SIMPATH BSN 421 Assignment 2 Organizational and Systems Leadership Communication Tool

Communication Tool

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SIMPATH_BSN421

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Communication is necessary for every change project. However, it is extremely critical when working with sensitive health issues like obesity in the African American community. The communication tool for the change project described in this paper will try to capture the vital elements of communication regarding the change project (Auckburally et al., 2021). However, this tool will not fully explain the change project, nor will it describe all the participants and stakeholders. Therefore, by focusing on this aspect, some challenges and issues of communication will be understandable.

Purpose of the Communication Tool 

The primary purpose of this communication tool is to provide information to specific stakeholders involved in the process. It allows the communicators to provide particular information regarding the change project to the stakeholders, without the need to detail the change project (Auckburally et al., 2021). This will address the required, high-level informational structure as opposed to the intricate, in-depth discussions.

Limited Identification of Participants and Stakeholders 

This communication tool purposely identifies a limited number of stakeholders involved in the change project who are instrumental to the success of the obesity management project. This means the communication will be directed to the healthcare professionals and the policymakers only (Loss et al., 2020). This addresses a gap in the communication tool, especially the culturally sensitive interventions designed for the affected community.

Healthcare Providers: Their membership includes physicians, nutritionists, and fitness professionals. The communication tool will help them understand ways to sustain overall low levels of obesity, though details of the cultural aspects are not addressed (Yu et al., 2021).

Policymakers: They are made aware of the potential for new policies; however, there are no descriptions of how these policies can be intentionally designed to be culturally relevant to African Americans (Yu et al., 2021).

General Message 

The communication tool will describe the importance of the need to address obesity in the African American community. It will also describe how the proposed change project in this document will be developed. It will describe how alarming the rates of obesity are, and the adverse health conditions that will be associated with it (Loss et al., 2020). There will, however, not be any descriptions of the interventions, frameworks, or culturally relevant methods.

The message will describe obesity as an overarching concern that all clinicians need to take into account when working with African Americans. It will provide a general description of obesity and its broad impact on public health and will not provide any specific details on policy frameworks and next steps to be undertaken.

Methods of Communication

The communication instrument will use basic methods for expressing ideas that do not account for two-way communication methods. Such a restricted approach may include the following:

Flyers: Distributed to hospitals and governmental divisions providing general information about the obesity rates among African Americans. These flyers will not need words to describe the final goal or the need for the stakeholders to change or engage (Lofton et al., 2023).

Emails: Sent to health service managers and policymakers and concentrated on the crucial points pertaining to obesity while the proposed project was omitted. These emails will not require a response or acknowledgement, thus terminating the communication to the project stakeholders (Lofton et al., 2023).

Lack of Feedback Mechanisms 

This communication instrument has a principal drawback: there are no feedback methods. As it does not stimulate direct involvement of concerned stakeholders and there is no forum provided for the free exchange of ideas, this communication tool reduces the chances for collaboration to a minimum. The lack of inclusion of the community in the targeted audiences reduces the opportunities for gathering information on the needs and the cultural settings and preferences of the population most affected by obesity-related diseases (Chatham & Mixer, 2019). This lack of inclusion means the project will have a high probability of failure and will have a strong negative effect on its intended outcome.

Missing Elements of the Change Project 

Aspects of the change project dealing with the element of communication are still lacking. Among other things, the change project’s impressive features, such as community fitness initiatives, culturally sensitive dietary changes, and efforts to improve healthy food access in food deserts, are absent (Suárez et al., 2023). Lastly, the project’s training initiatives may be lost on stakeholders, as they may not comprehend the different methods to tackle the issue of obesity (beyond culturally specific and targeted interventions), as they relate to the African American population, and the interventions’ cultural and specific needs.

Implications of Limited Communication 

This communication tool will yield the following results, should attendance of the meetings be restricted to specific participants and stakeholders and the rationale behind the change project not be fully communicated. Program designers and decision makers will be unaware of the need for culturally sensitive approaches to address the challenge of obesity in the African American population (Suárez et al., 2023). Additionally, this will most likely result in a lack of the desired level of community involvement, which would ultimately hinder positive changes in the community. The overall impact of the change project will be diminished because community members and other key community stakeholders, including leaders, will not be engaged.

Conclusion

This communication tool provides some aspects of the general problem of obesity in African Americans; however, it does not sufficiently explain the change project. There is no involvement of either the affected population or the stakeholders. There is no opportunity for stakeholder engagement and feedback. The information on the project is insufficient, which may affect the success of the communication and the change project in its entirety. These deficiencies should be considered when planning the next steps in order to improve the health of the population in the target group.

References

Auckburally, S., Davies, E., & Logue, J. (2021). The use of effective language and communication in the management of obesity: The challenge for healthcare professionals. Current Obesity Reports, 10(3).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13679-021-00441-1

Chatham, R. E., & Mixer, S. J. (2019). Cultural Influences on childhood obesity in ethnic minorities: A qualitative systematic review. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 31(1), 87–99. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043659619869428

Lofton, H., Ard, J. D., Hunt, R. R., & Knight, M. G. (2023). Obesity among African American people in the United States: A review. Obesity, 31(2), 306–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.23640

Suárez, C. V. J., Velasco, B. A. I., Flórez, R. L., Rodríguez, M. A., & Aguilera, T. J. F. (2023). Global impacts of western diet and its effects on metabolism and health: A narrative review. Nutrients, 15(12), 2749–2749. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15122749