Evaluation of strategic choices is important. The methods f
Evaluation of strategic choices is important. The methods for selecting strategic alternatives help leaders organize significant issues to support decision making. However, it is important that the techniques do not make the decision. Rather, leaders should use the techniques to reveal the inherent situation and to organize their thought processes. This assessment provides you with an opportunity to evaluate and apply some of the techniques for successful strategy development and implementation.
Note: You will use your care setting environmental analysis as the basis for developing your strategic plan in this assessment.
The feedback you received on your care setting environmental analysis has been positive. Consequently, you have been asked to select one of the potential improvement projects you noted in your analysis and create a full, 5–10-year strategic plan to achieve the desired quality and safety improvement outcomes. You will develop your strategic plan, using either an AI approach (addressing the design stage), or by building on your SWOT analysis and applying a strategic planning model of your choice.
How you structure your plan should be based on whether you are taking an appreciative inquiry approach or using a specific strategic planning model. Regardless of the approach you choose, the requester of the plan has asked that you address the key points outlined below in the strategic plan requirements. In addition, your plan should be 5–8 pages in length.
Note: As you revise your writing, check out the resources listed on the Writing Center’s Writing Support page.
As you prepare to complete this assessment, you may want to think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or broaden your viewpoint. You are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community. Note that these questions are for your own development and exploration and do not need to be completed or submitted as part of your assessment.
Strategic planning models aid in setting goals, establishing time frames, and forging a path toward achieving those goals. Consider the strategic planning models you are familiar with:
- Which model would you choose to create goals and outcomes that could address the area of concern you identified in your Assessment 1 SWOT analysis?
- Why is this model the best choice among alternatives?
- How does goal setting through appreciative inquiry provocative propositions differ from goal setting in the strategic planning model you selected?
- Develop strategic goal statements and outcomes that reflect specific quality and safety improvements for your care setting. You should have at least one short-term goal (just-in-time to one year) and one long-term goal (five years or longer).
- Determine realistic timelines for achieving your goals.
- Explain how your short-term goals support your long-term goals.
Note: For plans based on an AI approach, the goal statements and outcomes are provocative propositions that may be refinements of the positive, yet attainable, goals that you proposed during the dream phase of your inquiry. For plans based on a SWOT analysis, the goal statements and outcomes are specific, measurable, and applicable to the area of concern in your analysis for which you proposed pursuing improvements.
- Justify the relevance of your proposed strategic goals and outcomes in relation to the mission, vision, and values of your care setting.
- Analyze the extent to which your strategic goals and outcomes, and your approach to achieving them, address:
- The ethical environment.
- The cultural environment.
- The use of technology.
- Applicable health care policies, laws, and regulations.
- Explain, in general, how you will use relevant leadership and health care theories to help achieve your proposed strategic goals and outcomes.
- Consider whether different theories are more applicable to the short-term or long-term goals of your strategic plan.
- Evaluate the leadership qualities and skills that are most important to successfully implementing your proposed plan and sustaining strategic direction.
- Identify those leadership qualities and skills that are essential to achieving your goals and outcomes and sustaining strategic direction.
- Identify those leadership qualities and skills that will have the greatest effect on the success of your plan.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:
· Competency 1: Evaluate qualities and skills that promote effective leadership within health care organizations.
· Evaluate the leadership qualities and skills that will be most important to successfully implementing a strategic plan and sustaining strategic direction.
· Competency 2: Apply strategies to lead high-performing health care teams to meet organizational quality and safety goals.
· Develop strategic goal statements and outcomes that support the achievement of specific quality and safety improvements for a care setting.
· Justify the relevance of proposed strategic goals and outcomes in relation to the mission, vision, and values of a care setting.
· Competency 3: Apply cultural, ethical, and regulatory considerations to leadership decision making.
· Analyze the extent to which strategic goals and outcomes address the use of technology and the ethical, cultural, and regulatory environments.
· Competency 4: Integrate leadership and health care theories into the role of the nurse leader.
· Explain how relevant leadership and health care theories will be used to help achieve proposed strategic goals and objectives.
