Week 7: Assignment: Reflection on Learning
Week 7: Assignment: Reflection on Learning
Purpose
The purpose of this activity is to deepen learning through reflective inquiry. It will allow for expansion in self-awareness, identification of knowledge gaps, and assessment of learning goals.
Course Outcomes
This assessment enables the student to meet the following course outcomes:
- CO 1: Examine the role of the DNP-prepared nurse in leading financial planning and management across healthcare settings. (PO 2, 4, 9)
- CO 2: Formulate a needs-based organizational assessment to inform strategic leadership decision-making (POs 3, 5, 7)
- CO 3: Develop strategies to lead project planning, implementation, management, and evaluation to promote high value healthcare. (PO 3, 5, 7) Week 7: Assignment: Reflection on Learning
Total points possible: 100 points
Instructions
Follow these guidelines when completing this assignment. Contact your course faculty if you have questions.
Write a brief 1-2 paragraph weekly reflection addressing the questions posed in the Reflect section of each weekly module. Edit your Reflection to include each weekly reflection.
Include the following sections in your Reflection:
- Week 1: Reflect upon your Week 1 learning journey in NR711 and address the following in 1-2 paragraphs:
- As you assess your learning, provide one specific example of how you achieved one of the weekly objectives.
- How will you promote collaborative, inter-professional relationships in a rapidly transforming healthcare environment?
- What do you value the most about your learning this week?
- Week 2: Reflect upon your Week 2 learning journey in NR711 and address the following in 1-2 paragraphs:
- As you assess your learning, provide one specific example of how you achieved one of the weekly objectives.
- How might you use this week’s information to benefit your organization in the future as a DNP-prepared nurse?
- What do you value most about your learning this week?
- Week 3: Reflect upon your Week 3 learning journey in NR711 and address the following in 1-2 paragraphs:
- As you assess your learning, provide one specific example of how you achieved one of the weekly objectives.
- How might you use the learning this week with your own DNP Project planning?
- What do you value most about your learning this week?
- Week 4: As you reflect upon your Week 4 learning journey in NR711 and address the following in 1-2 paragraphs:
- As you assess your learning, provide one specific example of how you achieved one of the weekly objectives.
- How might you improve on your communication skills to be more effective as a project manager?
- What do you value most about your learning this week?
- Week 5: Reflect upon your Week 5 learning journey in NR711 and address the following in one or two paragraphs:
- As you assess your learning, provide one specific example of how you achieved one of the weekly objectives. Week 7: Assignment: Reflection on Learning
- How might the outcomes of your project influence nursing practice and/or patient care, and/or your organization?
- What do you value most about your learning this week?
- Week 6: Reflect upon your Week 6 learning journey in NR711 and address the following in one or two paragraphs:
- As you assess your learning, provide one specific example of how you achieved one of the weekly objectives.
- How might your knowledge about budgets and financial analysis contribute to providing cost-saving solutions to patient care while improving outcomes?
- What do you value most about your learning this week?
- Week 7: Reflect upon your Week7 learning journey in NR711 and address the following in one or two paragraphs:
- As you assess your learning, provide one specific example of how you achieved one of the weekly objectives.
- How might your knowledge about current reimbursement trends be useful for you as a DNP-prepared nurse?
- What do you value most about your learning this week?
