Leadership and management (planning and goal setting)

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Nov 18, 2009

hey guys! i'm a first semester senior (bsn program). i need some help with my nursing leadership and management class. one of my assignments deals with strategic planning and goal setting for an organization. now, i haven't worked in a nursing unit yet, but it's expected that i have some ideas of how to set goals and objectives to guide and improve patient care and unit productivity. i'm suppossed to come up with long, medium, and long term goals for a department. anyone have an idea of where to start from? not an exciting subject, i know, but i guess it will apply in the near future).
thanks!

this is no different from doing a care plan for a patient except you are doing a care plan to improve patient care and unit productivity. remember the nursing process. it is a problem solving tool. what you are going to do is find some problem related to the patient care and unit productivity. how you will do that is by assessing what is going on in the unit (step #1 of the nursing process). it may be a rule or policy that you find the staff isn't following or some bit of confusion they are having over some issue. you collect data by observation and talking with the staff (investigation). next, you identify the exact problem. you probably won't be using nursing diagnoses, but there may be a business term for the problem. this is step #2 of the nursing process. in step #3 you do your planning--that's your goal setting and interventions. how you are going to make the changes. in step #4 you put your plan into action. for step #5, evaluation, you will need some sort of tool to assess whether or not your goal(s) have been achieved and to what extent. it might be a check off questionnaire or something. your instructors will want some kind of concrete proof of what happened as a result of your interventions. these types of projects often involve staff behavior and behavior is often a difficult think to assess.

i was on a quality improvement committee for many years and we did this kind of stuff all the time and it usually involved nursing policy and procedures that needed changing or that the nurses weren't following. it is sometimes incredibly difficult to get people to change their bad habits.

good luck with your project. if your project involves any teaching as an intervention, a written teaching plan goes something like this:

overview: a synopsis about what is going to be taught in the course
goal(s): the aim(s) or outcome(s) that you want your learner to achieve as a result of the lesson you plan
objectives: the more specific information that the learner will come away from the course knowing that will achieve the goal(s) you have determined.
content: a play-by-play of the specific content that is going to be taught and in the sequence it will happen. your content should address and cover all the objectives. this part of the written lesson plan is presented in an outline format.
procedures and materials: how all the above will be achieved, i.e. lecture, demonstration, discussion, etc. materials that can be used and resources that can be needed for the lesson to be successful and essential to teaching your lesson plan are listed and may include demonstrations, audio-visuals, handouts, experiments, stories, game playing and any number of other creative items.
evaluation: determining if you met the goals of the teaching plan. this can be done through a return demonstration, short post test, short question and return answer session with the client to verify they understand the information correctly or a task the participant needs to perform.

that dog gone nursing process is everywhere! i got my bsn in 1986 as an adn in a bsn completion program and we had to do similar projects. this is preparing you for all the committees you will be required to be on and participate in projects with as a manager. have fun!

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Nov 18, 2009

have you checked the textbook assigned for this class for info...might have chapter or reference list to consult.

use our google search engine top right corner ---click on down arrow next to an name to access google

search for terms "nursing strategic planning and goal setting for an organization" comes up with

article:

nursing strategy: what's your plan?

the process of bringing vision to an operational reality requires strategic plans that define goals and targeted outcomes for the next 3 to 5 years.

books read snippets online

management and leadership for nurse managers by russell c. swansburg

decision making in nursing - google books resu

how one organization developed their strategic plan - association rehabilitation nurses

download flashcard: nursing leadership and management at free ...