Strategic Planning Assignment: Sunset Harbor Medical Center

Scenario:

Sunset Harbor Medical Center is a nonprofit regional healthcare system that provides hospital care for a five-county rural area. Its vision and mission are:

Vision: Sunset Harbor Medical Center envisions a community in which all its citizens live healthy lives to their optimal level of well-being across their lifespan. We work in partnership with our valued patients as creators of a healthy and thriving community.

Mission: To provide comprehensive, quality, and safe healthcare to the citizens of the Gulf coast region through collaborative and evidence-based best practices and innovative modalities of care. We are committed to making your healthcare experience extraordinary from your point of first contact to beyond discharge.

The recent global healthcare crisis created an enormous strain on hospital nurse staffing across the country. The nursing shortage that began with the crisis has progressed over the past twelve months. Sunset Harbor used agency nurses during the height of the crisis, but now it has reached a critical point, and the hospital is facing the possibility of unit closures. The following conditions now exist at Sunset Harbor.

Retention rates have decreased by 15% from 70% to 55%: In addition to some nurses taking early retirement, others are leaving due to poor patient-staff ratios and unsafe working conditions.
Recruitment pool has diminished by 40% from 60 to 24 people: Inability to recruit newly graduated or experienced nurses due to a short supply of qualified applicants.
New market competition: A state-of-the-art healthcare facility opened recently within 50 miles of Sunset Harbor offering sign-on bonuses and certification training for nurses desiring to specialize in certain clinical areas.
As the Chief Nursing Officer, you know that these contributing factors for the nursing shortage are integral to one another and that addressing one could have a positive collateral effect on the others. You also know that the response to an intervention may take some time due to the pervasiveness of the nursing shortages across the area.

For this assignment, however, you will select one of the above factors contributing to the nursing shortage at Sunset Harbor and create a strategic plan aligned with the vision and mission of the medical center to address it. Your strategic plan will include all phases of the process and all the elements outlined under the Requirements section. For areas of the assignment needing data, such as the SWOT analysis, use your own facility’s location for context and data gathering.

Follow the outline given to ensure all components are addressed.

Requirements
Use the following format outline/template for your paper to complete your assignment. Bold-type is used here for emphasis only. Follow the guidelines for use of bold type and headings using the most current edition of the APA manual. Notice there is NO HEADING for the introductory paragraph.

Strategic Planning Assignment

Overview of scenario
Statement of paper’s purpose
Identify the selected issue and initiative to address it

Strategic Plan

Phase I: Environmental Scanning

S.W.O.T analysis
Organizational Environment

Phase II: Strategic Vision and Mission

Vision statement for the initiative specifically stated
Describe two ways the strategy aligns with the organization’s vision
Mission statement for the initiative specifically stated
Describe two ways the strategy aligns with the organization’s mission

Phase III: Strategic Plan Development

Plan development team/stakeholders
Action plan
One Long-term objective
One Short -term objective
Needed resources and potential budget items

Phase IV: Implementation

Communication of plan to staff, including the length of time
Department or unit S.M.A.R.T goal
Potential revisions to policy and procedures

Phase V. Monitoring Progress

What will be reviewed?
Who will review?
How often will review occur?

Conclusion

A restatement of the paper’s purpose
Overview of the issue and recap of what was accomplished

A minimum of three (3) scholarly sources, no older than 5 years, must be used for the paper. These should be relevant to nursing and should represent most of the evidence provided in the paper. Other sources, such as textbooks, may be used in addition to these; however, they will not be counted as part of the scholarly source requirement.
The paper should contain all elements required under the requirements and provided by the outline.
The outline provided should be followed for organizing the paper Remember, the introduction does not have a heading.
Paper length is 4-5 pages, excluding title and reference pages.
Microsoft (MS) Word is required for completing the assignment per Chamberlain policy. The paper should be written in the third person, in active voice.
The assignment is graded on the quality of written communication using standard English grammar, sentence structure, use of scholarly evidence, and organization based on the required components. Quality is also measured by the completeness of the required content elements of the assignment.
Assignment Criteria
Category Points % Description
Introduction 20 10%
Overview of scenario
Statement of paper’s purpose
Selected issue and intervention to address it are specifically