NUR-495 course

During the NUR-495 course, you will actively engage in strategically planning for and managing a planned change project within the scope of your current professional role.  For this field-based project, you will identify a specific problem or need to serve as the foundation for a faculty-guided capstone experience.  Project-related experiences are integrated throughout the course, and will involve application of strategic planning and project management processes.

For the purpose of your coursework, application of the strategic planning and project management processes is broken down into six distinct phases in order to integrate the assessment components throughout the eight workshops.

In this discussion, you will share the initial strategic plan for your capstone project, and learn more about your role as the project manager.  You will apply concepts learned in NUR-415 and Discussion 1.2 through the identification of a specific problem statement or statement of need, along with the background to support the need for change which you are proposing.  You will revisit the work you initiated in Discussion 1.2 and identify a specific outcome for the capstone project as well as activities, a timeline, and a plan for evaluation.

Upon successful completion of the course material, you will be able to:

• Construct a strategic plan to guide the capstone project.

Resources

• Textbook: Fundamentals of Project Management
• File: Strategic Planning Tool.docx
• File: Strategic Planning Tool Resource.docx

Background Information

As discussed in Discussion 1.2, the planned change process is rather iterative in nature, with dynamics that are organic rather than static.  For this reason, we tend to think of a planned change project as a work in continual process.  With each workshop, you will polish and fine-tune aspects of your plan as part of the learning process.  Each facet of the planned change process will be unpacked, examined, and critically applied to your capstone project.  As you advance in the course, each workshop will bring an opportunity to carefully reflect upon and streamline your work.  When the capstone course ends, your final project documentation will accurately articulate the planned change process that you have created and managed.

Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.
2. In the textbook, Fundamentals of Project Management, review chapters 3,18, 28, & 30.
3. Revisit your Strategic Plan assignment from the NUR-415 course or your new plan under development in Discussion 1.2.  Your project must be patient-focused and include a goal to improve patient outcomes.  Your assessment of the problem  and feasibility of a solution must include direct input from patients or recipients of care (survey results, comments, interviews, patient data, etc).  Review chapter 22 in the textbook, Leading and Managing in Nursing (Yoder-Wise, 2019) regarding patient-centered care.
4. Download the Strategic Planning Tool Resource.docx file.  Review this document before completing your Strategic Planning Tool document.
5. Download the Strategic Planning Tool.docx file.
6. Complete your strategic plan according to the following instructions. 
   1. Using the Strategic Planning Tool.docx, update/adapt your strategic plan from NUR-415, or your new plan under development in Discussion 1.2 that meets the criteria listed above, to reflect the following components in a succinct manner:
      1. Clearly defined need or problem statement to be addressed through the planned change process
      2. Background support to validate the need (minimum of three scholarly sources current within the last five years)
      3. Desired SMART patient care focused outcome for the planned change capstone project
      4. Specific activities/action plan (to correspond with the outcome) that will facilitate achieving the outcome, along with a time frame for implementation (project scope of eight weeks)
      5. Evaluation plan corresponding with the SMART, patient care focused outcome to define specifically how achievement of the outcome will be determined