Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
The Quadruple Aim provides broad categories of goals to pursue to maintain and improve healthcare. Within each goal are many issues that, if addressed successfully, may have a positive impact on outcomes. For example, healthcare leaders are being tasked to shift from an emphasis on disease management often provided in an acute care setting to health promotion and disease prevention delivered in primary care settings. Efforts in this area can have significant positive impacts by reducing the need for primary healthcare and by reducing the stress on the healthcare system.
Changes in the industry only serve to stress what has always been true; namely, that the healthcare field has always faced significant challenges, and that goals to improve healthcare will always involve multiple stakeholders. This should not seem surprising given the circumstances. Indeed, when a growing population needs care, there are factors involved such as the demands of providing that care and the rising costs associated with healthcare. Generally, it is not surprising that the field of healthcare is an industry facing multifaceted issues that evolve over time.
In this module’s Discussion, you reviewed some healthcare issues/stressors and selected one for further review. For this Assignment, you will consider in more detail the healthcare issue/stressor you selected. You will also review research that addresses the issue/stressor and write a white paper to your organization’s leadership that addresses the issue/stressor you selected.
To Prepare:
• Review the national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the Resources and reflect on the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for study.
• Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post for the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected.
• Identify and review two additional scholarly resources (not included in the Resources for this module) that focus on change strategies implemented by healthcare organizations to address your selected national healthcare issue/stressor.
The Assignment (3-4 Pages):
Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
Develop a 3- to 4-page paper, written to your organization’s leadership team, addressing your selected national healthcare issue/stressor and how it is impacting your work setting. Be sure to address the following:
• Describe the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and its impact on your organization. Use organizational data to quantify the impact (if necessary, seek assistance from leadership or appropriate stakeholders in your organization).
• Provide a brief summary of the two articles you reviewed from outside resources on the national healthcare issue/stressor. Explain how the healthcare issue/stressor is being addressed in other organizations.
• Summarize the strategies used to address the organizational impact of national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the scholarly resources you selected. Explain how they may impact your organization both positively and negatively. Be specific and provide examples.
Looking Ahead
The paper you develop in Module 1 will be revisited and revised in Module 2. Review the Assignment instructions for Module 2 to prepare for your revised paper.
Required Readings
Broome, M., & Marshall, E. S. (2021). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Springer.
• Chapter 2, “Transformational Leadership: Complexity, Change, and Strategic Planning” (pp. 34–62)
• Chapter 3, “Current Challenges in Complex Health Care Organizations and the Quadruple Aim” (pp. 66–97)
Read any TWO of the following (plus TWO additional readings on your selected issue):
Auerbach, D. I., Staiger, D. O., & Buerhaus, P. I. (2018). Growing ranks of advanced practice clinicians—Implications for the physician workforce. New England Journal of Medicine, 378(25), 2358–2360. doi:10.1056/NEJMp1801869
Gerardi, T., Farmer, P., & Hoffman, B. (2018). Moving closer to the 2020 BSN-prepared workforce goal. American Journal of Nursing, 118(2), 43–45.
Jacobs, B., McGovern, J., Heinmiller, J., & Drenkard, K. (2018). Engaging employees in well-being: Moving from the Triple Aim to the Quadruple Aim. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 42(3), 231–245.
Norful, A. A., de Jacq, K., Carlino, R., & Poghosyan, L. (2018). Nurse practitioner–physician comanagement: A theoretical model to alleviate primary care strain. Annals of Family Medicine, 16(3), 250–256.
Palumbo, M., Rambur, B., & Hart, V. (2017). Is health care payment reform impacting nurses’ work settings, roles, and education preparation? Journal of Professional Nursing, 33(6), 400–404.
Park, B., Gold, S. B., Bazemore, A., & Liaw, W. (2018). How evolving United States payment models influence primary care and its impact on the Quadruple Aim. Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 31(4), 588–604.
