Written by: Nelly Eziashi, MBA, PMP

Since 1993, the Farmworker Family Health Program (FWFHP) has transformed farmworker health through collaborations with health clinics, public health districts, Georgia universities, and corporate partners like Philips. Now in its 31st year and housed at Emory University's School of Nursing since 2001, the program has served over 17,000 individuals. The speaker presented highlights of FWFHP’s journey, showcasing its partnerships and innovative healthcare services delivered directly in the fields, camps, and schools, making a lasting impact on farmworker families.

Presentation Overview 

The Farmworker Family Health Program (FWFHP) is an inter-professional collaboration that has addressed the healthcare needs of over 15,000 migrant farmworkers and their families since its inception in 1993. Based in Georgia, the program operates in collaboration with local clinics, farmers, and churches to provide healthcare services during the peak migrant season each summer. Students from university clinical programs also participate, gaining invaluable experience. Services include preventative and episodic care, sliding-scale medications, and health education, with electronic maintenance of patient records continuing year-round.

Originally started at Georgia State University’s School of Nursing, the program moved to Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing in 2001. Over its 29-year history, the FWFHP has become a key initiative in addressing critical healthcare needs while simultaneously enhancing student education through hands-on training. Each year, it serves over 600 individuals, making a significant impact on Georgia’s migrant farmworker communities.

Takeaways

Effective project management has enabled the FWFHP to improve patient outcomes, make data-driven decisions, and sustain and scale the program for over 31 years.

• FWFHP Life Cycle Summary:
  • Initiation [Jan/Feb]: Define scope and establish Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs).
  • Planning [Jan – June]: Meet with stakeholders, gather supplies, and build the schedule.
  • Execution [June]: Set up, deliver services, and collect data.
  • Monitoring & Controlling: Manage the schedule, monitor weather, and hold daily retrospectives.
    Closing: Complete evaluations, debrief, and generate reports.

• The project management knowledge areas for this program can be summarized as follows:
  • Integration: Managed through resource allocation and status meetings to keep everything aligned.
  • Scope: Driven by the program’s mission statement, ensuring all activities align with core objectives.
  • Time: Timelines are dictated by partnerships, particularly with farmers and community stakeholders.
  • Cost: Costs are shared across stakeholders but present challenges due to funding limitations.
  • Quality: Ensured through continuous quality improvement (QI) initiatives.
  • Human Resources: Focused on team advocacy to support both staff and participants.
  • Communications: Leveraged tools like GroupMe, whiteboards, team meetings, and Google Drive for collaboration.
  • Risk Management: Includes standard operating procedures (SOPs), COVID-19 evaluations, safety huddles, and hotel rooming arrangements.
    Procurement: Involves working with community and corporate partners, along with donors, to acquire necessary resources.
  • Stakeholder Management: Collaborates with school districts and local farms to ensure stakeholder needs are met.

Next Event

Join us at the next PMI Atlanta 3rd Annual Special Interest Forums Joint Open House! “Project Management and Beyond 2.0 – A Peek Into The Future” on Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Panel Discussion Topics: Skills Development, Resume Review, the Impact of AI, and DEIAB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Belonging)

Register at www.pmiatlanta.org/events/event-calendar 

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Written by: Nelly Eziashi, MBA, PMP

Two key approaches stand out in the world of project management: proactive and reactive projects. Proactive projects follow a well-planned path from the start, aiming for clear, anticipated goals. Reactive projects, however, arise suddenly, often addressing urgent needs or crises. Though both methods can succeed, reactive projects bring unique challenges, including heightened stress and increased risk of failure.

Presentation Overview 

Not all projects enjoy the luxury of stability and ample planning time. Sometimes, immediate action is needed, and plans must change on the fly. In this discussion, the audience received some practical tips and tricks for handling high-stakes, time-sensitive scenarios. Insights were shared on prioritizing tasks, identifying risks, and communicating effectively. Below are some of those learning:

• Staying Vigilant and Prepared:
  • A Project Manager must stay alert, anticipating potential issues. Look out for early warning signs: persistent complaints, rumors, high turnover, or resistance to change. Recognizing these signs can save a project from missing its deadline.
• Containing the Crisis:
  • When a crisis hits, identify the cause quickly. Understand what happened, its full impact, and possible consequences. Your goal is to contain the crisis swiftly. Get accurate information, assess the damage, and determine if it might spread. If preventing a crisis isn’t possible, containing it is critical.
• Acting Quickly and Decisively:
  • After identifying the crisis, act fast and decisively. Communicate clearly at all levels of the organization. Transparency and speed are key to minimizing the crisis’s impact and steering the project back on course.

