Discussion: How Health Indicators Support Quality 3

In organizations such as public health entities that provide services rather than products, quality can be somewhat difficult to define. One way to grasp quality is within the context of already established goals and objectives. A U.S. public health organization, Healthy People 2020 (USDHHS, 2010), has developed a set of priority areas to attain high-quality, longer lives for individuals free of preventable disease, disability, injury, and premature death. The United Nations has developed a similar list called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (which builds on the former World Health Organization’s Millennium Development Goals). The SDGs set forth 17 goals (with 169 targets) that all 191 UN Member States have agreed to achieve by 2030. The SDGs seek to realize the human rights of all and achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. They are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social, and environmental. Although you may not live in the United States, such well-established and fairly universal public health goals and objectives as the Healthy People 2020 priority areas and the SDGs could also help advance quality in certain identified public health problems that you might encounter as a public health administrator.

For this week’s Discussion, review the priority areas established by these two organizations from your Learning Resources:

Healthy People 2020 framework (USDHHS, 2010)

United Nations (UN, n.d.)

Then select one priority area from each of these two organizations that you believe might advance quality in addressing your Final Project health issue.

By Day 3Post an explanation of the role that U.S. national (Healthy People 2020) and international (UN Sustainable Developmental Goals) goals and objectives would play in advancing quality in public health. Then, list the priority area and organization you selected for your final project and explain how this priority area might advance quality in the Final Project health issue you have chosen. Be specific and provide examples in your response.This post should be consistent with the final project.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.