Introduction,
Guided Response: Due by Day 7. You are expected to engage in this discussion on at
least three separate days throughout the week. You must respond to at least two
classmates in this discussion forum.
Post 1. (K.M.)
Greetings all. I’m Kimberly here excited and thrilled to begin this journey in achieving
my Masters. Please disregard my headphones, but I will be using them often in my
videos as I am a mom of an 11 month old who’s currently sleeping ??.
Right before the pandemic, I completed my bachelor’s program and graduated from the
University of Arizona Global Campus formally known as Ashford University. Health care
is the career field that I’m strongly acquainted with and that I am currently in. That
industry has been part of my life for about 16 years now. I too, have significant health
care management experience.
My passion and strengths are in leadership and fostering a healthy work culture. I’ve
managed successful teams (to include nurses and physicians) and find fulfillment in
mentoring and supporting others. I would love to make a profession out of this so I’m
not quite sure which career field I’d like to pursue once I graduate. In order to broaden
my options, I did not want my degree to be so health care specific hence why I chose
MAOM.
I am a mother of four, so my spare time usually consists of me being at a sporting event
cheering on my kids. I have an 11 month old daughter and three sons! To those of you
who may be into astrology, I’m a Virgo which is an Earth sign, so I love being outdoors
enjoying nature. My birthday is in a few days!
Due to the pandemic, my corporate position shifted to a WFH model and since, we rely
heavily on multiple streams of communications technology to support our entire health
care system. Microsoft Teams would be my vote as my most favored business
communications technology. Since our corporate offices fostered the WFM model, I
strongly believe that Teams continues to allow us to improve remote departmental
engagement and collaboration. Teams has also increased file exchange organization. I
come from the generation of AOL and AIM so the instant messaging feature on
Microsoft Teams mimics that exact communication style which has already proven to be
effective. My time utilization has improved keeping me off less phone calls and
meetings.
Again, I’m very excited to meet everyone and review your introductions. All the best with
this class and future courses!
Post 2. (M.F.)
Good morning, my name is Melissa Florez. I choose to pursue a career within the
healthcare/insurance field because I enjoy advocating, assisting, educating, and making
an impact in the lives of others. This is my 25th year in the healthcare/insurance field
where I worked in various clinical and administrative roles.
My first job was certified nursing assistant, where I learned firsthand experience in
helping the elderly and disabled with their activities of daily living. After 8 years in the
skilled nursing facility, I choose to take an administrative role as a payroll clerk at a
mental health hospital run by the State of Texas, where I assisted employees with their
pay and time questions.
After 10 years with the State of Texas, my family and I relocated, and I started working
as an advocate for Medicare Advantage plans. I currently serve the retiree population
by assisting with enrollment, billing, and questions about their Medicare Advantage
plan.
In my spare time, I enjoy cooking farm-fresh to-table dishes and watching a good
romantic comedy movie.
My favorite business communication technologies are Teams, Outlook, and
SharePoint. Teams and Outlook allow communication with colleagues with less friction
and time loss. Our team holds Team huddle virtual meetings over sound and video
calls. It helps by connecting employees in distance together to share ideas and educate
each other to reach our common goals. SharePoint serves as an Intranet, which is the
company’s internal website for information sharing, task scheduling, and detailed
information about insurance plans. My team can share documents and business
information involved in the day-to-day operations.
I look forward to working with each of you over the next six weeks.
Discussion week 1
You must respond to at least two classmates in this discussion forum.
Post 1, (C.P.)
Many schools closed when COVID started, forcing educators to figure out how they
were going to continue teaching students in a virtual setting. While Google Classroom
was introduced in 2014 it did not become popular until the Covid pandemic. This is
when the number of platform users increased dramatically, doubling active Classroom
users in a short span of time (Herold, 2020). In order to continue teacher/student
interaction, several teachers began holding Zoom meetings.
Practically overnight, children and parents were learning how to navigate the “new”
classroom environment. Writing was transitioned to typing on a keyboard and gym class
transformed into following an instructional exercise video on YouTube. Parents had to
become more involved with teaching their children, explaining how to solve math
problems and reviewing assignments before they were submitted. In order to continue
teacher/student interaction, several teachers began holding Zoom meetings. Some
teachers used this as an opportunity to just talk to the children or answer questions
about assignments while others incorporated instructional learning into the meeting.
With the inception of Google Classroom into many school districts, snow days are
starting to become a thing of the past. What we knew as a day off of school, making
snowmen and catching snow flakes on our tongues, is quickly becoming a day that
children can only dream about. In 2021, the Department of Education in New York’s
largest city announced the possibility of students being expected to participate in
remote learning instead of the traditional snow day (Zweig, 2021). With one the
country’s largest school districts toying with the elimination of snow days, it should not
be long before other school districts follow suit.
Post 2. (K.M)
Like most of us here, I would have to concur that the work and school environments
were forced to change its communication technology and business models during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
In a matter of weeks, our corporate office had to convert over 500 employees to a work
from home model. Communication, collaboration, and team management were all at
stake. There was a mass distribution of laptops, dual monitors, cell phones, docking
stations, headsets, implementations of different software and VPNs in a matter of weeks.
Corporate America was not prepared.
I personally felt a need to prove to my employer that I was fully capable of performing
my work responsibilities and maintaining my relations within our health care enterprise,
all while continuing project planning. This caused me to become over productive. We
were in the process of converting our entire health care system from one EMR platform
to another when the pandemic was declared. It is much easier to build those relations
and trust during in person interactions as opposed to remotely, so the pressure was on.
It almost felt like there was an urgent need to ensure that our communication remained
priority and top tier to meet projects timelines and come out successful all while our
hospitals and staff were in distress.
I work in the Cardiology IT department and during the pandemic, we connected with
one of ultrasound vendors and deployed a large number of portable handheld
ultrasound devices to support the Covid populations. This was done to prioritize the
health and safety of our front line workers by reducing contact time and contamination.
This was a major shift in technology for our hospitals while providing high quality care.
There was immense pressure on leadership to provide not only professional support,
but also emotional and safety support to their employees. This culture provides a sense
of trust, compassion and directly impacts employee satisfaction and increases employee
retention (Barillas & Forbes Technology Council, 2020). I have never had such a
wonderful work-life balance since this transition.
Although children and teaching staff have returned back to school, many businesses
have opted to permanently shift to this hybrid work model because it’s proved to
increase productivity and employee satisfaction and decrease business financial
restraints. This pandemic has forever changed work in our country.
Barillas, U., & Forbes Technology Council. (2020, December 2)

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