Strategic Plan: Resources for Professional Development Plan
When building a strategic plan for a professional development program it is important to have support, time, people, understand financial constraints and determine if the educational needs to develop staff are being addressed. The purpose of LMC’s strategic plan is to balance the organization with the external environment, and maintain a balance for an extended amount of time (Marquis, & Huston, 2012). This balance will be achieved through the evaluation of the program and services while keeping the facility to its maximizing performance capabilities (Laureate Education, 2013). To attain optimal functioning, there must be flexibility and adjustments made to the strategic plan, its finances, personnel, or time constraints (Sare, & Ogilvie, 2010). As leaders we have a responsibility to continuously evaluate and collect data in order to make decisions on the strategic plan, and the resources.
Tools used to develop a strategic plan
The tool used alongside the capital budgeting analysis will be profit and loss projection tool. This tool is imperative to this project plan because it will make certain the losses and profits that ought to be anticipated by LMC prior to implementing their plan. In essence, to ensure that profit and loss projection is made appropriately, the use of a basic spreadsheet will be essential. It will be much easier to establish the profits and losses that are to be anticipated come the futures subsequent to implementing the plan (Publishing, 2013). The data used in executing the analysis will be retrieved from the inventory record of the hospital as it relates to future expectations of the plan.
As per the results of the analysis, a particular amount of money in the form of cash and liquid securities will be required. The resources that will be should be secured prior to implementing the plan. Considering that this plan entails training employees in a bid to improve their quality performance hence reinstating their flow of reimbursements. Resources required to execute this plan will be acquired from sponsors and limiting the amount cash spent in some sectors. Particularly, considering that training staff members to become more acquainted with high standards level of service will be beneficial to their career in the aftermath. Trainings will be offered at a fee that can be afforded by all the staff. It will reduce the cost incurred during the project now that reimbursements have been cut. To avoid financial constraints consequent to implementing this plan, the use of credit lines will be particularly essential.
People
The continuous nursing retention issue at LMC is due to the lack of the clinical pathway of a professional development program for staff. The personnel needed to accomplish this will be a large number of human resources to be successful. Each department will need to choose a minimum of six preceptors to cover developing staff on all shifts. To create consistency, preceptors will have to go through training. Choosing preceptors who thrive when teaching others is important. LMC has a formal eight-hour course through house educators that all preceptors have to attend prior to preceding others. After three years of experience, anyone can apply to become a preceptor if the department director signs off on the application process. The staff in units needs to be reminded that investing in their colleagues will improve the unit, and patient care in the end.
Financial
Creating a budget needs to involve those who are responsible for adhering to it, and implementing the objectives (Black, 2010). The first step in developing a professional development plan will be to create a budget, and write it down. Putting the budget into writing will allow the possibility of a measurement tool so monitoring progress of the program can occur. LMC belongs to a large hospital corporation in the healthcare industry. The need to retain nurses for financial reasons has been recognized due to the high turnover rate, and financial impact it has caused. Shortages in units are creating heavier workloads, and unsatisfied patients due to the lack of care occurring. The professional development program has not been implemented, so there is no historical data available to create a strategic plan (Marquis, & Huston, 2012). It will be important to determine the average length of development and education each staff member will require.
The initial education will be a minimum of sixteen hours of classroom time and will have a budget of $500,000.00 for the staff. The consulting firm budget has been set for $80,000 over a three-month period. Once the training is complete, using resources to continue to develop the staff on their new skills will have to be budgeted within each unit’s yearly budget. The financial requirements for each staff member and resources have to be considered prior to the strategic plan and LMC’s investment. The large financial investment to develop the staff professionally has been proven to be more cost-effective. Then the cost of continuous nurse turnover that averages $45,000.00 per nurse due to no growth opportunities professionally (Jones, & Gates, 2012).
Time
The commitment and time to follow through the professional development program in each unit needs to be a requirement, and priority of the unit nurse leaders. By using a PERT (program evaluation review technique) analysis the activities of the professional development program can be designed. It has the following benefits: 1) easy to plan, 2) critical path is slow, 3) there is reduction of project uncertainty, 4) accurate completion dates are determined, and 5) it manages resources to their full potential.
Summary
For the professional development program to be successful continuous evaluation of resources will be required (Laureate Education, 2013). By investing in the program through financial, personnel, and time resource it will allow the strategic plan to sustain over an extended amount of time. The internal stakeholders will be crucial for the professional development program to work, and the nursing retention to take place. To establish the required financial resources for the proposed plan, the use of capital budgeting analysis and profit and loss projection tools were employed. Resources required to execute this plan will be acquired from sponsors and limiting the amount cash spent in some sectors.
Timeline for the Implementation: PERT Analysis
The chart incorporated in PERT analysis as illustrated in the hereunder defines the sequence of events that will be executed consequent to the implementation of the plan. At the onset, as per the illustration, the plan will establish its main objective, the main objective as from the chart above is to improve the quality of patients through professional development of staff. Subsequently, after defining the main objective, the next step is to define the partial objectives. From the chart above, the partial objectives at the second stage of program implementation include staff education and improving the quality of services. Apparently, educating staff will entail achieving a particular outcome, in most cases education staff improves many aspects that will in particular increase productivity and quality services. Considering that the main objective of this plan is to improve the quality of patients, knowledge taught will particularly focus on ways that LMNC can improve the quality in regards to their patients.
References
References
Laureate Education (Producer). (2013h). Timeline tools (Video file). Retrieved from
http://class.waldenu.edu.
Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2012). Leadership roles and management functions in
Nursing: Theory and application (Laureate Education, custom ed.). Philadelphia,
PA: Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins.
Publishing, O. E. C. D. (2013). OECD Journal on Budgeting, Volume 2012 Supplement 1. Paris:
OECD Publishing.
Sare, M. V., & Ogilvie, L. (2010). Strategic planning for nurses: Change management in
Health care. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Swansburg, R. C. (2007). Budgeting and financial management for nurse managers. Boston:
Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
