Title: Setting objectives
Course: Health Management, Ethics and Research - Ethiopia (Full)

Setting objectives

In order to plan effectively you need to be clear about what you and your work group are trying to achieve. You will need to review what needs to be done, and determine your priorities. Objectives include the steps to be taken in pursuit of agreed goals, such as those in the strategic plans set by the wider health service. However, you need to base your objectives on the local context and the capacity of your community.

There are two important reasons for setting objectives:

1. A clear objective is essential to create a definite plan. For example, the objective could be to increase the number of families in your community using insecticide treated bed nets.
2. Setting objectives enables results to be evaluated. When a programme has no stated or known objectives its outcome cannot be evaluated. For example, the objective could be to increase the number of families using insecticide treated bed nets by 50% in one year (Figure 3.3). Objectives are usually time-limited, i.e. to be achieved in a certain number of weeks, months or years.

Figure 3.3 Your objective may be to increase the number of bed nets distributed to families in your community. But are you sure they are being used correctly? (Photo: AMREF/Demissew Bezuwork)

If 84 families in your community currently use bed nets and your objective is to increase this by 50% over the next year, how many families in your community should be using the nets by this time next year?

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50% of 84 = 42. Therefore another 42 families should be protected, bringing the total to 84 + 42 = 126 families.

SMART objectives

Objectives must satisfy certain criteria; they must be relevant, feasible, and observable or measurable.

An objective is relevant if it either fits in with general health policy or relates to a problem that needs to be solved. An objective is feasible if it can be achieved, if the resources are available and any obstacles can be overcome. An objective is measurable when the outcome or result can be stated in numbers. For example, the objective that infant mortality will be reduced by 66% is measurable.

Consider this objective: 'All babies delivered at the Health Post should be vaccinated with BCG.' Is it measurable?

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Yes, this is a measurable objective – but only at the end of a specified time period, such as a year, when the number of babies born and the number of babies vaccinated can be compared.

All objectives should be SMART, which stands for:

S = Simple or Straightforward (understandable by everyone involved)

M = Measurable (the outcomes can be measured to demonstrate that the objective has been achieved)

A = Attainable (the outcome is possible to achieve)

R = Realistic (achievable with available resources)

T = Time-framed (achievable within the time).

Your SMART objective is to train at least 180 model households in all the health extension packages by the end of next year. Is this objective measurable (M) and time-framed (T)?

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Yes. The number of model households that have been trained by the target date can be counted to demonstrate if the objective has been achieved, and it is time-framed because it has to be completed by the end of next year.