Megan Galloway

     Confidence in my ability to execute successful group collaboration that encourages proficient reasoning and critical thinking, including the ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information to make sound decisions and solve problems as they apply to public health is heavily attributed to “Introduction to Health Care Management and Organization” (HSPM500), in which we conducted a group case study project to improve a fictional health organization. My group was tasked with analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating the problems that a city hospital faced. We used our combined reasoning and critical thinking skills to synthesize and evaluate six alternative solutions to construct a plan to reform the specific malfunctioning aspect of the hospital.

     For me, the most noteworthy learning experience that arose from this project was the importance of working together to analyze the problem and critically discuss all aspects of the challenge. For previous group projects, everyone had split up the work evenly and would work on it individually. I was initially in favor of this method because it allows for fairness in the amount of work that each group member is responsible for, as well as flexibility because it could be done at a time that best suits each person as long as it meets an agreed upon deadline. However, this approach also requires everyone to work individually on a particular portion of the project without much collaboration from the other group members. This is different than the method that my group used for this particular project because we discussed everything in depth together. The allotted class time that was made available for us to utilize for collaboration allowed us to all understand the conclusions that we reached about the next steps to reforming the fictional hospital. By analyzing all details of the case, we brainstormed ideas and gave each other immediate feedback. While some group members came up with better ideas, others were more skilled at analyzing the feasibility of those ideas. For instance, I used my creativity to synthesize a method that aimed to improve the fictional hospital by decreasing the high employee turnover through the introduction of incentives. While discussing the incentives, a group member that is very realistic and well versed in organizational operations pointed out how extravagant the incentives were, and determined that they are not practical for the budget of the hospital. Without her realistic thinking and previous experience, we could have easily implemented a solution that would cause extreme monetary issues for the organization in the future. Through this experience, we came to realize the importance of assessing your strengths, the way you perform, and your values in order to determine how you will make the greatest contribution for your team. Ultimately, the group had a successful outcome because we were able to collaborate and utilize the sum of everyone’s knowledge and personal strengths to tackle each aspect of the project and create the best plan for the reform, as seen in the culmination of our efforts in Artifact 6. Although there is not one specific aspect of the project that will stand out as being exceptional, the entire project reflects the group’s high-quality efforts to create the best plan for the fictional hospital. The project is something that each of us will always be able to reflect back on to employ the same approach that led to the highest amount of learning. Having experienced this positive outcome from this method, I now feel that it is the most beneficial way to complete a group project. This understanding will be useful to me as a learner because I will encourage my group members for my upcoming group projects to use this collaborative method.

     Upon reflection of this group project, I came to the realization that I had a similar collaborative experience during my internship at ASE Wealth Advisors. Because ASE is a company in a field that I do not desire to build a career in in the future, I gave myself the challenge of trying to gear it towards having some sort of public health aspect to it. This would not only benefit my experience as a Public Health student, but it would also inevitably benefit the company in some way. I decided to do some research on how movement, sitting, and posture can affect productivity and health. As seen in Artifact 7, I put my research into a PowerPoint Presentation that I gave to the company associates about ergonomics in the workplace. The presentation was not a collaborative effort; however, it sparked a thoughtful conversation amongst the associates and myself, in which we reflected on their daily routines that did not involve much deliberate movement or focus on posture. They also realized the disturbing amount of hours that they spent sitting each day while at work. The general consensus was that they felt that their health could be improved if they tried the ergonomic office furniture that I had presented in my PowerPoint. Without my self-directed presentation on ergonomics, I would not have had the opportunity to initiate a reflective and collaborative discussion afterwards with the office associates about this vital matter that ultimately led to several of them making a simple change to improve their daily productivity and overall health. It was a combination of my individual efforts and the initiation of the reflective conversation that led the majority of the office associates to purchase stand-up desks and ergonomic chairs.

     Similar to the HSPM500 case study project, my self-directed project as an intern at ASE focused on identifying a problem, analyzing the information, synthesizing potential alternatives, and evaluating the feasibility of the alternatives. The collaborative method that we took for the group project allowed each member to learn from each other, and for our fictional hospital to have observations made from each individual group member. These differing views aided us in the synthesis and evaluation of alternative solutions because we were each able to pool our own experiences and personal strengths together through collaborative conversation. Having experienced the success of this method, I transferred my knowledge learned from it over to my internship at ASE by first using my reasoning and critical thinking skills to unearth and analyze a problem in the office, then ultimately initiating a conversation in which the associates and myself could further discuss how the problem could be best resolved based on each individual’s past experience and current knowledge. Without the post-presentation collaboration, there is no guarantee that there would have been any changes in the office. It is through collaboration and fusing together individuals’ strengths and experiences that allow for a real impact to be made.