An Ethical Pause

As the director of the local public health department, for this week’s assignment you are creating a logic model to document the rationale for the strategic planning process. This document will be widely reviewed and distributed to your staff and senior advisors, and it will facilitate the planning and implementation of all intended approaches.

While very few persons have viewed the results of the Riverbend City community health needs assessment, the data and final reports will soon be made public. As you are creating the logic model, consider the potential for the community health needs assessment data to be misused. You care about the Riverbend City community where you serve. Remember, “Evaluators, program managers, program staff members, stakeholders, and program participants involved in an evaluation can all be susceptible to a variety of pressures that may result in a less than unbiased evaluation” (Issel & Wells, 2018, p. 397).

As the director of the local public health department, use what you learned in this week’s readings to identify two strategies to prevent the misuse of the community health needs assessment data that will be reported. Be sure to identify both the threat/potential for misuse and the strategy to prevent it.

Remember to cite any sources and refer to the FEM guidelines as you prepare your post.

Response Guidelines

Read and respond to your peers’ posts according to FEM guidelines, addressing the following:

• Identify one ethical principle that could be violated if the strategy proposed by your colleague is not implemented. Define the principle and explain your perspective.
• Briefly evaluate your own professional (not personal) experience with the misuse of results (for example, in a staff meeting where a colleague mistakenly reported that a project resulted in net revenue when in fact there were net losses). Without sharing any harmful information, which ethical principle was violated in this situation and why?

Reference

Issel, L. M., & Wells, R. (2018). Health program planning and evaluation (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Resources

• Discussion Participation Rubric.