Strategic Planning and Nursing Process
Strategic Planning and Nursing Process
Amanda Otten
HCS/482
January 11, 2016
Strategic planning and the nursing process have many similarities, however strategic planning has the potential to affect how nurses perform in profound ways. As the integration of technology and informatics, takes hold in healthcare settings nurses can help use their knowledge of the nursing process to develop a strategic plan to best incorporate this emerging technology. The goal of this paper is to compare the nursing process and the strategic planning process, as well as nurses’ role in both processes.
Comparison
“The nursing process is a scientific method used by nurses to ensure the quality of patient care” (Nursing Process, 2014, para 1). The nursing process helps nurses develop a plan to guide patient care through assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation. Similarly, strategic planning is a method to design a comprehensive plan to guide an organization’s operations. Strategic planning has many of the same steps as the nursing process; assessment, analysis and identification of potential solutions, course of action, implementation, and evaluation/feedback (Hebda & Czar, 2013).
While the nursing process focuses on a single patient’s goals, strategic planning focuses on organizational goals. The nursing process often involves a nurse and a patient, however strategic planning affects a variety of internal and external customers. “The creation of a strategic plan allows endless possibilities for stretching the vision for nursing” (Drenkard, 2012, p. 243). As strategic planning advances toward the incorporation of informatics to help reduce medical errors, the nursing process will be affected by the integration of new technology.
Nurses’ Role
The roles of nurses in informatics strategic planning and the nursing process are similar in that they involve many of the...