Pittman, P., & Scully-Russ, E. (2016). Workforce planning and development in times of delivery system transformation. Human Resources for Health, 14(56), 1–15. doi:10.1186/s12960-016-0154-3. Retrieved from
https://human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12960-016-0154-3
Poghosyan, L., Norful, A., & Laugesen, M. (2018). Removing restrictions on nurse practitioners’ scope of practice in New York state: Physicians’ and nurse practitioners’ perspectives. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 30(6), 354–360.
Ricketts, T., & Fraher, E. (2013). Reconfiguring health workforce policy so that education, training, and actual delivery of care are closely connected. Health Affairs, 32(11), 1874–1880.
Required Media
Laureate Education (Producer). (2015). Leading in Healthcare Organizations of the Future [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Leading in Health Care Organizations of the Future
Program Transcript
DR. BRENDA FRESHMAN: The issues, the challenges in health care are only
going to get more extreme. So we’re going to need to be informed as to what’s
going on in the industry as well as what’s going on in our organization.
NARRATOR: What can individuals working in health care do to prepare
themselves for the future? Dr. Louis Rubino, Dr. Cecelia Wooden, Dr. Brenda
Freshman, and Kevin Smith share their views on how individuals can further their professional development and maintain their energy and enthusiasm for this work.
DR. LOUIS RUBINO: In order to make sure that somebody’s successful on our
health care industry today and to be able to adapt to the changes that are
occurring, I think the number one step is to be aware. It’s so important to keep
apprised as to what’s happening in regards to the politics in health care reform,
the industry trends, the successes outside of our industry, and how they’re
making those successes. We can all learn from each other. Finding
meaningfulness is so important for people today. We’re not in the stages of the
early 20th century where people went to work and just were there to produce an
income and to do what they were told to do and then to go home and come back
the next day.
The ways that organizations are truly successful and are superior are
organizations that have employees that are committed, committed to the mission and to the values of the organization. And in order to do that, we need to, as leaders, serve the needs of our people in a better way than ever before.
The other thing is just the networking that is needed to be done by these people
in order to find out who are the significant players out there, who are the
stakeholders that are going to make a difference and not stay within your own
particular area of your discipline or your influence.
DR. BRENDA FRESHMAN: I think the most important thing that individuals and leaders can do to address the challenges of the future is develop cultural
competency, develop the ability to take multiple perspectives, develop greater
understanding of the whole system of the organization. And even though I focus
on emotional intelligence and organizational behavior and what’s called the softer side, it’s very important to understand the economics and the accounting and the financial and survival side of the organization.
I think there will be advances in theory– organizational theory– and practice,
organization development, based on the increasing complexities. We talk about
now this concentric circle design of organizational design that we had not talked
about previously. I’m hoping that as we move into the future, we’ll get more
creative in an adaptive, functional way to think of things that we had never
thought of before.
Technology has a role in this. Probably, even within my lifetime, there will be
advances in technology that will help people collaborate better, and I’m hoping be more compassionate and also more aware of the system that they’re working in.
The issues, the challenges in health care, are only going to get more extreme, so
we’re going to need to be informed as to what’s going on in the industry as well
as what’s going on in our organization. So seek opportunities to learn and
educate yourself along the lines of what motivates you. This is where the skill of
self awareness and self motivation come in.
DR. CECELIA WOODEN: An important fundamental belief is that you are in
control of your career. Nobody’s going to be in control of your career like you’re
going to be in control of your career, or should be. Like riding a bicycle. You can
put all kinds of energy into the pedals, but it’s those handlebars that are going to
get you where you want to go.
So at any level in a career, you want to ask yourself two questions. Right now,
where I am in my career, how much technical knowledge should I have, and how much of this leadership management stuff should I be learning. And I always call this leadership mathematics, and what the usual rule of thumb is, early on in your career as an early careerist, 80% of your skills and your skill building ought to be in a technical field. But don’t let that 20% go by the wayside.
