Evaluation Description
This research program seeks to evaluate the levels of safety when using various vaccines in children. There are various points of view on the necessity to provide vaccines at the early stages of child development. In order to prove the effectiveness and necessity of vaccination, this paper makes use of the background information that immunization is essential at the early childhood stages of human development. Indeed, immunization is the protective measure to mitigate the prevalent risk of diseases in children. The paper provides three hypotheses. The first hypothesis is that when children get vaccinated, their organisms are able to build internal self-defense against diseases and children can live without the need for antibiotics. It further uses a second hypothesis that immunization is a vital tool that can prevent chronic diseases and even death.
Lastly, this paper provides a hypothesis that immunization can render viral diseases harmless to children. The purpose of the research provided in this paper is to evaluate the validity of these proposed hypotheses and apply them to real life situations in children’s lives. The beneficiaries of this program are the health service organizations, parents and children. Health organizations will be able to use the findings of this program to improve the ways of administering treatments on children. Parents and children will be able to minimize the risk of losing their children to prevent illnesses. This research will be able to involve its stakeholders in various processes, for example it will require sample health organizations to assist with research facilities and work force provision. It will require parents in the society to help by providing data during the data collection stage.
What this research is evaluating is principally, the perception of the community concerning immunization and hence their attitude. This will be necessary in measuring the extent of utilization or otherwise, underutilization of immunization services among the public. By considering the prevalence of diseases in children in the absence of vaccines, it will be possible to realize the effects of vaccines where the society utilizes them well. Secondly, it is evaluating the scope of use of immunization and its impact on the society (Wotring n. p.). This is necessary since it will help in measuring the strength of using vaccines and the challenges of failing to use them. The kind of environment under which this program can exhibit the best outcomes is the typical society under normal circumstances as opposes to areas presently prone to disease outbreaks. This is because the outcomes of normal situations will reflect reality, unlike areas with outbreaks, which are certainly bound to reflect contemporary extremes.
Target Population
The target population of this project evaluation is children in the immunization age. The data collection for this program will require samples of data from various geographical locations under similar conditions. During the survey, this program will seek to involve parents in active data sampling. Sensitive observations from the nature of children’s health will be vital for fair evaluation. Child immunization has been in use for a long time. It began in times of the ancient civilizations but spread to the rest of the developing world in the later centuries. However, up to now a majority of the populations in the developing world have neglected the importance of child immunization. The project has stayed in the preliminary hypothesis stages for a long time but now it goes to the planning stage after which it will proceed to its implementation depending on its outcome. The program will involve resources in the form of time, information technology for data collection and analysis, funding, work force and partnership, medical equipment and operation premises. It expects to produce results in the form of data and information. This will be a vital tool for critical decision making in various medical institutions. This information will further influence changes in operational procedures within the medical institutions. The data can be also used to support the development of the initiative in those medical institutions (Harris 21).
Logic Model
Evaluation Design Description
This section intends to describe the flow of activities during the evaluation and the relationship that exist between the relevant entities. This model enables the program to focus on SMART objectives. This implies the objectives must be Specific (S), Measurable (M), Attainable (A), Realistic (R) and Time-bound (T). The model appears in form of tabulated information as follows.
Activity Structure.
The model will assist the research process in determining the priority of each task, the need of each resource and the deadlines for each process. The evaluation findings will be necessary for the medical departments and will determine the changes in implementation of their medical processes in their institutions.
Conceptual Evaluation Design
From the evaluation, they will be able to realize and measure the effectiveness of their services to the target populations. Depending on their effectiveness, they will be able to detect where changes are necessary. In fact, they need to know that they are the owners of the principal beneficiaries of this service since child immunization services is their mandate. This evaluation is both experimental with the involvement of periodic reviews and progress monitoring. The program intends to run pre-implementation tests before implementation. During the implementation, the program intends to run post implementation remedial controls.
Evaluation Process
This program seeks to carry out a systematic series of activities such as data collection, data analysis, interpretation, presentation and implementation.
Data Collection
Data collection will take place through interviews considering that a section of the target group and respondents is likely to be illiterate. Illiteracy may hence be a resisting factor against accuracy and confidence. Obviously, illiterate respondents will need a lot of assistance to respond to questionnaires. The program will involve data sampling from at least three sources under similar circumstances. The selection of samples will require background information of the cultural orientation of the target group and their health history, to ensure there will be no ambiguous situations. The data will be in form of qualitative and quantitative information. Qualitative measures will cover immeasurable information such as attitudes and behavioral responses of the target group towards vaccination (Arsham n.p.). Quantitative data will cover measurable information such as the number of children who have undergone vaccination during a given period. Numerical elements such as time will also fall under this category. The data will require confidentiality and of course, before data collection, the respondents have to be aware of this fact. Without his assurance, the respondents may be tempted to conceal very vital data, which they consider sensitive. The interview will follow a list of questions on the left hand side and answers on the right hand side.
Data Analysis and Interpretation
The next stage of the evaluation process is Data analysis. Here, the program will require the use of information technology, where computers and statistical software, either SPSS or STATA will be necessary (Fleischman and Williams n. p.). Data analysis will seek to determine the aggregate elements of quantitative data and make logical inferences upon qualitative data. The analysis result will communicate the nature of the real situation on the ground, of course taking into consideration the error factor. The analysis will involve the computation of aggregate functions such as average, sum, standard deviations and standard errors. In all these computations, there will be provision for computation errors. The evaluation will assign standard indicators for measuring and judging the data elements, hence determining the success or otherwise failure of the evaluation objectives. This will give clear ideas about the performance of immunization services, which is under evaluation.
Table F.4. Indicators and Judgment model.
The analysis will use both descriptive analysis and inferential analysis. This is because this evaluation process deals with data of different data types. Data Interpretation will involve conversion of data into relevant form for drawing conclusions.
Data Presentation
Data presentation will take place after the analysis and interpretation. It will involve the presentation of data in form of tables, graphs, charts, histograms among others. The scale that will apply in the data presentation will depend on the magnitude of the data for each variable. Some of the graphical presentations will involve the use of multiple variables for the same plane. During the presentation, the evaluation process will make use of the functionalities in the statistical packages. The process will make sure the presentations are communicative enough and self-explanatory to the stakeholders.
Implementation
The responsibility of the implementation of the evaluation entirely rests in the hands of the medical institutions and of course the children in the society. The evaluation process team still plays important roles in post-implementation remedial tests. Just before the commencement of the pre-implementation tests, there will be the need for communication of the intended plan to the public so that they can respond to the implementation process from an informed ground. This will be necessary so that the target group will involve their consents as they participate.
Monitoring and Training
The evaluation does not just end at the implementation stage. It proceeds to the stage of monitoring of the success and failures, which in essence determine the need for remedial control actions. Along with that is the need to educate the target group and sensitize them on the dire need for consistency in seeking medical vaccination services. This will ensure the realization of sustainability of the evaluation process rather than just achieve a short-lived success. There will be a need for consistent evaluation of success and failures, especially within the first six months, followed by the assessment of responses from the stakeholders.
Works Cited
Arsham, Hossein. n. d. Topics in Statistical Data Analysis: Revealing Facts from Data. n.d. Web.
Fleischman, Howard L and Laura Williams. An Introduction to Program Evaluation for Classroom Teachers. Arlington, VA: Development Associates, Inc. 1996.Web.
Harris, Muriel J. Evaluating Public and Community Health Program. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 2010. Print.
Wotring, C. Edward. Research Methods in Communication: Course Notes. The Florida State University, College of Communication. 1997. Web.