Successfully handling a crisis can boost your career. After a crisis, document "lessons learned" and recommendations. Thorough post-crisis analysis is vital for improving future crisis responses. Examples of types of business crises:

• The Fire Drill: Sudden issues requiring immediate action
• The Grenade: Explosive problems with wide-reaching impact
• The Black Swan: Rare, unpredictable events with severe consequences

Takeaways

• Face Reality: Acknowledge, communicate urgency and take charge
• Make Quick Decisions: Act swiftly and thoughtfully, but skip deep analysis
• Drive Actions: Track progress and flag risks and delays
• Team Communication: Coordinate and adapt tasks; update stakeholders accurately

Next Event

Join us at the next PMI Atlanta Healthcare Forum on Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Keynote Presentation: "Project Management with a Clinical-Academic-Community-Corporate Partnership" by Erin Ferranti

Register at www.pmiatlanta.org/events/event-calendar

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Written by: Elizabeth Adeusi, MHA

Presentation Overview

On May 9, 2024, the Clinical Research Forum of the PMI Atlanta Chapter hosted the “Diversity-Driven Project Management for Health Equity: Strategies for Inclusive Clinical Trials” virtual event presented by Dr. Terris Moss, PhD. Dr. Moss spoke to the audience and shared her expertise as a visionary leader in healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry, dedicated to advancing health equity and patient advocacy.

During this session, Dr. Moss defined diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and discussed the difference between inequality, equality, equity, and justice. While inequality is unequal access to opportunities, equality provides evenly distributed tools and assistance. Equity provides custom tools that identify and address inequality, and through justice, we can fix the system to offer equal access to both tools and opportunities.

The FDA guidance on diversity provides recommendations to sponsors developing medical products on the approach for developing a Race and Ethnicity Diversity Plan. Dr. Moss guided the audience through how DEI is incorporated into the clinical trial lifecycle, beginning with the trial design and continuing through site activation, support, patient recruitment, retention, and continuous engagement.

Using different case studies, Dr. Moss explained the barriers to diversity in clinical trial participation and proposed solutions going forward. Within their role, Clinical Project Managers may be responsible for reporting on key performance indicators and the corresponding site-level diversity metrics as they relate to the recruitment, retention, and representation of underserved populations across key demographic factors. Dr. Moss made it very clear that managing clinical trials with a diversity and inclusion lens is a moral and strategic imperative for advancing equitable healthcare.

Takeaways

• Ensuring broad and equitable participation in clinical trials remains a persistent challenge.
• Factors like socioeconomic status, cultural beliefs, language barriers, and historical mistrust can hinder diverse patient representation in clinical trials.
• Overcoming these barriers requires proactive strategies to build trust, accommodate diverse patient needs, and foster an inclusive environment that encourages participation from underrepresented populations.

Next Event

Join us at the next PMI Clinical Research Virtual Forum on Thursday, September 12, 2024

Register at www.pmiatlanta.org/events/event-calendar 

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Written by: Alex Leonard, PMP

Presentation Overview 

On May 21, 2024, the PMI Atlanta Chapter met at Motion Recruitment in Dunwoody, GA. To kick off this live and engaging event, the PMI ATL Agile Forum Program Manager provided an overview of project management methodologies and common frameworks. This was a perfect segway for our guest, Diamond Walker, to walk the audience through her unique project case study. She discussed the challenges she experienced while managing a New Web-Based Application project.

Ms. Walker described the scope of the project, and how she and her team navigated stakeholder change resistance and low engagement, constantly changing requirements, heavily skewed timelines, and limited resources. Diamond reviewed the relevant factors pertaining to the background of the project and how things evolved amidst the challenges. She provided the audience with advice on approaches to employ if they are faced with similar challenges.

Some of the recommendations provided included:

• Analyzing each stakeholder’s communication style, to know how to best address and respond to concerns
• Implementing team-building activities to foster cohesion when team morale is at risk due to adverse stakeholder influence/behavior
• Communicating openly and frequently when faced with conflict
• Being proactive and providing solutions or alternatives to address concerns
• Seeking mediation or neutral third-party facilitation to assist with resolving conflict
• Prioritizing tasks when faced with limited resources and changing requirements
• Leveraging technology to optimize resource utilization
• Eliminating inefficiencies to streamline processes and improve project efficiency

When bringing key stakeholders up to speed in an environment of constantly changing requirements, many stakeholders on Diamond’s project had competing interests. In this type of situation, a Project Manager must negotiate with stakeholders in a way that encourages their buy-in without introducing scope-creep or sacrificing other elements of the project like requirements, timelines or resources.

Takeaways

• Do not take things personal and make every effort to understand your stakeholders
• Gird your loins and keep all lines of communication open and document efforts taken to resolve conflict
• A Win is a Win and celebrate all team accomplishments, no matter how small
• Understand your “Why” and keep team morale high and remind them of the benefits to a successful project outcome

Next Event

Join us at the next PMI Atlanta Agile Forum on Tuesday, August 20, 2024

Register at www.pmiatlanta.org/events/event-calendar 

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