OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Choosing an Organization Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Identify an organization and situation you want to study over the remainder of the course.
2. Describe the organization and the situation
Complete the following making sure to support your ideas and cite from the textbook and other
course materials per APA guidelines. After the peer review, you have a chance to update this and
format for your Electronic Portfolio due in Module 6.

1) Name and describe your organization.

My organization is the 59th Dental Squadron. The 59th Dental Squadron is one of three
military dental squadron’s which make up largest and only dental group with the United States
Air Force; the 59th Dental Group located at Lackland, Air Force Base, San Antonio Texas. Our
primary mission at the 59th Dental Squadron is to maximize the dental readiness and oral health
of active duty service members. Collectively, we provide dental services to over 253,000
beneficiaries annually and provide educational platforms to six post-graduate dental school
residency programs. Within the 59th Dental squadron alone, our mission accommodates for the
readiness of over 129,000 beneficiaries and expends over $9 million dollars annually.

2) Describe your role in the organization (it can be an internal or external role).

Within the 59th Dental Squadron, I was the Non- Comission Officer (NCOIC) of
Infection Control and the Dental Instument Processing Center. My duties as the NCOIC
consisted of ensuring that all four of our clinic’s infection control compliance was rated
satisfactory on federal, state and local levels while also following the guidelines and
protocols of the Center’s of Disease Control and The Joint Commission. My job as the
NCOIC is essential to keep the clinics running and ensuring that Infection Control and
safety is the number one priority for our staff and our patients. My day to day
assignments included being tasked to conduct inspections and to also work in the
sterilization unit to ensure that dental instruments and materials were properly cleaned
and that bacterial spores were properly killed on reusable instruments. By accomplishing
my daily tasks our Group and Squadron are able to keep our clinics running and our
accreditations in order to run our clinical practices.

3) Describe the situation, including information you think the will help the reader
understand the most important elements of the situation. (This will require
selectivity: part of the art of case writing is separating the essential facts from the
mass of information that might be included).

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 I started my journey as the Non-Comissioned Officer of Infection Control and the Dental
Instrument Processing Center, by way of forfeiture and ineptitude of another. The prior NCOIC
could not take much more of the job, because it is taxing of nature and was commonly known for
it’s high turnover rate. I was a young staff sergeant at the time barely out of Airman leadership
school when I was appointed with the position. It took about two months to train me after
leadership had already assigned the prior NCOIC with an administrative spot. "Dilbert
principle": "the most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can
do the least dmamage-management" (1996, p.14)

The job started off rough, because when I transitioned our department was undergoing major
rennovations and I learned lots of things via read and write as opposed to hands on and visuals
which is most of what the job entails, aside from the occasional rsearch when needed. I struggled
to adapt, because there was not many people who I could ask for guidance, being that very few
people within our Dental Group were ever offered the opportunity of this postion. I had to start
from scratch, reading almost every policy I could find from what was left after the renovation;
leaving things misplaced. I could not imagine a more horrid time to be in a place so high visible,
until the pandemic hit.

When the pandemic hit, I was the go to person for new protocols and clinical guidelines and
practices. I had barely sat in the seat until major taskers were placed in my hand to come up with
contingency plans due to manpower shortages. I did not have all the tools to succeed or the
leadership experience to accomplish a task so big. When I reached out to my superiors my
requests for more trainined staff in the sterilization unit were left unanswered and our clinic went
into half staff leaving my section staff to pick up a lot of work for other clinics. Ultimately this
lead to an issue and shortage of processed and sterile instruments causing a shortfall in our
appointments and patients seen. Numbers and shortfalls, lead to my leadership finally taking me
seriously about the manning request and ultimately lead to a reevaluation of individuals who are
properly trainined in sterilization processing and infection control. I felt like I was not able to get
my point across until the numbers were not adding up.

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 Reference

Making Sense of Organizations. Perusall. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15, 2023, from
https://app.perusall.com/courses/ogl-481-org-leadership-pro-seminar-i-2023-spring-a-
43095833/reframing-organizations-artistry-choice-and-leadership?
assignmentId=49cbh25HKNx9rpu7v&part=1