In enrichment this semester you have been focusing on developing thinking skills designed to increase the breadth of your thinking. This work requirement requires you to apply these skills in solving a real life problem.

The task is to be completed in table groups. Your teacher will be making observations through out the class to ensure that all members of your table group are contributing.

As your team works through this problem try to concentrate on the skills we have covered this semester. Apart from using the thinking tools like PMI and CAF etc try to remember to:

• Suspend judgement – try not to make a decision until you have done ALL your thinking
• Direct your attention – direct your attention to the type of thinking you are doing. Stay focused on the thinking task

Your Task:

You are a member of the board of the Werribee City Hospital. As a member of this board you have many responsibilities, including deciding on who should get heart transplants. This is an enormously important task, where people’s lives are literally at stake. It is essential that you make the best decision possible, based on your best thinking.

On most occasions there is only one possible recipient for a donor heart. However there are occasions where there is more than one person who could receive the heart. In these situations it is the job of your group to decide who gets the heart.

Heart transplants are a very major operation. Suitable hearts are very rare and today many people die waiting for a suitable heart to become available. To be successful there must be a match between the donor heart and the recipient, otherwise the heart may be rejected and the patient will die – the heart cannot be used again. Not all matches are perfect, the better the match the better the chance of survival. To help with the success of the operation, patients need to take anti rejection drugs. If successful, most patients are able to live a close to normal life after the initial time spent in hospital.

Your first task is to do an AGO (Aims Goals and Objectives) on the task of allocating hearts. Do this individually and then combine your groups’ results.

As a group do a FIP (First Important Priorities). Discuss each of your Aims and rank them from the most important to least important. Where you can’t decide, use the "Spend a Buck" decision-making method you have been taught.

You know that at some point you will be asked to make a decision on who should receive a heart. Do a CAF (Consider All Factors) on this decision. What factors might need to be considered? Do this as a group.

Do a FIP on the factors you have listed as a group. Again, if you can’t decide as a group use the "Spend a Buck" decision-making method.

By this stage most of your thinking should be done. If you have considered ALL factors, and prioritised them, and if you know your goals, making the next decision should be easy. The next task has a time limit, you can spend as much time as you need on tasks A-D, but actually making the decision has a time limit. This is a way of testing to see how good your thinking was in tasks Aà C.

To test your thinking you might like to do a "dry run". Have each team member suggest two people who need a heart transplant. Use your AGO and CAF results to decide who will receive the heart.

Time to make a decision. Ask your teacher for the list of people available for the next heart transplant.

When you come to a decision do a C&S, and a PMI. If, as a result of your C&S or PMI you want to change your choice, do another C&S and PMI on your new choice.

This process must be completed in the next 30 minutes.

Individually, write an open letter to the public that outlines how and why you made the decision you did. You should remember that the families and friends of the people who did not receive the heart would probably read the letter.

Reflection: Think about the process you went through to make the decision. How did the thinking tools help your thinking? Do you think you made the best decision? If you hadn’t used the thinking tools, how might that have effected your thinking?

A very rare situation has come up. A heart has become available and there are 6 possible recipients. The decision needs to be made in the next 30 minutes as to who should get the heart. A short description of each of the patients is given below to help you with your decision. You must be able to justify your final decision. The fact that information is mentioned here does not mean you have to use it in your decision making. Good Luck!