NR 532 Week 3 Assignment
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 the 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
- Recruitment pool has diminished by 40% from 60 to 24 people: Inability to recruit newly graduated or experienced nurses due to 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
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.