Rubric
Week 7 Assignment Grading Rubric: Reflection on Learning (100 pts) (1)
| Week 7 Assignment Grading Rubric: Reflection on Learning (100 pts) (1) | ||||||
| Criteria | Ratings | Pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeWeek 1 Reflective Inquiry
Requirements: |
|
13 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeWeek 2 Reflective Inquiry
Requirements: |
|
13 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeWeek 3 Reflective Inquiry
Requirements: |
|
13 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeWeek 4 Reflective Inquiry
Requirements: |
|
13 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeWeek 5 Reflective Inquiry
Requirements: |
|
13 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeWeek 6 Reflective Inquiry
Requirements: |
|
13 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeWeek 7 Reflective Inquiry
Requirements: |
|
13 pts | ||||
| This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeWriting Organization and Mechanics
Requirements: |
|
9 pts | ||||
| Total Points: 100 | ||||||
Week 1
Strategic planning and thinking skills are essential skills for DNP nurses. These skills will help doctors of nursing philosophy nurses formulate effective strategic management strategies and become good leaders. These strategies will enable the healthcare facilities which are working to meet their objectives and goals, such as improving the patients’ outcomes and the quality of care provided to patients in these healthcare facilities. These strategies will also help the DNP nurses deal with the challenges they face in healthcare organizations and maximize the opportunities. There are several ways in which DNP nurses can be involved in strategic management decisions; therefore, it is important to discuss these ways and the strategies that these nurses can use to build a culture of quality and safety. Week 7: Assignment: Reflection on Learning
There are several ways in which nurses can be involved in strategic management decisions. The first way that nurses can be applied in strategic management decisions is through policy intervention. DNP nurses can address decisions that affect the healthcare policies that govern operations in healthcare organizations. The experience which DNP nurses have, skills, and knowledge allow them to support healthcare policies that ensure that patients are provided with safe, effective, and patient-centered care in a timely and efficient manner. They will be involved in making policy decisions by providing expert testimonies, serving as content experts, or garnering support from the legislators involved in the policy changes (Edwards et al., 2018). Policy intervention puts the DNP nurses in a unique position to influence the strategic decisions to influence healthcare reforms and improve patient care. DNP nurses can also be involved in strategic decision-making through legislation evaluation to assess the success or failure of legislation. The DNP nurses will participate in making legislation decisions by considering the political obstacles that the policy legislation can encounter during the implemented process and how these obstacles can be addressed. The last way DNP nurses can be involved in strategic management decision-making is through coalition-building, which will help them obtain legislative and regulatory approval for a healthcare organization’s policy agenda (Sherrod et al., 2016). The DNP nurses can create a coalition with each other or with the healthcare organizations they represent. The DNP nurses will then serve as leaders of these coalitions, where they will be involved in making strategic management decisions.
DNP nurses have a role in ensuring that a culture of safety and quality is established in healthcare organizations. There are several strategies that these nurses can employ to ensure quality and safety. The first strategy is establishing safety and health management systems that will ensure compliance to safety protocol and adjustment of organizational policies to ensure safety and quality. The second strategy is the establishment of a rapid response system. The rapid response system framework should be determined by considering the status of the patient, the team members, and the healthcare environment (Heal et al., 2017). The third strategy is to ensure that the healthcare personnel within the organization are familiar with and understand the safety policies put in place. The last strategy that DNP nurses can employ to build a culture of safety and quality is by developing a safety and quality compliance plan that will allow them to monitor and evaluate how the employees are adhering to the established policies on safety and quality.
There are several ways in which nurses can be involved in strategic decision-making. These include policy interventions, coalition building, and evaluation of legislation that affect healthcare. DNP nurses must ensure that a culture of safety and quality is established in a healthcare setting. These nurses will use strategies such as establishing safety and health management systems, establishing a rapid response system, and developing a safety and quality compliance plan to employ this culture.
References
Edwards, N., Coddington, J., Erler, C., & Kirkpatrick, J. (2018). The Impact of the Role of Doctor of Nursing PracticeNurses on Healthcare and Leadership. Medical Research Archives, 6(4). doi:10.18103/mra.v6i4.1734
Heal, M., Silvest-Guerrero, S., & Kohtz, C. (2017). Design and Development of a Proactive Rapid Response System. Computers, informatics, nursing : CIN, 35(2), 77–83. https://doi.org/10.1097/CIN.0000000000000292
Sherrod, B., & Goda, T. (2016). DNP-prepared leaders guide healthcare system change. Nursing management, 47(9), 13–16. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NUMA.0000491133.06473.92. Week 7: Assignment: Reflection on Learning
Week 2
Organizational assessment is a systematic review of the process of an organization, the work environment, and the organizational structure. It allows organizations to know fully about themselves and makes it possible to determine the reversal efficiency and effectiveness for continuous improvement. One of the organizations which need to carry out organization assessment is the Prime Healthcare Organization. This organization is dealing with a practice problem of shortage of nurses within the hospitals it operates. It is important to describe the assessment process that an individual would follow when planning to conclude a project in the Prime Healthcare Organization and identify the project’s goals and how they relate to its mission and vision.
