correspondence scenarios

For each of the scenarios below, you will create three (3) individual deliverables, each of which will require you to consider the specific rhetorical situation in which you are writing, the ethos you wish to portray, and relevant policy and state and federal law. You will be writing as a hospital administrator (you have some leeway to choose a title; some workable options are Human Resources Coordinator, Assistant to the Chief Operating Officer, Safety Officer, etc.) For specific instructions on each deliverable, please see the assignment under each item. A brief description of the deliverables is as follows:

P3:1 Memorandum to your boss explaining how you plan to intervene in writing in order to educate both internal and external audiences about the policy in question.

P3:2 All-staff email and infographic explaining existing and changing policy and any necessary state and federal laws and regulations governing the issue at hand. The infographic will have to be persuasive and complex enough to highlight implementation of specific changes.

P3:3 A Letter to the Board explaining the implementation of policy and its bases in laws and regulations. You will also want to think about what information to include about why the policy is being implemented or reinforced, and assure the Board that these changes will be beneficial to the larger organization in the long run.

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Scenario 1:  You have received an angry letter from the father of a child recently delivered in your hospital. The father, a physician himself, argues that an intern broke sterile field multiple times during his daughter’s birth, and is concerned about potential risks to the mother and child’s health. He states in his letter that he expects that the situation will be appropriately remedied and threatens to make his experience at your hospital public and has brought it up to individual Board members at the hospital.

Scenario 2: Your facility is becoming a smoke-free campus in stages, and is now transitioning from the first phase (smoking in designated areas only) to the second phase (fully non-smoking on all hospital property). You are aware that staff congregate in specific areas to smoke, including in their cars in the garage, which will no longer be allowed.

Scenario 3:  During a recent audit, your hospital was reprimanded for mismanaging disposal of expired medications.  The hospital’s policy adheres to state and federal requirements regarding this issue, but it appears that the staff either do not follow or do not document disposal of medications.

Scenario 4: Several nurses and allied health staff have recently complained that they are not being given adequate break time, despite federal law that requires a half hour lunch and two fifteen minute breaks per eight hour shift.  While their jobs sometimes necessitate overtime and staffing has recently been cut, you are in the delicate position of having to enforce state and federal break requirements while helping supervisors balance the workload. 

Some links for helpful state and federal laws:

http://www.no-smoke.org/goingsmokefree.php?id=132 (Links to an external site.)

http://ahca.myflorida.com/ (Links to an external site.)

http://www.epa.gov/hwgenerators/management-pharmaceutical-hazardous-waste (Links to an external site.)

http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs53.htm (Links to an external site.)