Start to think about leadership, start to read about leadership, start to watch
leaders in your organization that you admire. How do they make decisions?
What’s the behavior that makes me drawn to them as a leader? So start your
leadership tool kit by sharpening up your powers of observation. Read to engage
you in the thinking about leadership and the models of leadership that are
available. What’s your theory of leadership? How are you going to let that evolve
over the course of your career?
As you progress through your career to perhaps mid-level, those percentages will change. By mid-level you normally will see about 50% of your skills in the
technical area and the other 50% in the leadership and management area. By
the time you get to be senior executive, the numbers have dramatically shifted.
Most executives will freely admit that only 10% of their skill is in the technical
area and 90% of their skill is in the leadership and people business. The
understanding of motivation and inspiration, and that’s at the leadership levels.
All right, so I’m a leader wanna be, and I’ve done all the things right, I’ve collected data on myself, I’ve sought feedback, I participated in a 360-degree evaluation for my development. I’ve got all this stuff in my toolkit, and now I’ve got to build a house. What order do I use this stuff? How do I integrate everything I’ve learned and everything that I will continue to learn in a meaningful way for me? What kind of risk taker am I? Am I willing to seek help when necessary? Am I willing to find a mentor with whom I can learn where the land mines are? Am I willing to extend myself and put myself in the place of most opportunity even though I may not know what the outcome’s going to be? But it will give me a chance to deploy and practice some of those leadership skills.
Don’t try to deploy them all at once. Work on one at a time. Right now, in your
life, in your position, what would be the one leadership skill that you want to work on? Don’t try to do more than that right now until you get that one down pat.
Decide if it’s listening, decide if it’s been a good questioner, decide if it’s being a
good diagnostician and figuring out what leadership style would be appropriate
for this situation.
So start with baby steps. Pick one leadership skill that you want to work on and
then put yourself in the place of most opportunity.
DR. LOUIS RUBINO: You need to really reach out– all students and early
careerists– to the industry leaders of today. We’re so afraid sometimes to
approach people, and people that are at the end stages of their career that have
accomplished a lot recognize that they have a lot to give and would like to do it,
but sometimes are hesitant to do it, because they’re not asked or because they
feel it might be pushing onto people certain aspects that– it’s almost like an ego
trip for them. And that’s not the case at all.
DR. BRENDA FRESHMAN: I would not be where I am today without the mentors
in my life. So mentorship has been a valuable part of my own professional
development. I think that individuals should– no matter what level they are–
should look for people that they can learn from and develop good relationships
with.
DR. CECELIA WOODEN: Oftentimes when we think about leadership and
people in leadership roles, the question comes up, is there work-life balance?
How do they deal with the demands of work, the stress of work, avoiding burnout in a complex environment like health care? We used to use the terms work-life balance, and now we’re using the terms vitality and velocity. The velocity means, what’s the pace of your work? Are you in your everyday life avoiding burnout and managing stress by actually scheduling time into your appointments, into your day, that are just for you. Schedule it just like a regular meeting. This is the hour that I protect for myself, because I’m going to write my journal, or I’m going to go for a walk around the hospital campus, or I’m going to have a conversation with my life partner.
So in terms of velocity, a good leader will take a measure of themselves– what’s
my capacity for stress– and they’ll balance that out with vitality, but when you
think of the energy that is demanded of a health care leader, there’s likely no
other profession that is 24/7 and dealing with issues as life and death as health
care is.
So the stress that that very profession causes must require somebody to have
exceptional vitality, and we’re finding more and more that in health care
organizations, at hospitals, in clinics, that there are far more employee wellness
programs that are springing up. And so as a leader and wanna be leader, I want
you to think about, what’s my velocity? How much am I working? How do I check my stress level? And then second of all, on the vitality end, what is my
organization offering that I might be able to take advantage of? Am I eating
healthy in the cafeteria? Does the cafeteria have a heart healthy selection? Am I
doing that? Am I taking advantage of the smoking cessation program that my
organization may be sponsoring? Do we have a center– a gym, if you will, that
has equipment that I could work out in?