The process that I will follow to assess the Prime Healthcare Organization to conduct my project for improvement and identifying the stakeholders consists of five steps. The first step is project mobilization during the start-up phase (Abramov et al., 2020). This step will review background material, carry out the project planning, and conduct meetings with the organization’s stakeholders to discuss the project approach. Phase one data collection is the next step I will use in assessing the Prime Healthcare Organization. This step will give a holistic and big-picture assessment of the Prime Healthcare Organization. It will involve working together with the organization’s leaders and identifying the key stakeholders interviewed. The interview will be developed based on the Prime Healthcare Organization systems model, and it will investigate areas such as the external environment, mission, vision, and strategy. Leadership and the organizational culture. The collected data will then be analyzed to identify the opportunities for improvement.
The thirds step is phase two data collection. This step will involve gathering data collection on the identified key issues to understand the key issue areas, which will offer guidance on developing alternatives and solutions for addressing the problems. The fourth step will involve analyzing and identifying strategic changes that can be implemented in the organization (Lombardi et al., 2020). The strategic changes will be based on the key findings and collaborative approach between the stakeholders (Karakolias et al., 2018). The last step in the process of organization assessment is action planning. In this step, I will develop action plans which will help to address the practice problem. It will also involve evaluation to review the plan that I want to implement.
The ultimate goal for the project is to ensure that the organization has enough staff in all its hospitals to prevent the shortage of nurses. The second goal is for the organization to collaborate with schools to ensure that the organization acquires the top talented nurses to deliver quality care to patients and meet the needs of all students. The mission for Prime Healthcare is to ensure the delivery of compassionate, quality care to patients and better healthcare to communities. The project’s goals relate to this vision by ensuring enough nurses to offer compassionate care and quality care. Quality care is achieved through the acquisition of top talent from nursing colleges.
Organizational assessment is important for all organizations because it allows nurses to assess an organization to identify the opportunities for improvement in healthcare settings. One of the practice problems affecting the Prime Healthcare Organization is nurse shortages. The process that I will follow to identify opportunities for improvement consists of project mobilization, data collection, analysis and identification of strategic changes, and action planning. The project’s goals are related to the mission of Prime Healthcare since it ensures that there are a sufficient number of nurses to provide compassionate and quality care to patients.
References
Abramov, A. U., Goloshchapov-Aksenov, R. S., Semenov, V. Y., Kicha, D. I., & Rukodaynyy, O. V. (2020). Clinical and organizational assessment of endovascular care accessibility at the regional level., 28(4), 596-599.
Karakolias, S., Dikeos, C., Kastanioti, C., & Polyzos, N. (2018). Application of an organizational assessment tool of primary health care. ARCHIVES OF HELLENIC MEDICINE, 35(4), 497-505.
Lombardi, L. C., Wallach MD, A. B., & Wilson MBA, P. A. (2020). The use of organizational assessments in improving patient and staff experiences in the ambulatory care setting. Patient Experience Journal, 7(3), 254-256.
Week 3
The success of any project depends on the ability of a project manager to understand what is needed to be done to achieve the objectives and goals in a project and map out how to get there. A good project manager must stay on track all the time for the project’s success regardless of the size of the project. The best way to stay on track all the time in a project is through developing and defining the scope of a project (Planview, 2021)Week 7: Assignment: Reflection on Learning. Developing and defining the project scope is the first step of the project planning process. Developing project scope involves drawing up a list of all the things required to create the framework of the project. Some of the project scope features include functions, deliverables, features, costs, deadlines, and project goals. A good project manager must understand project objectives, what the project is expected to produce, limitations, assumptions, dependencies before deciding on the project execution process. The following are some of the importance of project scope management.
