Article Analysis 1

 

The interpretation of research in health care is essential to decision making. By understanding research, health care providers can identify risk factors, trends, outcomes for treatment, health care costs and best practices. To be effective in evaluating and interpreting research, the reader must first understand how to interpret the findings. You will practice article analysis in Topics 2, 3, and 5.

For this assignment:

Search the GCU Library and find three different health care articles that use quantitative research. Do not use articles that appear in the Topic Materials or textbook. Complete an article analysis for each using the “Article Analysis 1” template.

Refer to the “Patient Preference and Satisfaction in Hospital-at-Home and Usual Hospital Care for COPD Exacerbations: Results of a Randomised Controlled Trial,” in conjunction with the “Article Analysis Example 1,” for an example of an article analysis.

While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion. 

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the for assistance.

Case 2 The Wallace Group

 

Case 2: The Wallace Group

Conduct a strategic analysis using the Executive Summary template.   Prepare and submit a three-page executive summary that discusses what  strategic alternatives are available and provide a recommended  strategy. 

You are to work alone to analyze and prepare the Executive Summary  for the case.  NOTE: Click “Submit Assignment” in the upper right-hand  corner of your screen to turn in your Executive Summary no later than  Sunday, midnight CT. Name your file with your name and the unit number,  i.e. Jones1 or Brown1. Your file should be in either Microsoft word  (.doc or .docx) or rich text (.rtf) format.

The following information will be required for the Executive Summary.  Preview the documentand the Preview the document These files are required for the unit textbook case studies. 

Synopsis of the Case: The content of the synopsis should present relevant background facts about the case under examination.

Relevant Factual Information about the Problem or Decision the Organization Faced: State  the precise problem or decision the organization faced.  The section  should include information that addressed the business issue under  examination. This section should be no longer than a single paragraph.

Explanation of Relevant Concepts, Theories and Applications Derived from Course Materials:  This  section should be the bulk of your paper. Analysis of the business  problem or decision in light of the course concepts must be presented,  as well as the business lesson another organization could learn from  this situation. Besides citation to the text, learners must conduct  research in the University library related to the top. Citing the  textbook only is not enough to demonstrate you understand and can apply  the course objectives. Here is where comparative and contrasting  positions should be considered and examples and illustrations provided.

Recommendations: Provide logical  recommendations to address the business lesson identified above. The  recommendations need not to be specific to the organization examined,  but should consider how other organizations, if similarly situated,  could lessen the impact of the problem or decision identified. Recall,  that the organization under examination has already moved pasted this  problem so any recommendations made, at this point, are fruitless. The  focus of this section should be on what other companies should be aware  of to address similar problems or decisions. Citation to the textbook  alone is insufficient for analysis in this section. Learners should  conduct research in the Universitys library to support their positions.  Depth of scholarship is not demonstrated by providing personal opinions  alone, but by using examples, analogies, comparison and illustrations  from the academic literature. Not only does this synthesize the material  to assist the readers understanding, it is an effective way to present  the academic sources and extend the discussion of your ideas. This  section should be a paragraph or two.

Alternative Recommendations: This section is not a  continuation of the prior. Provide suggestions for how to avoid the  problem or decision the examined organization faced. Analysis here  should be may be forward- thinking, predictive or, most likely,  preventative in nature but tied to the thesis statement. Again, opinion  is insufficient to provide the required academic analysis. Sources,  other than the text, must be provided to sustain the statements made.  This section should be a paragraph, at most.

Conclusion: End the assignment with  a summary of the important points made in the document. No new  information may be presented. Writing a conclusion can be done by  rewording the opening or reformulation the topic sentences of each  paragraph to make a summary for the reader. This section should be a  paragraph, at most. 

#2 Ethical and Policy Factors in Care Coordination

Select a community organization or group that you feel would be interested in learning about ethical and policy issues that affect the coordination of care. Then, develop and record a 10-12-slide, Create a detailed narrative script for your presentation, 4-5 pages in length.

As coordinators of care, nurses must be aware of the code of ethics for nurses and health policy issues that affect the coordination of care within the context of the community. To help patients navigate the continuum of care, nurses must be proficient at interpreting and applying the code of ethics for nurses and health policy, specifically, the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Being knowledgeable about ethical and policy issues helps ensure that care coordinators are upholding ethical standards and navigating policy issues that affect patient care.

This assessment provides an opportunity for you to develop a presentation for a local community organization of your choice, which provides an overview of ethical standards and relevant policy issues that affect the coordination of care. Completing this assessment will strengthen your understanding of ethical issues and policies related to the coordination and continuum of care, and will empower you to be a stronger advocate and nursing professional.

