Balanced Scorecard How does an organization gauge whether strategic changes are creating sound business results?   To create a balanced scorecard, a nurse executive will identify performance metrics and an evaluation plan in four major, interrelated areas: finances, customer/stakeholder satisfaction, internal business practices, and plans for future learning and growth. The effective use of a […]

Leveraging Resources and Overcoming Barriers All change involves a negotiation of resources and plans for overcoming potential barriers to that change.   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 […]

Budgeting and Timeline Tools As you have been examining this week, budgeting and timeline tools are vital for determining necessary resources and planning for a proposed change. For your Strategic Plan, you use these types of tools to assess resources that may be required for the successful implementation of your Strategic Plan.   To prepare: […]

Mission and Vision Statements   You will now review the mission and vision statements for the organization relevant to your Strategic Plan or, if those statements do not already exist, draft new ones. As you prepare to review or draft your mission and vision statements, consider how they will guide the project and ensure that […]

Quality Improvement   The Institute of Medicine’s six domains of healthcare quality—safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable—provide a framework for assessing quality and guiding improvement. Though broad, the domains can help in generating more specific measures to monitor within an organization.   For example, if a nurse executive were interested in the timeliness of […]

Innovation Sharing To engage in thought leadership and advance the profession, nurse executives who conduct research or integrate innovations often share their contributions with the wider nursing community. Methods of dissemination include writing journal articles and presenting at professional conferences such as the American Organization for Nursing Leadership annual conference. Conferences are a stimulating way […]

Interdisciplinary Approach   By nature, healthcare requires an interdisciplinary approach. Patients may have “one doctor” at their primary care practice, for example, but they also engage with the complete team, including nurses, administrative support personnel, and lab technicians. Perhaps a specialist is called in to assist with a particular condition. All along the way, communication […]

Nurse executives may be tasked with evaluating adverse safety events—either individually or as part of an interdisciplinary team—to prevent them in the future. An evaluation may consist of analyzing every step in the patient’s care process to see what did and did not occur. Tools like the process map allow this kind of step-by-step view. […]

If you were to set out with the goal of measuring overall quality and safety in a given healthcare organization, where would you begin? Any number of measures contribute to the picture. According to the Donabedian model, quality measures fall into three groups: those that deal with the structure (i.e., the setting in which care […]

Personal Improvement Project Status   At the start of a new year, gyms are flooded with people who have made a resolution to be healthier. By March, the flood has dwindled to a stream. Though people may have the best of intentions, sometimes their goals do not come to fruition. How are you monitoring progress […]