Deck 5: Program Planning for Success 

Question 1

Discuss two reasons for conducting evaluations of programs.

Answer 1

Evaluation of a program is the use of scientific methods to judge and improve the planning, monitoring, effectiveness, and efficiency of the program implemented. Evaluations serve two main purposes; they help managers make decisions about the short and long term operation of the program, and serve to inform the community at large about a program's success or failure.
Evaluation findings alert managers and policy makers to the need for expanding or refining programs. Based on the findings, further improvements or expansions may be made to the program in terms of funds, staff, resources, and facilities. It further helps the managers to justify program goals and procedures, compare program outcomes against program standards.
Program evaluation serves to inform the community about a program's success or failure. If a program fails, managers may focus on the problems and shape policies and services beyond the scope of the original program to make it reach the community.

Question 2

Describe the four distinct, interrelated steps of the nutrition care process.

Answer 2

The nutrition care process has four distinct yet cyclical and interrelated steps as described below:
• Nutrition Assessment
• Nutrition diagnosis
• Nutrition intervention
• Monitoring and evaluation of nutrition outcomes
Nutrition Assessment : The food and nutrition practitioner collects and interprets relevant types of data from various sources to identify nutrition-related problems and their underlying causes. Various data is collected (relevant versus irrelevant) to identify the problems.
Nutrition diagnosis : The purpose of nutritional diagnosis is to identify, label, and describe an existing nutrition problem that can be resolved or improved through nutrition intervention. The use of nutrition diagnosis terminology distinguishes the nutrition problem from the health and medical problems.
Nutrition intervention : It is a client-driven method used to resolve or improve the nutrition problem or the underlying cause of the problem. The practitioner shall be able to prioritize nutrition care goals, clearly define intervention goals in terms of measurable outcomes, match intervention strategies with client needs and nutrition diagnosis, and choose from among alternatives to determine a course of action.
Monitoring and Evaluation : It is routinely done to determine whether nutrition intervention goals and objectives are achieved. A judgement must be made about the degree of progress achieved toward a nutrition-related outcome, based on a comparison of current measures of one or more nutrition care indicators with intervention goals and objectives.

Question 3

Describe four of the factors that can trigger program planning.

Answer 3

The process of designing a program to meet a specific need or gill a gap in services is called program planning. The process describes the factors to consider when designing an intervention; program elements such as goals and objectives, and the levels and types of interventions.
The four main factors that trigger program planning are as follows:
• Results of the community needs assessment
• Mandate from an organization's national office or from a federal agency
• Research findings
• Community leader or coalition
Results of the community needs assessment : Based on the assessment reports of community needs, a program planning may be initiated. Community needs assessments reveals. The assessment defines the gap between what is and what should be. Each community has its own needs, culture, and social structure. A community assessment uncovers the needs and resources and helps understand how to address the community's needs.
Mandate from an organization's national office or from a federal agency : Studies conducted by national office of certain agencies choose certain activities as organization's national health promotion initiatives for a year, state offices then determine whether their existing programs meet the organization's mandate in these areas.
Research findings : Many times, research findings trigger the planning process. The reports of certain National health authorities or Nutrition boards on a specific issues trigger the health departments or federal agencies to review their programs and modify them, or initiate a new program to promote health or nutrition in that respective field.
Community leader or coalition : Community activists help state agencies plan innovative approaches to address a problem of a community. They monitor the community needs in regular basis and have a better idea on what the community needs and what is to be done to fill the gap.

Question 4

Describe the seven steps in the program planning process.

Question 5

The goal of your program is to "improve the physical activity status and food choices of employees in participating worksites." Define outcome and process objectives and write both an outcome and a process objective relevant to your program goal. Identify the various levels of change that may be needed to elicit behavior change in the employees (e.g., changes in knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, and so on).