It would be an excellent choice to complete the Vila Health: Ethical Decision Making activity prior to developing the presentation. The activity provides a helpful update on the ethical principles that will help with success in this assessment.

Demonstration of Proficiency

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:

  • Competency 4: Defend decisions based on the code of ethics for nursing. 
    • Assess the impact of the code of ethics for nurses on the coordination and continuum of care.
  • Competency 5: Explain how health care policies affect patient-centered care. 
    • Explain how governmental policies related to the health and/or safety of a community affect the coordination of care.
    • Identify national, state, and local policy provisions that raise ethical questions or dilemmas for care coordination.
  • Competency 6: Apply professional, scholarly communication strategies to lead patient-centered care. 
    • Communicate key ethical and policy issues in a presentation affecting the coordination and continuum of care for a selected community organization or support group. Either speaker notes or audio voice-over are included.

Preparation

Your nurse manager at the community care center is well connected and frequently speaks to a variety of community organizations and groups. She has noticed the good work you are doing in your new care coordination role and respects your speaking and presentation skills. Consequently, she thought that an opportunity to speak publicly about contemporary issues in care coordination would be beneficial for your career and has suggested reaching out to a community organization or support group to gauge their interest in hearing from you, as a care center representative, on a topic of interest to both you and your prospective audience.

You have agreed that this is a good idea and have decided to research a community organization or support group that might be interested in learning about ethical and policy issues related to the coordination of care. Your manager has suggested the following community organizations and support groups, but acknowledges that the choice is yours.

  • Homeless shelters.
  • Local religious groups.
  • Nursing homes.
  • Local community organizations (Rotary Club or Kiwanis Club).

To prepare for this assessment, you may wish to:

  • Research your selected community organization or support group.
  • Review the Code of Ethics for Nurses With Interpretive Statements and associated health policy issues, specifically, the ACA.
  • Review the assessment instructions and scoring guide to ensure you understand the work you will be asked to complete.
  • Allocate sufficient time to rehearse your presentation before recording the final version for submission.

Note: Remember that you can submit all, or a portion of, your draft presentation to for feedback, before you submit the final version for this assessment. If you plan on using this free service, be mindful of the turnaround time of 2448 hours for receiving feedback.

Instructions

For this assessment:

  • Choose the community organization or support group that you plan to address.
  • Develop and record a presentation, with typed speaker notes (the script for your voice recording) and audio voice-over recording, intended for that audience. Video is not required.

Note: PowerPoint has a feature to type the speaker notes directly into the presentation. You are encouraged to use that feature or you may choose to submit a separate document. See for technical support about the use of PowerPoint, including voice recording and speaker notes.

Note: For this assessment, develop your presentation slides and speaker notes, then record your presentation. You are not required to deliver your presentation to an actual audience but you certainly could if you chose to.

Presentation Format and Length

You may use PowerPoint (recommended) or other suitable presentation software to create your slides and add your voiceover. If you elect to use an application other than PowerPoint, check with your faculty to avoid potential file compatibility issues. You can also record your presentation using Kaltura or similar software.

Be sure that your slide deck includes the following slides:

  • Title slide. 
    • Presentation title.
    • Your name.
    • Date.
    • Course number and title.
  • References (at the end of your presentation).

Your slide deck should consist of 1012 slides, not including a title and references slide with typed speaker notes and audio voice over. Your presentation should not exceed 20 minutes.

Create a detailed narrative script for your presentation, approximately 45 pages in length.

Supporting Evidence

Cite 35 credible sources from peer-reviewed journals or professional industry publications to support your presentation. Include your source citations on a references page appended to your narrative script.

Grading Requirements

The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the Ethical and Policy Factors in Care Coordination Scoring Guide, so be sure to address each point. Read the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.

  • Explain how governmental policies related to the health and/or safety of the community affect the coordination of care. 
    • Provide examples of a specific policy affecting the organization or group.
    • Refer to the assessment resources for help in locating relevant policies.
    • Be sure influential policies include the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA).
  • Identify national, state, and local policy provisions that raise ethical questions or dilemmas for care coordination. 
    • What are the implications and consequences of specific policy provisions?
    • What evidence do you have to support your conclusions?
  • Assess the impact of the code of ethics for nurses on the coordination and continuum of care. 
    • Consider the factors that contribute to health, health disparities, and access to services.
    • Consider the social determinants of health identified in Healthy People 2020 as a framework for your assessment.
    • Provide evidence to support your conclusions.
  • Communicate key ethical and policy issues in a presentation affecting the coordination and continuum of care for a selected community organization or support group. Either speaker notes or audio voice-over are included. 
    • Present a concise overview.
    • Support your main points and conclusions with relevant and credible evidence.

