Amanda Smith
Assignment: Formative Evaluation: Determining Intervention Needs and Approaches
A formative evaluation is conducted early in the implementation of the program and focuses on the implementation to date and the preliminary outcomes. Formative evaluations are more likely for a new or experimental program.
—Shi & Johnson (2014, p. 417)
What criteria or needs determine the type of health program or initiative that will be implemented? How might health care administrators identify the needs of their target audience or community when planning health programs or initiatives?
Formative evaluation processes aid health care administrators in determining the needs of a target audience or community. The identification of these needs, in turn, help to outline the type of health program or initiative that is to be developed. Once the needs and type of health program or initiative are identified, health care administrators can then determine how best to install this type of health care service and to determine measures that might be used to gauge the success or effectiveness of the service, once installed. Engaging in formative evaluation is a critical tool for the health care administrator and is a process that you will most likely encounter in practice.
For this Assignment, review formative evaluation processes in the resources for this week. Then, consider how formative evaluation might be used to develop your marketing plan. Reflect on how you might include formative evaluation methods in the design of your health care services marketing plan and consider why this might be important for the practice of health care administration.
Note: The completion of this Assignment will consist of the elements necessary for Component 6 of your Final Project.
The Assignment (3 pages)
· Describe two examples of formative evaluation for health programs that you might use in your marketing plan.
· Describe how you will include formative evaluation methods in designing your health care services marketing plan and explain why.