SOCS-325 Week 7 Activity – Volunteer (Audio PowerPoint) - Graded An A+

Running head: WEEK 7: ACTIVITY – VOLUNTEER 1 SOCS-325 Week 7 Activity – Volunteer (Audio PowerPoint) Week 7: Activity – Vol unteer I spent a lot of time trying to find a local environmental campaign to write about, with very little success. What I found was either environmental organizations on a state level or organizations that were clever representations of a national or global interest. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure that there are plenty of active environmental campaigns in my area; it is just that they are really hard to find. With this in mind I choose to research the Alaska Conservation Foundation. The Alaska Conservation Foundation was founded in 1980 with the vision of protecting Alaska’s natural environment & the cultures & diverse ways of life that it sustains (ACF, 2015). ACF accomplishes this through connecting donors & business worldwide with local conservation organizations & projects in Alaska. By funding & supporting non-profit organizations, ACF is able to support critical environmental issues that impact all regions of our state. ACF provides grants, leadership & coordination expertise to Alaska’s conservation issues that include the Bristol Bay watershed. The Bristol Bay watershed is a largely unspoiled, teeming ecosystem that sustained by the millions of salmon that spawn in rivers & streams in the area each year (ACF, 2015). The area is remote & sparsely populated but full of wildlife that calls the tundra home. The salmon runs not only support the wildlife, it also supports the economy of the Alaskan natives in the region that still live traditional life styles & depend on salmon as a source of food & employment (ACF, 2015).This ecosystem & way of life could be forever destroyed is the Pebble Mine project is allowed to be constructed. The pebble mine is a proposed open–pit mine that would be the largest in North America & with any such project comes the possibility for an ecological disaster. The damage that could be caused by mine waste, flooding, & the leaching of toxic chemicals into man-made lakes would be enormous & incalculable. Alaska Conservation Foundation’s Bristol Bay Protection Campaign has been able to support the diverse coalition of fishermen, businesses & environmental groups by working to prevent permitting of the mine (ACF, 2015). With an estimated $300 billion worth of recoverable metals, the lure to allow permitting on a state level is extremely high. Over the past few years, several bills have been introduced in the Alaska state legislature that has failed. Even a clean water initiative was voted down after heavy advertising & a high profile public debate. ACF has continued to support he opposing coalition for the project regardless of double politics & outside interests. Several native groups have filed lawsuits against the state of Alaska department of natural resources (ACF, 2015). These lawsuits aim to show that the Alaska DNR has on several occasions violated the Alaska constitution with regards to the pebble mine project. More recently, the ACF campaign got unsolicited support from an EPA impact assessment. While the assessment did nothing to prevent the construction of the mine, the Pebble Partnership & two of the three members of the Alaska congressional delegation criticized it (ACF, 2015). However the EPA did something unexpected, they proposed restrictions on the project in accordance with the clean water act. This action has lead to a drawn-out legal battle between the EPA & the Pebble Partnership that may not be resolved for years. This delay has given the ACF much needed time to work with the coalition to strategize & garner support for their cause. References ACF. (n.d.). Alaska Conservation Foundation. Retrieved OCT 18, 2015, from Alaska Conservation Foundation: Collapse Mark as Read RE: Documentation & reimbursement Instructor Starrett Email this Author 2/4/2015 6:53:45 PM Thank you Joann for sharing this excellent example of how the issue may not only be of the clinical care that we deliver but also the perception of the care. As you state without the support of the objective data it really comes down to a perception of the popularity perception. Many organizations do use patient satisfaction as a measure & there have been studies that demonstrate that patient & nurse satisfaction can be related as well as outcomes of care but I do tend to agree that this is only part of the picture. Respond Collapse this Author Mark as Read RE: Documentation & reimbursement 2/5/2015 5:19:11 PM Deborah Scott Email Joann & class, Many facilities are going more for patient satisfaction surveys to track how well they have been doing in the customer service department. I had to visit the ED for a broken wrist & severely cut finger recently, & was just "lucky" enough to be on the receiving end of one of those surveys to elicit satisfaction of our local ED. They are lucky that it was an outlier ED I visited & not the main one, as that would have received a much lower satisfaction rating, as when I was there with my fractured wrist, the care was very poor. I understand that the care given will never replace what is reflected in the initiatives, surveys, or scorings that any facilities puts into place, & perception will always remain everything in the patients eyes. As for me, I know full well how a functioning ED runs, how overworked the nurses are & were the evening I was there, but it made no difference in the care I received, or actually DIDN'T receive that day. The mistakes that were made & the things