Akamai Technologies

Chapter 3. Case Study 3.8 Akamai technologies: Attempting to keep supply ahead of Demand, pages 182-185. Answer questions 1, 2, and 3 on page 185. Clearly cite all the sources.

1. Why does Akamai need to geographically disperse its servers to deliver its cus-tomers web content?
2. If you wanted to deliver software content over the Internet, would you sign up for Akamais service? Why or why not?
3. Do you think Internet users should be charged based on the amount of band-width they consume, or on a tiered plan where users would pay in rough propor-tion to their usage?

In 2017, the amount of Internet traffic generated by YouTube alone is greater than the amount of traffic on the entire Internet in 2000. Because of video streaming and the explosion in mobile devices demanding high-bandwidth applications, Internet traffic has increased over 500% since 2010 and is predicted to nearly triple by 2021 (see Figure 3.18). Internet video is now a majority of Internet traffic and will reach 82% by 2021, according to Cisco. Mobile platform traffic is expected to grow sevenfold from its 2016 levels by 2021. Cisco estimates that annual global Internet traffic will be around 3.3 zettabytes in 2021: thats 3,300 exabytes, or, in other words, 33 with 19 zeroes behind it!
In todays broadband environment, the threshold of patience is very low. Increased video and audio customer expectations are bad news for anyone seeking to use the Web for delivery of high-quality multimedia content and high definition video. Akamai is one of the Webs major helpers, and an overwhelming majority of the Webs top companies use Akamais services to speed the delivery of content. Akamai serves more than 30 terabits of web traffic per second. Slow-loading web pages and content sometimes result from poor design, but more often than not, the problem stems from the underlying infrastructure of the Internet. The Inter-net is a collection of networks that has to pass information from one network to another. Sometimes the handoff is not smooth. Every 1,500-byte packet of information sent over the Internet must be verified by the receiving server and an acknowledgment sent to the sender. This slows down not only the distribution of content such as music, but also slows down interactive requests, such as purchases, that require the client computer to interact with an online shopping cart. Moreover, each packet may go through many different servers on its way to its final destination, multiplying by several orders of magnitude the number of acknowledgments required to move a packet from New York to San Francisco. The Internet today spends much of its time and capacity verifying packets, contributing to a problem called latency or delay. For this reason, a single e-mail with a 1-megabyte attached PDF file can create more than 50 megabytes of Internet traffic and data storage on servers, client hard drives, and network backup drives. Web page load times for desktops have also increased significantly as pages become laden with more content of various types. Load times increased by over 60% from 2013 to 2015 and have continued to rise since that time, further complicat-ing content distribution. Akamai Technologies was founded by Tom Leighton, an MIT professor of applied
mathematics, and Daniel Lewin, an MIT grad student, with the idea of expediting Internet traffic to overcome these limitations. Lewins masters thesis was the theoretical starting point for the company. It described storing copies of web content such as pictures or video clips at many different locations around the Internet so that one could always retrieve a nearby copy, making web pages load faster. Officially launched in August 1998, Akamais current products are based on the
Akamai Intelligent Platform, a cloud platform made up of over 233,000 servers in 130 countries within over 1,500 networks around the world, and all within a single network hop of 85% of all Internet users. Akamai software on these servers allows the platform to identify and block security threats and provide comprehensive knowledge of network conditions, as well as instant device-level detection and optimization. Akamais site per-formance products allow customers to move their online content closer to end users so a user in New York City, for instance, will be served L.L.Bean pages from the New York Metro area Akamai servers, while users of the L.L.Bean site in San Francisco will be served pages from Akamai servers in San Francisco. Akamai has a wide range of large corporate and government clients: 1 out of every 3 global Fortune 500 companies, the top 30 media and entertainment companies, 96 of the top 100 online U.S. retailers, all branches of the U.S. military, all the major U.S. sports leagues, and so on. In 2017, Akamai delivers between 15% and 30% of all web traffic, and over 3 trillion daily Internet interactions. Other competi-tors in the content delivery network (CDN) industry include Limelight Networks, Level 3 Communications, and Mirror Image Internet.
Accomplishing this daunting task requires that Akamai monitor the entire Internet,