Reports show that project managers are faced with difficult times managing the expectations of clients and stakeholders. However, with a comprehensive scope, project managers can stay on track throughout the project’s life cycle. According to the study conducted by Elizabeth & Richard (2009), distinct project scope can help project managers avoid budget overrunning, requirements that constantly change, the final result being substandard, and requirements that need a rethink mid-project. Elizabeth & Richard (2009) further established that having a clearly defined scope can help project managers avoid these issues because they will communicate the scope to all parties involved in the project. Moreover, scope management helps establish control factors necessary in addressing elements that result in changes during the project’s life cycle.
The issues that occur during a project are frequently related to the scope due to various reasons. First, the common problems during a project include budget overrunning, poor project scheduling, constantly changing requirements, and requirements that need a rethink mid-project. These are issues that are associated with the project scope. They are caused by a lack of clarity in documentation, poorly defined initial requirements, lack of proper requirement analysis, and lack of planning. According to Planview (2021), many issues are usually associated with scope creep because they are issues that can be avoided by proper scope management. The issues associated with project failure are caused by scope creep, and if they are adequately addressed during scope development, most of them can be avoided.
The success of any project relies on the ability of a project manager to create a detailed project scope statement. A good project scope statement outlines the goals, deadlines, and relationships that shape the project. Including specific elements in the scope, statement helps reduce the risk of change orders and disruptions. It also helps project managers to stay on the project throughout the project life cycle. Some of the scope statement elements include a project description, business case, success criteria, project limitations, and assumptions (Roberg, 2020). However, if these elements are not incorporated in the project scope statement, a project is likely to fail or develop problems. Poor project scope statements can result in missed deadlines, budget overruns, or project failure. Poor project scope statements can require the project manager to incur extra budget and resources, undermining the project manager’s ability to deliver on target.
In conclusion, this paper has discussed the importance of project scope management, elements of project scope and project scope statement, and why many project issues are inked to project scope. Finally, this paper has examined elements of the project scope statement and its significance in the success of a project.
References
Elizabeth, L., & Richard, L., (2009). Top Five Causes of Scope Creep and what to do about them. Conference Paper. Retrieved from https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/top-five-causes-scope-creep-6675 (Links to an external site.)
Planview (2021). Why project scope is so important. Retrieved from https://www.clarizen.com/project-scope-important/
Roberg, O., (2020). The impact of scope management on project success. Retrieved from https://www.safran.com/blog/why-scope-management-is-essential-for-project-success
Week 4
Managing a project is one of the roles and responsibilities of DNP-prepared nurses. Reports indicate that managing a project is not an easy task. It involves various stages, including project planning, initiation, execution, monitoring, controlling, and closing. Any successful project should involve these stages (Henkel et al., 2019). The DNP-prepared nurse requires an accurate scope statement to understand critical aspects of a project such as budgeting, resources, scheduling, and project team. This paper aims to discuss various aspects of project management, including the significance of the project team and why it should be initiated early before the project execution. The following are some of the components of the project implementation plan and the responsibilities of a project manager. Included are the project implementation plan and cultural barriers to project implementation.
Axelsson & Granath, (2018) found that identifying stakeholders in the early stages of the project make stakeholders to become a practical part of the effort. Effective participation helps bring more ideas to the table, including diverse perspectives from different stakeholders. Other benefits of identifying stakeholders in early stages include assisting the project team gain buy-in and support from stakeholders. It makes stakeholders an integral part of the execution and planning process (Caldera et al., 2019). It helps project managers to bring stakeholders to the table where concerns can be discussed and addressed collaboratively and resolved. Moreover, identifying stakeholders in the early stages helps increase the project team’s trust and strengthens the project team’s position, which is essential in improving project success.
In my organization, the following are some of the cultural barriers that may undermine the success of a project. They include language, stereotypes and prejudice, behavior, and beliefs. A diverse workforce is one of the issues in my organization. In my organization, the project team speaks various languages. This can cause a myriad of misunderstandings between the project team. Language is a significant cultural barrier in my organization (Haughey, 2018) Week 7: Assignment: Reflection on Learning. It is a barrier to cross-cultural communication. Verbal communication is essential when talking about a project. However, there is a high chance that words’ meanings can get lost in translation. If one person doesn’t understand the importance of comment, they can misinterpret or misunderstand, leading to conflicting bias.