· Competency 5: Communicate with stakeholders and constituencies to build collaborative partnerships and create inclusive work environments.
· Communicate analyses clearly and in a way that demonstrates professionalism and respect for stakeholders and colleagues.
· Integrate relevant and credible sources of evidence to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style.
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Strategic Planning
Victoria Smart
Capella University
NURS-FPX6210 Leadership and Management of Nurse Executives
Linda Sperling
October 10, 2022
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Strategic Planning
The success of a business is measured on its ability to adapt and change as the
environment and industry around it changes. This is no different within healthcare. Healthcare
facilities must be careful to not become stagnant or they will fail the community in which they
strive to serve. By implementing strategic planning, healthcare organizations can remain relevant
and responsive to patients and the community’s needs. This is accomplished by looking into the
future and developing a clear and consistent organizational focus. (Stanford Medicine, 2022).
This paper will develop a strategic goal statement and outcome regarding quality and safety
improvements within an acute rehabilitation center. I will then justify the relevance of proposed
strategic goals and outcomes in relation to the mission, vision and values of the rehab center,
analyzes the extent to which strategic goals and outcomes address the use of technology and the
ethical, cultural, and regulatory environments, explain how relevant leadership and health care
theories will be used to help achieve proposed strategic goals and objectives, and evaluate the
leadership qualities and skills that will be most important to successfully implementing a
strategic plan.
Strategic Goal and Outcomes
Every great idea starts out as a dream, something someone thought up and wished to
happen and then made happen. To ensure that great ideas get implemented and achieved a plan
must be developed with goals that clearly outline what an organization wants to achieve.
Previously I outlined the first two phases of appreciative inquiry, the discovery and dream
phases. In those phases I identified what my rehab facility is good at regarding quality and safety
and then envisioned what the future might hold. These are both important steps in the process of
creating change; however, they are only part of the process. Now that a vision has been created
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the design phase starts. The design phase is where the planning occurs, it is where models and
prototypes of different elements are created. It is the blueprint to the future. (Benedictine
University, 20217).
When implementing change into an established facility it is important to identify the
vision, mission, and goal of the organization and to ensure that employees and stakeholders feel
invested in the change. Our vision is of a rehabilitation center, where individuals reach their
highest potential for health. Our mission is to promote and encourage self-care while improving
quality of life among individuals who have suffered from medically life changing events. Goals
should help to promote success and are the foundation for planning. Goals are things that we as a
facility are attempting to achieve, these goals should be S.M.A.R.T. Meaning that they should be
specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. It is also important to remember that
things change and as you are working towards achieving goals it is important to remain flexible
and adapt to changes as they arise. Keeping track of progress and making the needed changes as
they occur can help to maintain motivation and achieve goals. (Bryant & Stratton College Blog
Staff, 2021). For our purposes I will purpose both a long term and short-term goal. Short term
goals should be able to be accomplished in three months to a few years. Short term goals can be
a steppingstone to achieving long-term goals, it is important to keep track of your progress of
short-term goals and review them to ensure that they are still helpful in obtaining the bigger
picture. Long term goals are the end point, it is where you want to be in five to ten years and
should be broken down to help create short term goals, by knowing the end goal you can develop
steps to get there and devise a plan of action to achieve your goals. (Bryant & Stratton College
Blog Staff, 2021).
