Our Healthcare System ... Dun dun dun

Oh … Where to begin? That is the question. When tackling a problem as large as our healthcare system it was tricky to find just where to start. I decided to think about all the different aspects of the system. I began creating an idea web where the healthcare system was in the center and all of the parts of the system. The more that I worked at this model the messier it got. I decided that this wasn’t the best way to approach it.

I remembered an interesting talk that I had in the past about the healthcare system and I went to my friend and to talk through this problem with her again and hear her viewpoints. We again discussed our opinions and in talking through things with her I decided to approach the problem from the perspective of the patient. Start out making a flowchart of what happens to a person in the health care system. Having done this it helped me see the inter-workings and relationships within the system. I do not by any means think that this model is complete, but I do think it is a good start. (The more I searched on the internet the more severely biased in one way or the other over healthcare reform.) I did find a website that had a plethora of data on our healthcare system I just couldn’t figure out how to actually get the data. One thing I would add to this model would be the flow of money through the system which is one of the biggest aspects and determiners of how the system works.


From there I tried to create a model in Excel and didn’t really know where to find information to fill it in. And decided that it wasn’t really going anywhere. So scratched that.


But, in making this model in Inspiration I realized that this was just a picture of our system as it is now. I know that there is a problem with the way our system is but I decided that I needed to see how other more successful (in my humble opinion) healthcare systems around the world worked. I scoured the internet for sources comparing different healthcare systems. I found some really interesting resources that helped me piece together the differences between our system and other systems. I found a really great report that compares six different healthcare systems around the world across different categories. I used their data to create an excel file that I was going to use to find averages and such.


But then I found where they had simplified their data into a ranking system on different aspects. I took that and then added aspects from my model that I thought would be important to weigh the differences between healthcare systems. And I came up with this so far ...


Now that I have conquered the where to begin question and have gotten a good jump on the data, where should I go from here... I plan on making a healthcare program that will show how the money being spent, people involved, and government involvement changes the way the whole system works. Hopefully by inputing different values into this program one can find the best balance of all the aspects for all involved. I don’t think that there is any perfect answer but I do think that a change might be a good thing.

Other Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-weisbrot/health-care-reform-is-nee_b_171210.html

http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-09-14/living/17118088_1_care-doctors-reform

http://www.healthreform.gov/

http://weakonomics.com/2009/06/08/the-pros-and-cons-of-universal-health-care-in-the-united-states%C2%A0/

http://usliberals.about.com/b/2009/06/22/pros-cons-of-government-healthcare.htm

http://healthcareblog.experience.com/2009/09/obamas-health-care-reform-pros-cons.html

http://healthcareblog.experience.com/2009/09/obamas-health-care-reform-pros-cons.html

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/09/07/the_top_stakeholders_in_health_reform/

http://www.ehow.com/about_5438985_become-doctor.html

http://health.howstuffworks.com/10-health-care-systems.htm

PBL Mini-Unit Reflection

I started out with what I thought was a great idea having the second grade students create a model of how pollution worked. I thought we could create a concept map of all that they knew and then have them do a little internet research to add to that map. From there they would then create a model how pollution in Lake Michigan would effect them in Roselle. By creating this model they would have to be able to identify all of the different parts of the pollution "system" and then be able to describe or at the very least recognize the relationships between the different parts. Even this task I thought would be very challenging for my second graders.

In looking at the research Craig presented in class I found that this task would be far out of the cognitive reach of the second grade students. I struggled to find a way to have a way that these second graders create a model that was appropriate for their age on pollution. I thought about having the students create a cause and effect chart or a fishbone diagram where they could show how one thing came after another in a more linear way, but I didn’t find that the effects of pollution was very linear at all. I thought about being the facilitator for the class to create the model, but decided that it would be better for the students to create their models on their own. Because I couldn’t find a good way to have my second graders do the project I decided to do the project with the fourth graders who also learn about pollution in science.

To do this project I decided to create the concept map in Inspiration. By doing this I will be modeling the software that the students will be using to create their model. I also thought that by having the students work in groups they would have a better chance at figuring out how to create a model.

I have not yet had a chance to implement this lesson, but plan on doing so next week. I look forward to seeing how their models turn out and what connections they come up with. I anticipate that having the students put all their previous knowledge out in front of them will make it easier for them to see the relationships between the different things that they know. And, as they add to their previous knowledge through research it will help them even more to see how the bigger system works.