Stereotypes and prejudice, which involve negative images notions about specific communities or cultures, are another significant cultural barrier that can undermine the project’s success in my organization (Behera et al., 2018). Prejudice and stereotypes cause judgmental attitudes towards one another and, as a result, may derail project success.
In addition, differences in behavior and personality such as gestures, body language, communication, manners, mindset, and norms may lead to miscommunication. The differences in religious beliefs and spiritual beliefs can also lead to conflict and cross-cultural ideas.
The implementation plan for my project will involve the following steps. First, I will identify and approve the areas of interest. Approval helps to obtain the consent of the authorities concerned. Next, I will write a proposal and create a project timeline. Before executing the plan, I will make sure I obtain approval from the institutional review board if my project involves the use of human or animal specimen. Other steps will include selecting the project team early and identifying cultural barriers that might undermine my project implementation and success. Writing the project scope statement will be the first approach to implementing the project. The project scope is provided details about the project. It contains the budget allocation, scheduling, resources, and project team. The success of any project must involve these features. They are the main components of the strategic plan.
References
Axelsson, K., & Granath, M. (2018). Stakeholders’ stake and relation to smartness in smart city development: Insights from a Swedish city planning project. Government Information Quarterly, 35(4), 693-702.
Caldera, H. T. S., Desha, C., & Dawes, L. (2019). Evaluating the enablers and barriers for successful implementation of sustainable business practice in ‘lean’SMEs. Journal of Cleaner Production, 218, 575-590.
Behera, P., Mohanty, R. P., & Prakash, A. (2018). An investigation of implementation issues, process phases and knowledge areas of project management in the performance of construction supply chains. International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, 10(2), 137-157.
Haughey, D. (2018). The role of the project manager. Project Smart, faculty. northseattle. edu.
Henkel, T. G., Marion Jr, J. W., & Bourdeau, D. T. (2019). Project manager leadership behavior: Task-oriented versus relationship-oriented. Journal of Leadership Education, 18(2), 1.
Week 5
The topic of my DNP project is the retention of nurses in the Labor and Delivery Arena. Nurse retention is a growing concern in many healthcare organizations. Reports indicate that nurse turnover is a significant challenge in the healthcare sector. According to the American Nurses Association report issued in 2015, nurses in the L&D arena are characterized by high turnover compared to nurses in other departments. Concerns over the L&D nurses was heightened during the times of nurse shortages. In many organizations, nurse turnover heightened as a result of the challenges imposed by the covid-19 pandemic in healthcare organizations, economic and non-economic sources. My project focuses on preventing nurse turnover and ensuring that nurses are kept in the organization’s employees. Retaining an adequate number of nurses in the labor and delivery arena is important because it helps provide safe healthcare to patients and reduces the over-burdening of existing staff with increased workloads and demands. This paper seeks to discuss the criteria I will use to measure retaining nurses in the labor and delivery arena.
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The analysis of nurse turnover in my organization will help me determine the success of my project. To determine whether nurse retention is a success, it is essential to look at the number of nurses quitting the work and compare it with the previous data (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2021). For my project, I will compare nurse turnover before the start of the project, during and after the implementation of the project. This will help me to determine the success of the project. If nurse turnover increases, the conclusion would be that the plan has failed or the procedure used to implement it was wrong.
Some of the factors that may lead to increased nurse turnover include lack of motivation, lack of education and training opportunities, and poor working environment. When nurses lack fulfillment in their work, they tend to become less attached to their organizations and instead seek to work in an alternative workplace. Also, lack of accomplishment makes nurses in the labor and delivery arena less competent in their work.
Another strategy I will use to measure the project’s success is analyzing the loss and profit of nursing capital. The success of nurse retention is characterized by high nursing capital. The recruitment process is expensive. It involves the use of nursing capital. However, when an organization experiences low turnover and high retention rates, it will spend human capital on other activities such as training, education, and compensation (Westland, 2015) Week 7: Assignment: Reflection on Learning.
I will review the project specification which include the resources needed, budget and deadlines. Reviewing the project specification will help me to determine whether the project has successfully met its objectives. Finally, I will gather the feedback of the nurses working in the labor and delivery arena to have a conversation with them about my project or how it matches their expectations.