locating potential sluggish areas and devising faster routes for information to travel. Frequently used portions of a clients website, or large video or audio files that would be difficult to send to users quickly, are stored on Akamais servers. When a user requests a song or a video file, his or her request is redirected to an Akamai server nearby and the content is served from this local server. Akamais servers are placed in Tier 1 backbone supplier networks, large ISPs, universities, and other networks. Akamais software deter-mines which server is optimal for the user and then transmits the content locally. Web sites that are Akamaized can be delivered anywhere from 4 to 10 times as fast as non-Akamaized content. Akamai has developed a number of other business services based on its Internet savvy, including targeted advertising based on user location and zip code, content security, business intelligence, disaster recovery, on-demand bandwidth and computing capacity during spikes in Internet traffic, storage, global traffic management, and streaming services. You can see several interesting visualizations of the Internet that log basic real-time online activity by visiting the Akamai website. The shift toward cloud computing and the mobile platform as well as the growing
SOURCES: Facts & Figures, Akamai.com, accessed August 7, 2017; Discontent and Disruption in the World of Content Delivery Networks, by Mahendra Ramsing-hani, Techcrunch.com, June 1, 2017; Michael Kerner, Akamai CSO Detailers Cyber-Security Challenges and Improvements, Eweek.com, May 15, 2017; Why Akamai Lost More Than $1.5B in Market Value After Earnings ReportAgain, by Kelly J. OBrien, Bizjournals.com, May 3, 2017; Akamai Shares Dip After Deal to Buy a Digital Analytics Company, by Luqman Adeniyi,
Cnbc.com, March 30, 2017; Akamai Buys Software Startup Soasta, by Natalie Gagliordi,
Zdnet.com, March 29, 2017; Akamai Security Business Shines, Offsets Apple, Facebook Shift, by
popularity of streaming video have provided Akamai with new growth opportunities. As more businesses and business models are moving to the Web, Akamai has seen its client base continue to grow beyond the most powerful Internet retailers and online content providers. In 2014, Akamai made a push to encourage Hollywood studios to use the cloud for feature films, touting its ability to handle uploads and downloads of large video files, to quickly convert files from one format to another, and to apply DRM protec-tions. Establishing partnerships with movie studios represented big business for Akamai, with an increasing amount of media consumption taking place on mobile devices through the cloud. Akamai has also made agreements to become the primary content delivery platform for cloud service providers like Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. However, the growth of streaming video has also created new challenges for Akamai, including increased competition from Comcast and Amazon, which have built compet-ing content delivery services. Amazons CloudFront content delivery network is already bringing in $2.3 billion in revenues. Many of Akamais largest clients, including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Netflix, are also increasingly shifting their content delivery operations away from Akamais platforms and onto in-house content delivery networks, putting downward pressure on the companys revenues and stock price, which dropped in response to lower first quarter earnings in 2017. Amazon in particular contin-ues to make inroads against Akamaiwhile Akamai still serves more top 100 domains, Amazon CloudFront serves the majority of the top million domains, suggesting that Amazon is steadily building its client base with mid-sized companies. Other competitors in content delivery, such as Cloudflare, Fastly, and StackPath also represent threats to Akamais continued dominance. Akamai is also acutely aware of the increase in cybercrime as more traffic migrates to the Internet. Growth in Internet traffic is good news for Akamai, but the company must also now deal with politically motivated cyberattacks, organized crime online, and state-sponsored cyberwarfare, not just against its clients, but against CDNs like Akamai itself. Akamai has continued to improve its Kona Site Defender tool, which offers a variety of security measures for Akamai clients. The tool protects against Distributed Denial of  out new improvements to Konas web application firewall and analytics features. Akamai also upgraded Site Defenders Web Application Firewall feature and developed modifica-tions to the tool that make it easier for its users to use. With DDoS attacks against CDNs on the rise, Akamai has also taken precautions to ensure that it can withstand an attack against its infrastructure. With so many businesses now dependent on the uninterrupted flow of content over the Internet, Akamai is in a very strong position to sell security ser-vices and analytics to its customers. Akamai has partnered with security companies such as Trustwave and China Unicom to sell products jointly and has also set itself up for future growth by moving into areas of the world with less developed broadband infrastructure, such as the Middle East. In 2015, Akamai opened an office in Dubai, hoping to bolster its presence in an area where the adoption rate for broadband is skyrocketing. In 2017, Akamai acquired SOASTA, whose flagship product, CloudTest, allows companies to test and analyze the performance of their websites and website applications and is used by Apple, Target, and Walmart. The move will add a valuable new offering to Akamais Web Performance Solutions group of tools. In 2016, experiencing rapidly increasing demand from its clients for security tools, Akamai announced it would restructure its business into two distinct units, one focusing on content delivery and media, and the other on website security. The improvements in Akamais security businesses have offset much of the slowdown in its content delivery business, with 60% of the companys overall revenue coming from its cybersecurity divi-sion in the first quarter of 2017. While the future of its content delivery business is cloudier due to increased competition and the challenges of Internet growth, the company remains profitable.