Assignment: Strategic Plan Resource Identification

At Jones Memorial, a well-known trauma center in a densely populated urban area, administrators and the rest of the strategic planning team are considering adopting a new health information technology system. They anticipate this will help to monitor health care quality and patient safety, improve communication, and streamline patient flow from intake through discharge and billing.

What resources may be needed to successfully implement this change? What considerations related to finances, personnel, and timeline should health care leader-managers and others take into account?

You examine the process of assessing resource needs for a proposed change and allocating the required resources appropriately. For your Course Project, you apply budgeting concepts to evaluate the financial resources that may be needed and use a Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) or other tool to create a timeline for your proposed change.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• Analyze fiscal, human, and time resources needed for meeting unmet health care-related needs

• Apply performance measurement concepts to the creation of metrics for a proposed planned change

• Apply budgeting and timeline concepts to the creation of strategic planning tools

Learning Resources

Note: To access this week's required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Required Readings

Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2017). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (9th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.

• Chapter 1, "Pitfalls in Using Decision-Making Tools"
• Chapter 10, "Fiscal Planning"

(Note: You may have read this in a previous course.)

See page 23 for an example of a PERT chart. Chapter 10 provides foundational information related to budgeting.
Sare, M. V., & Ogilvie, L. (2010). Strategic planning for nurses: Change management in health care. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

• Chapter 5, "Tools from the Strategic Planning Workbench" (pp. 83-100)
• Appendix 7, "Sample Template of the Strategic Planning Process" (pp. 142-143)

Chapter 5 provides an overview of tools that can be used to guide strategic planning. Appendix 7 provides a template you may use to prepare for your Course Project.

Inc. (n.d.). Budgets and budgeting. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/budgets-and-budgeting.html

This website examines strategies for creating a budget.

Mind Tools. (2013). Critical path analysis and PERT charts. Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/critpath.html

Mind Tools has numerous resources that facilitate and support the planning process.

Required Media

Laureate Education (Producer). (2013h). Timeline tools [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 3 minutes.

Dr. Carol Huston addresses time management as a key aspect of strategic planning and explains various timeline tools.
Accessible player

Discussion: Identifying Resources

All change involves a negotiation of resources.

Think of a significant change you have made in your personal or professional life, such as your decision to enroll in this graduate program. Did you consider what resources would be needed in order to succeed with this planned change? If so, how did you evaluate the fiscal and time commitments you would need to make? How did you assess your readiness to take on the challenges that might lie ahead? What activities or milestones functioned as dependencies in your plan? What other obligations, plans, or aspirations did you deprioritize or delay to make available the necessary resources? Did you discover-after you were already invested in this change-that you needed more or different resources to continue on?

As you propose and evaluate changes with an organizational or systems-level impact, it is especially important to consider what resources may be required and what trade-offs may be needed to bring the change to fruition and achieve sustainability.

As preparation for your Course Project, in this Discussion you consider the resources that would be required to implement your proposed change.

To prepare:

• Review the resources listed in "Appendix 7: Sample Template of the Strategic Planning Process" in the Sare and Ogilvie course text. In addition, consider the other Learning Resources that focus on the process of identifying resources for a strategic plan. Conduct additional research as necessary to deepen your thinking about resource identification for strategic planning.

• Reflect on the results of the SWOT analysis you conducted for your Course Project (submitted in Week 7), and consider what resources may be needed to address the weaknesses and threats and build upon opportunities and strengths you identified. Evaluate the specific financial, personnel, and time resources that you would need to carry out your proposed change.

• Think about how you would leverage the resources you currently have and those you plan to acquire or develop to create the best possible results. For instance, consider the following:

o What trade-offs would you need to make to ensure that you have sufficient financial resources? How would you raise capital?

o Who would you need to hire or promote, what training should be provided, and/or what workload adjustments would you need to make to have the right personnel in place?

o What is a reasonable timeline for adoption and implementation given the parameters of this change and other organizational or group priorities?