NURS 6241: STRATEGIC PLANNING IN HEALTH CARE ORGANIZATIONS – Discussion 5 (Grading Rubic and Media Attached)

Discussion: Trend Analysis and Forecasting

Green Hills Health System comprises a small community hospital and a primary care practice. Located in a rural area, the nearest large city is approximately 100 miles away. Individuals age 60 and older constitute one of the largest patient populations Green Hills serves. Recently, members of the nursing staff have noticed that the numbers of geriatric patients admitted to the hospital seem to be increasing. Many of these patients have multiple comorbidities and need specialty care that is not available through Green Hills Health System. Some of the patients have commented that they lack the financial resources and transportation required to travel to the large metropolitan health care center that provides a variety of specialty services.

Imagine that you are a nurse leader-manager in the organization described above. How could conducting an internal and external scan of the environment help you and your colleagues to identify opportunities for change moving forward? What literature sources would you consult to learn about trends and emerging issues that are likely to affect the organization? What data would you examine?

In this Discussion, you analyze trends that are likely to have a significant impact on nursing and health care in the coming years. You may use this Discussion to formulate initial thoughts related to trends and unmet needs that you might choose to address through the Course Project, which is introduced this week.

To prepare:

Review the information on forecasting and trends in the Learning Resources.

Conduct a search of the literature to investigate trends and emerging issues in nursing and health care. Evaluate the research evidence in the literature.

Based on your research, identify three trends that are likely to impact nursing and health care in the coming decade.

Select one of these trends on which to focus in greater detail. Then, conduct additional research and analyze evidence-based issues related to this trend.

Based on your analysis, consider whether this trend creates or contributes to an unmet need that currently impacts, or will impact, a specific group, unit, or organization.

Post an analysis of the impact of your selected trend on nursing and health care in the coming decade. Explain how this trend creates or contributes to an unmet need that a specific group, unit, or organization may encounter now or in the coming years.

Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days using one or more of the following approaches:

Share an alternative perspective on a trend reported by your colleagues, synthesizing the information to provide a different perspective.

Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information or research.

Validate an idea with your own experience and additional resources.

Required Readings

Ursell, F. (2011). Care home funding: What to expect and what to do. Nursing & Residential Care, 13(2), 94–96.

Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

This article provides an example of forecasting for the costs associated with running nursing and residential care homes and examines related future trends.

Weiss, R. (2010, Summer). The forecast for health care. Marketing Health Services, 30(3), 7.

Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

The author describes predictions for future developments in health care.

 Harding, S. (2012, November 15). Long-term forecasts are mostly worthless. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/11/15/long-term-forecasts-are-mostly-worthless/

The author addresses the notion that trends only continue until they are interrupted by change, so predictions rarely actualize as expected.

 Peters, B. (2012, February 16). Healthcare forecast: Increasing clouds with a chance of dramatic improvement. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/bradpeters/2012/02/16/healthcare-forecast-increasing-clouds-with-a-chance-of-dramatic-improvement/

The author discusses a key technology-related trend in health care.

 Document: Course Project: Developing a Strategic Plan—Overview (PDF)

Required Media

Laureate Education (Producer). (2013i). Trends in health care organizations [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Note:  The approximate length of this media piece is 4 minutes.

Dr. Carol Huston discusses the dynamic nature of health care and trends that are impacting the industry.

Accessible player  

Optional Resources

Sare, M. V., & Ogilvie, L. (2010). Strategic planning for nurses: Change management in health care. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

Review Chapter 7, “The Three Key Elements of the Strategic Planning Process: A Vision That Guides Nursing’s Future Action” (pp. 117–143)

 MicroStrategy. (2012). Business forecasting. Retrieved from http://www.microstrategy.com/business-forecasting/

This paper moves you from a nursing situation to a PICOT question and finally reading some evidence. Research and evidence-based practice starts with questions. These questions can be identified throu

This paper moves you from a nursing situation to a PICOT question and finally reading some evidence. Research and evidence-based practice starts with questions. These questions can be identified through nursing situations. For this assignment, you will identify and describe a nursing situation in which you have recognized a problem in your nursing practice. The problem must be something that you see consistently, such as central line infections. Next, develop one PICOT question (see p. 30, Box 2.1 templates for a PICOT Question).  The types of PICOT questions include intervention, prognoses/prediction, diagnosis or diagnostic test, etiology, and meaning.Next you find an EBP publication and provide a short summary. 

