Planning And Evaluation
Question 1. What is planning? Describe in detail the planning Cycle.
Or
Define planning. Explain in detail steps in planning.
Answer. Planning is defined as a systemic approach to defining the problem, setting priorities, developing specific objectives and goals and determining alternative strategies and methods of implementation.
Planning results in formulation of a plan.
Planning Cycle
- It consists of following steps:
- Identifying the problem
- Determining priorities.
- Developing of programme goals, objectives and activities
- Resource identification
- Identifying constraints
- Identifying alternate strategies
- Developing implementation strategy
- Implementation
- Monitoring
- Evaluation.
Identify the Problem
The assessment is done for identification of oral problems and concerns of the population. A planner should conduct a need assessment for following reasons:
- To identify a problem and to identify its extent and severity.
- To obtain a profile of the community to ascertain the causes of problem.
- To develop appropriate goals and objectives for solving the problem.
- To evaluate the effectiveness of the preventive programs by providing baseline information.
As the data is collected information should be analyzed before determining the priorities.
Identifying Priorities
- Priority determination is a method of imposing people’s values and judgments of what is important in raw data used.
- It is used for setting priorities among problems elicited through need assessment.
- Limited resources: It is necessary to establish priorities to allow most efficient allocation of resources.
- Health advisory committee or community leaders should be established for the assessment of policies and priorities.
Read And Learn More: Public Health Dentistry Question And Answers
Development of Program Goals, Objectives and Activities
- Program goals serve as broad statement on overall purpose of program to meet a defined problem.
- Objective should be precise and is either be achieved or non-achieved.
- An objective is the planned end point of all activities.
- Program objective should be more specific as compared to program goals and it should describe desired end result of programme activities in a measurable way.
- Objective should specify who, what, where, when and extent of situation.
- Objectives are of two types, i.e. outcome objective and process objective.
- Outcome objective: It provides a means by which the outcome of specific objective is measured quantitatively.
- Process objective: It states a particular process by which public health problem is reduced and prevented.
Resource Identification
- Resource implicates the manpower, knowledge, money, material, skill, technique and time needed for performance or support of action directed toward specified objectives.
- Resources are assessed and a balance is struck in between what is required and what is available or likely to be available.
Identifying Constraints
- While planning any of the program difficulties may occur.
- In this, it is decided that at this point what are the constraints that occur in the program.
- As these constraints are determined design of the program is modified and a more practical and realistic program is obtained.
- Constraints may result from an organizational policies, resource limitations or characteristics of community.
- One of the best ways to identify constraints is to bring together a group of concerned citizens who might in some capacity be involved in or affected by the project.
Identifying Alternative Strategies
- It is important to generate many alternatives so that out of that number at least one may be considered acceptable.
- Each alternative strategy need to be examined carefully as a regard its technical, social, political and financial facility.
- With limited resources the planner needs to consider the anticipated costs and effectiveness of each alternative.
Developing Implementation Strategy
- Implementation strategy for every activity should be completed when these questions are answered, i.e.
- Why the effect of objective should be achieved?
- What are the activities to be carried out to achieve the objective?
- Who is responsible for activity?
- When each and every activity should be done?
- How material methods and techniques should be used?
- How much is the cost of material and time taken?
- For developing an implementation strategy planner should know what specific activity he/she has to do.
Implementation
- It is turning the plan into action.
- This step involves individual, organization and community.
- It is divided into four phases which are:
- Pilot phase: Development of this phase moves on trial and error basis.
- Controlled phase: In this a program strategy should be carried out under regulated conditions to judge its effectiveness.
- Actualization phase: In this model of program strategy is subjected to realistic operating conditions.
- Operational phase: It determines that the program is an ongoing part of structure.
Monitoring
- It is the maintenance of an ongoing watch over activities of health service.
- Monitoring use observations as the basis for continual modification of goals, plans or activities.
- Data which is collected for monitoring includes input data, process data and output data.
Evaluation
- “Evaluation measures the degree to which objectives and targets are fulfilled and the quality of results obtained. It measures the productivity of available resources in achieving clearly defined objectives. It measures how much output or cost effectiveness is achieved. It makes possible the reallocation of priorities and of resources on the basis of changing health needs”. —WHO 1967
- Evaluation is concerned with final outcome and factors associated with it.
- It is needed to determine the value of program to see it has been carried out as prescribed and for discovering that objectives has been achieved.
Question 2. Write short note on types of evaluation.
Answer. There are various types of evaluation which depends on the object being evaluated and purpose of evaluation. Following are the types of evaluations:
Formative Evaluation
- This is the internal evaluation of a program.
- Formative evaluation is an examination of activities of program as they are taking place.
- This evaluation is carried out to aid the development of program in its early phase.
- Formative evaluation allow program to make needful changes at that point without waiting for program to get over.
- This evaluation is used primarily by the program developers to check that whether they are workable or changes should be made to improve program activities.
Summative Evaluation
- Summative evaluation judge the merit or worth of program after it has been in operation.
- This evaluation determine whether fully operational program meeting its goals or not.
- This evaluation is aimed at program decision makers they will decide to continue or to terminate the program and also at decision makers from other programs who might be considering the adoption of program.
Relevance Evaluation
- This refers to the activities which are designed to determine whether there is need of program or whether program is targeting its efforts at individuals in need.
- It consists of 7 key questions around which seven key questions can be organized.
Process Evaluation
- Process evaluation refers to the efforts made to assess the extent to which program implementation complies with program plan.
- Assessment of whether the program is given in fashion consistent with planner’s original intentions is helpful to program managers for making early adjustments of program and for making the decisions concerned to program continuation and expansion.
- Process evaluation is the part of management process.
Effectiveness Evaluation
- Effectiveness evaluation refers to whether the results of program meet predetermined objectives or not.
- In this evaluation, emphasis is on immediate outcomes of program activities and whether these outcomes meet activities which are specified by program planners.
Impact Evaluation
- Impact evaluation refers to the long-term outcomes of program.
- Impact evaluation consider whether the intervention had any long lasting effects on ultimate problems which the program is intended to remedy.
- Impact evaluation is an expression of overall effect of program on health status and socioeconomic development.
Efficiency Evaluation
This evaluation attempts to relate the results which are obtained by a specific program to the resources expanded to maintain the program.
Leave a Reply