according to the work that is taking places. Each developer will keep a recent copy of the project charter and modify it using modern document sharing technology. The project manager will be the primary care taker of this document. The Gantt Chart above prioritizes the work flow of the project. Initiation is first, so it has no dependence Development necessarily precedes implementation, and implementation precedes feedback. Furthermore, feedback precedes another round of development following the first iteration of the project logic model. A Fire and rescue health program requires the development of a Project Initiation Document. This document covered the aim, objectives, benefits, costs, business case, activities, milestones, staffing, risk management plan, documents management plan, and Gantt Chart. Read More