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For my acute rehab facility, we are always looking at ways to ensure that patients are
getting the best quality care and allows for a safe discharge. We help patients transition from the
hospital to life after a life altering event whether it is a stroke, heart attack, spine surgery, hip
surgery, etc. We give them the tools to regain as much independence as possible. One way we
can ensure that patients are getting quality and safe care is to ensure that we have qualified staff
who can provide them with the best possible care. The goal moving forward will be to have all
nursing staff with credentials of certified rehabilitation registered nurses (CCRN). So, the long-
term goal will be to have one hundred percent of our nursing staff trained and certified as
CCRNs within five years. The short-term goal will be to have fifty percent of our current and
new hired staff trained and certified as CCRNs within the next year. The biggest challenges to
this are motivation of staff, staff turnover, cost of testing, and number of testing times throughout
the year (these tests are only offered at certain times). In addition to training for nursing staff,
implementing new equipment and technology into patient care can also help with ensuring
higher quality and safer patient care. The short-term goal would be to update existing equipment
and technology within the next three years. For the short-term goal equipment and technology
upgrades would include smart beds, computers, and traditional equipment used by therapists and
nurses. The long-term goal would be to implement new state of the art equipment and technology
that changes how therapists and nurses perform their duties within the next ten years. This would
include higher end technology and equipment such as exoskeletons, instrumented insoles and
biofeedback and personalized reference charts. By implementing these changes and providing
additional training to nursing staff the outcomes should include higher patient satisfaction,
reduced readmissions into the hospital, reduced complications on discharge, safer patient care,
and higher quality of care provided to patients during stay.
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Justification of Strategic Goals and Outcomes
Providing quality and safe care within a healthcare facility cannot be achieved without
high quality nursing staff. Nurses play a pivotal role in caring for patients. While nurses have
learned to be flexible and go where they are needed, certain areas of specialty require specialized
care. Providing the highest quality of care requires specialized training and knowledge to assist
patients with a disability and/or chronic illness to attain and maintain maximum function. Within
the rehabilitation center it is important that nurses assist patients to adapt to an altered lifestyle,
providing a therapeutic environment for not only the patient but their family as well. Nurses
within the rehabilitation center are teachers, caregivers, collaborators, and client advocates.
These tasks can include performing hands-on nursing care that utilize the nursing process,
coordinating nursing care activities and collaborating with therapy members, or helping to
prepare patients and family members with future self-management of care upon discharge.
(ARN, n.d.). The CRRN is widely recognized and respected and is a credential for nurses who
assist with restoring, maintaining, and promoting optimal health in patients who suffer from
disabilities and chronic illnesses. It helps to validate a nurse's professional standing as being an
experienced rehab nurse (ARN, 2021). Having the CRRN certification shows a level of
knowledge and commitment to patient care and having all nurses with this certification helps to
show a commitment to the team and the patients. (ARN, 2020). That is why it is so important
that we promote having all our nurses being certified as CRRNs to help not only ensure that
patients are getting quality and safe care but to provide patients with confidence and security in
knowing they are receiving the best care by nurses who are specially trained to care for them.
Feeling safe and confident in the care provided helps patients to focus on their goals moving
forward. CRRNs help ensure patients reach their highest potential for health by promoting and
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encouraging self-care while improving quality of life among individuals who have suffered from
medically life changing events.
Another way to ensure that patients are getting the best care is to implement technology
into the patient care setting. Unfortunately, technology is expensive and often you must justify
spending the money before a facility will pay for such expenses. However, medical technology is
critical for continued care, it helps to make patient care easier and more efficient, assists with
patients getting more convenient and accessible options for higher quality and safer healthcare.
(WGU, 2021). Technology that aids with the rehabilitation process for the use of occupational
and physical therapists is essential for helping to improve the care of patients. Implementing
technology such as exoskeletons, instrumented insoles, and biofeedback and personalized
reference charts can help with improving patient outcomes, patient safety, and assisting with
getting patients back to their prior level of function. This means that by implementing new
technology in the rehabilitation facility we can improve health outcomes, patient satisfaction and
reduce healthcare costs while ensuring that care is patient centered. (Bade et al., 2020). Thus, the
goal of improving the current technology and implementing higher state of the art technology
helps to support the overall vision, mission, and goal of providing quality and safe healthcare
that is patient centered and helps to ensure the best possible outcomes for our patients upon
discharge.
Technology, Ethical, Cultural and Regulatory Environments
Technology is at the forefront of our quality improvement plan. By updating old
equipment and implementing state of the art technology we are helping to set up our patients for
success not only during their rehabilitation stay but also upon discharge. Technology such as
Electronic Health Records (EHR) are helpful for retrieving information, having access to patients
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records and charts from different hospitals that patients have been at can allow doctors and
nurses to fill in gaps in patient care and allow us to provide more efficient care to patients.
