Week 7 Discussion: Laura Amorin

A stakeholder is either an individual, group or organization that’s impacted by the outcome of a project or a business venture. Stakeholders have an interest in the success of the project and can be within or outside the organization that’s sponsoring the project. Stakeholders are important because they can have a positive or negative influence on the project with their decisions. There are also critical or key stakeholders, whose support is needed for the project to exist. Stakeholders are not the same thing as shareholders. A stakeholder can be a wide variety of people impacted or invested in the project. For example, a stakeholder can be the owner or even the shareholder. But stakeholders can also be employees, bondholders, customers, suppliers and vendors. 

Investors: These are stakeholders looking for a financial return and can be shareholders and debtholders. They have invested capital in the business and want a return on that investment.

Employees: These stakeholders rely on their employment and job security. They have a direct stake in the organization as it supports them and provides them with benefits.

• Customers: These stakeholders want the product or service that the project delivers and they expect it to be of quality and contain value.

Suppliers and Vendors: These stakeholders have their revenue tied up with the project as they sell goods and services to the business managing the project. Project success means more business for them.

• Communities: These stakeholders don’t want the project to negatively impact their health, safety or economic development. The organizations that are housed in their communities or working on projects in their communities can impact job creation, spending and more (Landau, 2023).

To garner their support, make sure your stakeholders clearly understand the issue, the solution, and the ways in which it will benefit them. In my case, their support will be asked for by demonstrating the high risk of elderly patient falls and showing them how implementing the use of bed alarms could drastically improve the frequency and amount of falls throughout hospitals/nursing homes in our elderly community. Here are some things they can do:

• Warn the caregiver that the patient has changed position and is about to leave the bed. This may give the caregiver enough time to enter the room and assist the patient.

Warn the caregiver that the patient has already left the bed. This may give the caregiver enough time to intercept the patient before a fall or at least to respond more promptly if the patient has already fallen.

• Warn the patient that they are “doing something that they shouldn’t.” In some cases the sound of the alarm may remind the patient to call for assistance and prompt them to sit back in bed.

Bed alarms are made in many forms. A common form is a pressure-sensitive pad that is placed beneath the patient, usually in the shoulder area or in the area of the buttocks. The pad is attached to a control unit that is generally mounted on the bed or the wall. Placing the pad beneath the buttocks reduces the incidence of nuisance alarms for some patients but may provide the caregiver less “lead time” in responding to activated alarms. Other forms of bed alarms include:

• Cords and garment clips consist of a control unit mounted on the bed or the wall and a cord that is attached to the patient’s clothing. The alarm is activated when the patient exits the bed and detaches the cord from the control unit.

Patient-worn alarms are attached directly to the patient (for example, by means of a leg cuff) and are activated by changes in the patient’s position.

Floor mats are pressure-sensitive mats placed alongside the bed.

Bedside infrared beam detectors are typically set up next to the bed or on the wall to send a beam over the top or alongside the bed. They are activated when the patient breaks the beam (PSA, 2020).

•   References:
• Landau, P. (2023) What is a stakeholder? definitions, types & examples, ProjectManager. Available at: https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/what-is-a-stak… (Accessed: 10 August 2023).
• Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority (2020) Bed exit alarms to reduce fall risk: Advisory, Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority. Available at: http://patientsafety.pa.gov/ADVISORIES/Pages/20040… (Accessed: 10 August 2023).