This FINAL Paper is graded for points using a Rubric. The faculty provides comment. The TURNITIN report provides you feedback with grammar edits and a similarity report.

You can review the TURNITIN report.  A good paper for a writer scholar is less than 25% match in the similarity report.

** Attached includes: Rubric to Follow & My PICOT Question to base this paper on.

** PLEASE follow to instructions and rubric accordingly. 

Thank you!

Create a 1-page fact sheet that your healthcare organization could hypothetically use to explain the health or nursing informatics policy/regulation you selected. Your fact sheet should address the fo

Create a 1-page fact sheet that your healthcare organization could hypothetically use to explain the health or nursing informatics policy/regulation you selected. Your fact sheet should address the following:

• Briefly and generally explain the policy or regulation you selected.
• Address the impact of the policy or regulation you selected on system implementation.
• Address the impact of the policy or regulation you selected on clinical care, patient/provider interactions, and workflow.
• Highlight organizational policies and procedures that are/will be in place at your healthcare organization to address the policy or regulation you selected. Be specific.

To Prepare:

• Review the Resources on healthcare policy and regulatory/legislative topics related to health and nursing informatics.
• Consider the role of the nurse informaticist in relation to a healthcare organization’s compliance with various policies and regulations, such as the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA).
• Research and select one health or nursing informatics policy (within the past 5 years) or regulation for further study.

Select a health care setting you want to focus on for your sustainability initiative (e.g., local hospital, veterans hospital, ambulance service, urgent care, nursing home, etc.). Analyze the setti

Select a health care setting you want to focus on for your sustainability initiative (e.g., local hospital, veterans hospital, ambulance service, urgent care, nursing home, etc.). 

Analyze the setting you have selected and break it down to the main departments, employee roles, operating activities, etc. While doing so, brainstorm opportunities to reduce costs or eliminate waste while improving patient care or outcomes.

Review the list of sustainable initiatives from the list below, and select one from this list that you want to promote for your course project, you will be building on this throughout the course:

• Energy efficiency
• Lighting
• IR scanning
• Cogeneration
• Kanban Inventory
• Device exchange
• CR pack reformation
• Device reprocessing
• Red bag waste reduction
• Blue wrap recycling

Note: Ensure that the opportunity you select correlates with the setting you select. Additionally, if you want to complete a sustainable initiative that is not on the list, obtain approval from your instructor before completing the assignment.

Identify data sources you might need to collect and analyze for your initiative. Consider contacting people in the industry and at your organization who may be able to help.

Write a 525- to 700-word proposal of the sustainability initiative you want to promote at the health care setting you selected. Your proposal should:

• Create a clear vision or mission statement that defines the scope of the initiative and would generate buy-in.
• Define what outcomes you expect to achieve over time.
• Be specific with what you can realistically deliver.

Cite 3 reputable references to support your assignment (e.g., trade or industry publications, government or agency websites, scholarly works, or other sources of similar quality).

Format your assignment according to APA guidelines.

Imagine that, for about a year, your nursing unit has been involved in an intensive campaign to improve patient satisfaction scores with pain management. You are getting good data from your patients,

Imagine that, for about a year, your nursing unit has been involved in an intensive campaign to improve patient satisfaction scores with pain management. You are getting good data from your patients, as the length of stay on this inpatient geriatric medical nursing unit is only about 6 days. Your hospital does 100% survey to inpatients, and the response rate is about 25%, which is higher than it has been. This notwithstanding, the percent of “patient very satisfied” (top box), with a score of 5, has been in the low 70s. The national benchmark for medical surgical units like yours is about 85% very satisfied. Of all the units in your hospital, your unit is the lowest scoring on this HCAPHS survey. But as your unit is the only geriatric medical nursing unit in the hospital, you’d always thought it was the nature of the patient population.

You have been the day shift representative to the QI team, and the scores on your unit are posted monthly. Here are the numerous strategies that have been tried on your unit and the timeframes.

For this Discussion, examine the strategies and interventions tried in your unit and consider the following questions: a) Were the strategies effective in creating a sustainable change on your nursing unit, and b) To what extent can your nurse manager and CNO count on your unit exceeding the national benchmark in the next quarter, the next year? That is, does this run chart have some predictive ability? Does the run chart support the nursing unit’s decision to celebrate? To what extent can the leadership be confident that the trend will continue?