Staying within the project is one of the most important factors in managing a project (Joseph, 2019). This will help me to meet schedule requirements because I will be able to compare the projected completion of each project task against the actual dates of completion. Moreover, I will ensure budget compliance to measure the project’s success.
Finally, I will review the team satisfaction by considering the team’s ability to adapt and creatively solve problems to mean a project’s success. I will determine quality measures to assess how the project can improve or work upon delivery.
References
Joseph, M., (2019). How to evaluate evidence-based practice project in nursing. The nursing ace. Retrieved from https://thenursingace.com/how-to-evaluate-evidence-based-practice-project-in-nursing/ (Links to an external site.)
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2021). The future of nursing 2020-2030.
Westland, J. (2015). 5 ways to measure project success. Project Manager. Retrieved from https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/5-ways-to-measure-project-success
Week 6
My project is to retain nurses working in the labor and delivery arena. The implementation of this project will require various resources. Implementing this project in the Lenox Hill organization requires material and human resources. According to some sources, there is a major decline in nurses working under delivery and labor arena in the healthcare organizations in the United States. In Lenox Hill, there is a need for retaining nurses working in the labor and delivery arena following the increasing population of birth rates, the effects of the pandemic that has reduced the number of patients that nurses can serve in a day, and the need for more nurses to work in the new facilities. The organization has also experienced a significant decline in the quality of service delivered to its patients. The decline in healthcare services’ quality is prompted by the low number of nurses working in the labor and delivery arena. This has led to increased deaths of unborn babies and expectant mothers. It has also undermined the organization’s financial strength due to low patient return rate, lack f patient satisfaction, poor reputation, and low returns. The following are some of the resources needed to implement the proposed project effectively.
The implementation process of the proposed project is scheduled to take six months. First, the implementation process will require 20 staff responsible for training the new retained nurses on their roles, how to use various machines, the organizational structure and chain of command, and the orientation to the new nurses. The first month will educate the staff members selected to assist in the program each day; each member will be paid 10,000 dollars. The departments in the new facility include the outpatient department, labor room, operation theatre, and NICU (Giménez Keith & Prior, 2019). The materials and supplies needed for these departments include a vacuum apparatus, shadowless lamp, anesthesia machine, Fatal Monitor, pulse oximeter, oxygen cylinder, radiant warmer, ultrasound machine, fetal doppler, and operation table. The meeting room will be needed to educate and train the staff.
Expenses
Resource/material unit cost
- Staff 20 10,000x20x6=1200000
- Meeting room 1 5000
- Vacuum apparatus 3 2000×3=6000
- Shadowless lamp 4 1000×4= 4000
- Pulse oximeter 5 2000×5 =10000
- Anesthesia machine 1 50000
- Fetal dropper 1 10000
- Operation table 1 2000
- Oxygen cylinder 1 2000
- Ultrasound machine 1 100000
Total expense $ 1800000
Sources of revenue
Lenox Hill hospital has various sources that it uses to get revenue. The organization has a wide customer segment. It serves over 300,000 patients annually. The organization charges $500 per delivery. The organization also enjoys in-kind donations from various nonprofit organizations and NGOs, which helps it run its affairs. These organizations also donate materials and equipment required in the labor rooms. The doner organization provides up to half the total cost to put up new labor facilities. Moreover, the organization receives funding from the federal government amounting to $500,000 for every new facility that the organization is putting up.
Source unit $ cost
- Billing 300000 500×300000=1500000
- Donations 600,000
- Federal grants 2000000
Total $2300000
To get the income of the organization after the program has been implemented, we subtract expenses (1800000) from the revenue (2300000). The income value will be $500000. This shows that the organization will strengthen its financial muscle through the proposed project following the massive income it projects to generate from the project.
Reference
Giménez, V., Keith, J. R., & Prior, D. (2019). Do healthcare financing systems influence hospital efficiency? A metafrontier approach for the case of Mexico. Health care management science, 22(3), 549-559. Week 7: Assignment: Reflection on Learning.