Patients are complex and are living longer which means they have more comorbidities than
previously which complicates that care but technology can assist with ensuring doctors and
nurses have access to the best resources available to serve their patient’s individual health needs.
Regulatory agencies help to protect healthcare consumers from health risks, ensure safe
work environments for healthcare professionals, and ensure that public health and welfare is
being served by healthcare programs. They also help with setting standards for operations, safety,
quality, offering accreditation, continuing education, and training for healthcare professionals.
(Thomas, 2022). Examples of regulatory agencies include Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS) and The Joint Commission (JTC). My goal of improving nursing training by
having them become CRRN and implementing new technology into patient care aligns with
ensuring patients are receiving the best quality and safety of care and aligns with the Joint
Commission's guidelines for the national patient safety goals, which include identifying patients
correctly, improving staff communication, using medicine safely, using alarms safely, preventing
infection, identifying patient safety risks, and preventing mistakes in surgery (2022). CMS uses
quality measures to ensure that healthcare is meeting goals such as being effective, safe,
efficient, patient-centered, equitable, and timely. Having nurses with high levels of training and
more extensive technology within the care facility can assist with ensuring that these measures
are met and continue to be met. Our goal is to provide the highest quality of care that is safe and
exceeds the standards of care required by regulatory agencies such as CMS and TJC.
When implementing changes, it is important to consider the ethical ramifications that
those changes can have within an organization. Healthcare workers have a code of ethics that
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they follow and nurses also have a code of ethics that help to govern actions for caring for
patients. My proposed strategic goals and outcomes align with the American Nurses
Association’s (ANA) code of ethics that help to govern the care provided to patients. As part of
the ANA code of ethics nurses should show compassion, respect dignity, and worth to each
person, their primary commitment is to the patient, they promote and advocate to protect the
rights, health, and safety of patients, collaborate with others to provide care and strives to
provide the highest quality of care to patients. (2019).
Another important factor to consider is that of cultural competency. The rehab facility is
small and serves a small community. The majority of those within the community we serve are of
Caucasian descent and elderly. However, within the larger community there is a lot of Spanish
speaking clientele that our facility could also be serving but currently does not. Having a facility
that is more welcoming to patients of different cultural backgrounds can help to expand our
growth as a company and allow us to serve those who need help. Having access to devices that
can help us better serve patients who speak other languages ensures that information obtained is
being understood and allows patients to better participate in their care. This alone can help with
providing more inclusive and culturally appropriate care. In addition, being respectful of
different cultures and practices can help us to better understand how to treat patients and allow
care to be patient centered and allows patients to receive higher quality care. The strategic goals
and outcomes help to support implementation of a more culturally competent environment within
the rehabilitation facility.
Leadership and Healthcare Theories
When considering implementation of a new plan it is imperative to have the right person
leading the project. The leadership style needed to ensure that plans are implemented correctly
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and that goals are reached is that of Transformational leadership. These leaders focus on
facilitating organizational collaboration and helping to drive a vision forward. They possess
characteristics such as the ability to inspire, motivate, take risks, and can encourage others to
communicate and participate. (Emeritus, 2022). These skills are important because they help to
engage and encourage team members to feel empowered and develop new ideas while working
towards a common goal to improve the organization. Their “can do'' attitude and hands-on
approach helps to create an ideal work environment that fosters positivity and helps to create
positive change within an organization. They ensure that everyone feels invested in creating the
change needed. The main limitation of this style of leadership is that they are too focused on
change and they put a lot of pressure onto the staff working under them to work hard and put
their whole selves into a project and that can lead to staff getting burnt out or overwhelmed.
In addition to ensuring there is good leadership another important healthcare theory is
that of evidence-based practice. Evidence based management within healthcare aims to use
critical thinking and the best available evidence to make decisions. This form of decision-making
is systematic, it increases objectivity and critical thinking. It reduces the potential for irrational
thinking and bias. Rather than relying on gut feelings, popular trends, or personal experiences
these managers use evidence from multiple sources to increase the chance of the best outcome.
