Optimal COVID-19 Care Packages for Langara Staff - A Product Recommendation Essay

Scenario

You are a student assistant to Chris Arnold-Forester, the Director of Langara’s Emergency Operations Center, and the person in charge of the college’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To prepare for the partial campus’ partial reopening in the fall of 2020, Chris has asked you to research sanitization products and PPEs (personal protection equipment) that the college can provide for the small group of thirty (30) administrative staff who will be returning to campus full-time in September.  The goal is to ease these staff members’ return to campus by providing each staff person with a personalized COVID-19 ‘care package’: an individual supply of safe, sustainable, and user-friendly COVID-19 prevention products.  

NOTE: Emergency Operations has already stocked the campus with large reserves of medical masks and industrial-sized hand sanitizers (available to everyone who enters campus).  Therefore, you will be purchasing the special care package items as a one-time purchase.

Rather than buying these products wholesale from international producers or large suppliers, Chris would like the college to purchase these products from a Canadian or BC-based company if possible, as a gesture of support for the local economy.  He would also like you to emphasize ease of use by making sure that any non-medical masks which are purchased are comfortable, durable, and attractive, and that any hand sanitizer purchased is safe, gentle on hands, and pleasant-smelling enough for employees to use multiple times per day.

Specifically, Chris would like for you to

1. choose one specific type of product to research - either hand sanitizer OR non-medical cloth face masks

2. research three different Canadian/BC-based companies that make your chosen product

3. select three criteria for comparing them (for non-medical face masks, this might include things like cost, comfort, safety, materials, durability/sustainability, attractiveness, etc. For hand sanitizer, this might include things like cost, effectiveness, safety & quality of ingredients, scent, gentleness on hands, etc.)  

4. present this research and make one recommendation for which hand sanitizer OR face mask supplier Langara should use in these care packages.

Your Task

Instructions

Write an informal recommendation report in memo format that summarizes your findings and explains your recommendation. You must research real companies and evaluate real products they sell. Your information must be factual, based on this research.  Address it to Chris Arnold-Forester and sign it with your own name.

Requirements

· Use the indirect approach. You are only a student assistant, so Chris will want to read your research findings objectively before reviewing your conclusions and recommendation.

· Paraphrase, quote and/or summarize your research responsibly.  Avoid providing too many quotations, and if you do include quotations, keep them very short (key words & phrases only).

· Cite your sources properly and consistently using APA citation style (see the Brightspace links and materials for more information). This will allow me to look up your references and confirm that your information is factual.  

· Include your “References” as a separate page at the end of your document. This page does not count towards the 2-page length requirement.

· Explain clearly how the options measured-up according to your three criteria.

· Present only the information that the Director will need when deciding.

· Use headings and lists, as necessary.

· Include ONE informative graphic (table, bar graph, pie chart, etc.) to display important information from your research.

Recommend ONE solution: which hand sanitizer or non-medical face mask company should Langara use? Reports that do not clearly recommend a solution at the end of the report will receive lower grades.