SSM Employee Welcome
2015 Revamp by Janel Schnieders

Below are instructional strategies that will be used to revamp the new employee orientation program at SSM Health.
Description: Below are instructional strategies that will be used to revamp the new employee orientation program at SSM Health.
Image copyright: Microsoft Clipart
Structured Academic Controversy (SAC): The Structured Academic Controversy (SAC) is exactly what the name implies. It is a structured discussion where students gain knowledge about issues while appreciating and respecting multiple viewpoints. The best outcome is consensus among the group. I plan to try the SAC approach when the topic of Diversity comes up in orientation. Lately I’ve been using the events taking place in Ferguson, Missouri as a discussion starter and the discussions have gone well. However, using the SAC approach, the discussions will be more structured. I plan to: 1) establish a set of ground rules; 2) ask the students to define diversity, culture and stereotyping; 3) facilitate discussions around the viewpoints of the police force and the black community; and 4) build consensus on how there is no room for racism/stereotyping in health care and key behaviors that must take place to help build relationships and understanding.

Jigsaw: According to Carleton College’s Pedagogy in Action Science Education Resource Center Portal, in a jigsaw, “the class is divided into several teams, with each team preparing separate but related assignments. When all team members are prepared, the class is re-divided into mixed groups, with one member from each team in each group. Each person in the group teaches the rest of the group what he/she knows, and the group then tackles an assignment together that pulls all of the pieces together to form the full picture”. For the Corporate Responsibility Process (CRP) segment of new employee orientation, there are several segments of the topic that must be facilitated and learned. However, many of the new employees come with some of the knowledge content. Using the jigsaw strategy will be an effective strategy to take advantage of the knowledge that the new employees bring and also promote collaboration.

Gallery Walk: In a gallery walk, students walk around to various stations (within the gallery) and expand on and synthesize important concepts by consensus building. Teams rotate from station to station composing answers to questions and reflecting on and adding to the answers given by others in the group. This instructional strategy closes with a “report out” in which small groups synthesize the comments. I think this instructional strategy would be a good fit for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) segment of new employee orientation. After HIPAA and protected health information (PHI) are defined, the new employees will be divided into small groups and asked to go to different stations (easel paper stuck on the walls) and work to answer the question listed on the easel paper. The predetermined questions will be:
• How does PHI move?
• What are some ways to keep PHI protected and work legally and ethically?
• Who does this impact?
• Why is this important?

Classroom Response System: A classroom response system (CRS) utilizes software and hardware in which students submit answers to questions via a transmitter, or clicker. When the student submits an answer, via the clicker, the clicker sends the answer through a radio frequency which is captured by a computer’s USB receiver. I am excited to report that I just got a large set of clickers! SSM Health recently purchased a large supply of clickers and new employee orientation is the first project slated to pilot the clickers. The software has been pushed out to a few of the SSM Health entities and I’m anxious for it to be pushed to my region. Also, there is already a quiz/game built into the NEO content so it will be simply a matter of editing the PowerPoint slide show once the software is installed. However, I’d like to also use the clickers at the end of orientation as an automated way to collect the level 1 feedback.

Word Wall: Out of all of the instructional strategies explored for this assignment, this small strategy is the one I am most excited about. Health care workers speak a different language and there are acronyms and abbreviations that are constantly used. For the clinical employees, much of the language is familiar to them. However, for the dietary, environmental services, human resources, accounting, and other non-clinical staff, it is an entirely new language. Using a word wall during new employee orientation will help the new employees remember some of the common abbreviations and acronyms. I plan to challenge the new employees early in the day to catch me and others in the room when an unfamiliar acronym, phrase, or abbreviation is used. As these catches are made, the unfamiliar abbreviation/phrase/acronym will be posted on the white board along with a brief definition. This list will be referred to throughout the class (as the term is used) and reviewed at the end of orientation.

Graphic Organizer: According to Janelle Cox, Elementary Education Expert, “a graphic organizer assists the students by organizing the information to make it easier for them to comprehend. This valuable tool provides teachers with the opportunity to assess and understand their students thinking skills.” The graphic organizer I plan to use will have HIPAA in the center and satellite bubbles that contain the words how, what, who and why. This graphic organizer will be used to recap what the students report-out after the gallery walk.

Memorization: According to Kelly Jo Rowan’s Glossary of Instructional Strategies website, memorization is “actively organizing and working with concepts or terminology to improve incorporating those concepts into memory”. Since all behaviors of SSM employees support the SSM mission, I’d like all new employees to memorize the mission statement by the end of new employee orientation. To make this happen, I plan to place the mission statement frequently throughout the slideshow. I also plan to ask the new employees to state the mission out loud each time it is visible. I will likely use the mission statement slides as a means to discuss each word of the mission statement.
Links:
   Bullet  Pedagogy in Action the SERC Portal for Educators, What is a Structured Academic Controversy?
   Bullet  Pedagogy in Action the SERC Portal for Educators, Why use Jigsaws?
   Bullet  Starting Point Teaching Entry Level Geoscience, What is Gallery Walk?
   Bullet  Pedagogy in Action the SERC Portal for Educators, Classroom Response Systems
   Bullet  About Education, Word Walls
   Bullet  About Education, Graphic Organizers
   Bullet  Glossary of Instructional Strategies
This page was edited by CED505 Fall 2014 (Teacher: Moore) using Web Poster Wizard.