Evidence-based management is driven by science and data, increased accountability, and helps to
reduce errors in judgment. EBM’s process includes selecting the best available evidence, using
systematic decision-making, and re-evaluating and adapting as needed. (Winn, 2020). This does
not mean that it does not have limitations. Factors that may affect EBM include organizational
factors, facilitators, barriers, social factors, decision-making environment, and decision-making
characteristics. EBM takes time and a level of commitment rather than just making decisions by
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the seat of your pants thus it can prove to be more difficult. Without support and resources EBM
cannot be successful.
Leadership Qualities and Skills
Leadership is important when implementing change and ensuring that change is
successful. It is important that leaders possess specific characteristics and skills to get tasks
completed in a way that aligns with an organization's vision and mission. A leader should be able
to provide guidance and inspiration to those around them. They should foster their team
members’ qualities and help create a work environment that feels open, honest, and productive.
They are always focused on the common goal and overall mission. Good leadership skills
include being adaptive, resilient, open minded, active listeners, effective communicator, creative,
innovative, strategic, ethical, honest, transparent, and respectful of cultural differences.
(Eastwood, 2019). Leaders with these qualities can help foster an environment that allows people
to feel safe, motivated, inspired, and valued which in return enables employees to feel invested in
the organization and to work towards the vision and mission of the organization.
Conclusion
Providing quality and safe care to patients is a priority for every healthcare facility and
the only way they can continue to provide the highest quality of care is to evolve and adapt to the
changing world around them. Healthcare facilities must look to the future and plan appropriately
to ensure that they continue to be relevant and serve the patients and members of their
communities that rely on them. Strategic planning can assist with accomplishing goals and
ensuring that they are continuously improving the care provided to patients. This paper
developed a strategic goal statement and outcome regarding quality and safety improvements
within an acute rehabilitation center. I then justified the relevance of proposed strategic goals and
11
outcomes in relation to the mission, vision and values of the rehab center, analyzed the extent to
which strategic goals and outcomes address the use of technology and the ethical, cultural, and
regulatory environments, explained how relevant leadership and health care theories will be used
to help achieve proposed strategic goals and objectives, and evaluated the leadership qualities
and skills that will be most important to successfully implementing a strategic plan.
12
References
American Nurses Association (ANA). (2019). American nurses association code of ethics for
nurses. https://nursing.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/ANA-Code-of-Ethics-
for-Nurses.pdf
Association of Rehabilitation Nurses. (n.d.). What does a rehabilitation staff nurse do?
https://rehabnurse.org/about/roles/rehabilitation-staff-nurse
Association of Rehabilitation Nurses. (2020). Why are you a CRRN?
https://rehabnurse.org/certification/why-are-you-a-crrn
Association of Rehabilitation Nurses. (2021). Become a certified rehabilitation registered nurse
(CRRN). https://rehabnurse.org/crrn-certification/crrn-certification#:~:text =The
%20Importance%20of%20Nursing%20Certification,maintain%2C%20and%20promote
%20optimal%20health.
Bade, M., Graber, J., Johnson, J., Kittelson, A., Nabhan, D., Owens, J., & Rauzi, M. (2020).
How new technology is improving physical therapy. National Library of Medicine.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7174486/
Benedictine University. (2017). What is appreciative inquiry? A short guide to the appreciative
inquiry model & process. Benedictine University College of Business.
https://cvdl.ben.edu/blog/what-is-appreciative-inquiry/
Bryant & Stratton College Blog Staff. (2021). Planning short and long term career goals. Bryant
& Stratton College. https://www.bryantstratton.edu/blog/2021/september/short-and-long-
term-career-goals
Eastwood, B. (2019). The 5 qualities all successful leaders have in common. Northeastern
University. https://www.northeastern.edu/graduate/blog/top-5-leadership-qualities/
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Emeritus. (2022). Here’s an insight into leadership and its different types. Emeritus Institute of
M
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