Strategic Planning Assignment

Strategic Planning Assignment

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Week 5: Strategic Planning
“For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” –African proverb

As this course has emphasized, healthcare leaders and managers typically have oversight of a vast array of responsibilities and outcomes. Like a general of an army or a physician helping a patient through a long-term disease, they must demonstrate that they can make critical day-to-day decisions, but they must also have a vision for a better future for those they serve. In healthcare management, that vision can best be achieved through planning involving a strategic process and group of stakeholders.

Healthcare leaders need to know how to ensure that their organizations succeed for the long term, and to anticipate market forces and policy and funding changes, among other challenges. In strategic planning, the process is as important as the plan itself.

This week, you will explore various aspects of strategic planning. You will examine challenges related to strategic planning in healthcare settings, the roles of stakeholders and healthcare leaders in the process, and components and goals of successful strategic plans.

Learning Objectives
Students will:
Analyze stakeholder roles in meeting strategic planning challenges
Analyze the role of healthcare leaders and managers in meeting the needs of stakeholders and the goals of the organization through strategic planning
Identify the components and goals of a successful strategic plan
Compare goals and strategies of strategic plans
Analyze barriers to successful strategic planning implementation
Learning Resources
Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.
Required Readings
Course Text: Buchbinder, S. B., & Shanks, N. H. (2017). Introduction to health care management (3rd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
Chapter 5, “Strategic Planning” (pp. 107–123)
In this chapter, you will be introduced to the strategic planning process within healthcare settings. The author provides insight into the process of identifying a desired future state for a healthcare organization and planning as a means to achieve it.
Last Chance Hospital—Case or Chapters 5 and 6 (pp. 536–537)
Article: Javanparast, S., Freeman, T., Baum, F., Ziersch, A., Mackean, T., Labonte, R., & Sanders, D. (n.d). How institutional forces, ideas and actors shaped population health planning in Australian regional primary health care organisations. BMC Public Health, 18. doi:10.1186/s12889-018-5273-4

Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.

This article features a look at collaborative healthcare planning for population health programs in Australia.
Required Media
Laureate Education (Producer) (2014c). Strategic planning [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
The approximate length of this media piece is 4 minutes.
This media features public health leaders discussing various roles, informal and formal, in strategic planning.
Note: You may view this Course Video in the streaming Media Player below or attached and/or linked above with each resource listed. As a reminder, additional Learning Resources for the week are listed below the Media Player. Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to view the complete list of Required and/or Optional Resources.
If you experience technical difficulties viewing the Course Media through the Media Player, please contact your Student Support Team at 1-800-WALDENU or support@waldenu.edu
Discussion: Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance
The six Ps in the title of this Discussion, “Prior Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance,” indicate the value of planning. When healthcare leaders and managers carefully plan their goals and strategies for the long-term as well as the short-term and involve the right stakeholders and fully understand their perspectives, this helps the organization be more strategic in attaining its current and future goals.

To prepare for this Discussion:

Consider the role of the healthcare manager or leader in strategic planning in healthcare settings.
Review the case study provided in your course text: Last Chance Hospital.
By Day 4
Post a comprehensive response to the following:

Using specific examples and support from the case study provided in your Learning Resources, describe the main challenges related to strategic planning in Last Chance Hospital and explain why they are challenges.
Identify the key stakeholders in the case study. Then, explain the role, if any, each might take in strategic planning and why.
Explain the role of a healthcare leader or manager in meeting the needs of the various stakeholders, as well as meeting the goals of the strategic plan and organization.

Strategic Planning Assignment

Strategic Planning Assignment

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.