KEVIN SMITH: The balance is important in life that family, good physical and
emotional health is important, and you can’t get that by pouring 100% of yourself into work, and I think that’s especially important in health care, because of what we ask, in particular, of direct caregivers. They’ve chosen a profession in which they show up for work every day and put incredible amounts of themselves, their emotional goodwill, into people that in many cases they’ve never laid eyes on before.
I don’t believe you can do that without having a source of replenishment
someplace else in your life. So we try to talk about that in our organization, but I
also think in organizations people need to see that you act in a manner that’s
consistent with the way that you talk and the words to speak. So I think what we
try to do is to behave that way, to role model it.
Rubric Detail
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Name: NURS_6053_Module01_Week02_Assignment_Rubric
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• List View
Excellent Good Fair Poor
Develop a 3- to 4-page paper, written to your organization’s leadership team, addressing the selected national healthcare issue/stressor and how it is impacting your work setting. Be sure to address the following:
Describe the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and its impact on your organization. Use organizational data to quantify the impact (if necessary, seek assistance from leadership or appropriate stakeholders in your organization). 23 (23%) – 25 (25%)
The response accurately and thoroughly describes in detail the national healthcare issue/stressor selected and its impact on an organization.
The response includes accurate, clear, and detailed data to quantify the impact of the national healthcare issue/stressor selected. 20 (20%) – 22 (22%)
The response describes the national healthcare issue/stressor selected and its impact on an organization.
The response includes accurate data to quantify the impact of the national healthcare issue/stressor selected. 18 (18%) – 19 (19%)
The response describes the national healthcare issue/stressor selected and its impact on an organization that is vague or inaccurate.
The response includes vague or inaccurate data to quantify the impact of the national healthcare issue/stressor selected. 0 (0%) – 17 (17%)
The response describes the national healthcare issue/stressor selected and its impact on an organization that is vague and inaccurate, or is missing.
The response includes vague and inaccurate data to quantify the impact of the national healthcare issue/stressor selected, or is missing.
· Provide a brief summary of the two articles you reviewed from outside resources, on the national healthcare issue/stressor and explain how the healthcare issue/stressor is being addressed in other organizations. 27 (27%) – 30 (30%)
A complete, detailed, and specific synthesis of two outside resources reviewed on the national healthcare issue/stressor selected is provided. The response fully integrates at least 2 outside resources and 2 or 3 course-specific resources that fully support the summary provided.
The response accurately and thoroughly explains in detail how the healthcare issue/stressor is being addressed in other organizations. 24 (24%) – 26 (26%)
An accurate synthesis of at least one outside resource reviewed on the national healthcare issue/stressor selected is provided. The response integrates at least 1 outside resource and 2 or 3 course-specific resources that may support the summary provided.
The response explains how the healthcare issue/stressor is being addressed in other organizations. 21 (21%) – 23 (23%)
A vague or inaccurate summary of outside resources reviewed on the national healthcare issue/stressor selected is provided. The response minimally integrates resources that may support the summary provided.
The response explains how the healthcare issue/stressor is being addressed in other organizations that is vague or inaccurate. 0 (0%) – 20 (20%)
A vague and inaccurate summary of no outside resources reviewed on the national healthcare issue/stressor selected is provided, or is missing.
The response fails to integrate any resources to support the summary provided.
· Summarize the strategies used to address the organizational impact of national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the scholarly resources you selected and explain how they may impact your organization both positively and negatively. Be specific and provide examples. 27 (27%) – 30 (30%)
A complete, detailed, and accurate summary of the strategies used to address the organizational impact of the national healthcare issue/stressor is provided.
The response accurately and thoroughly explains in detail how the strategies may impact an organization both positively and negatively, with specific and accurate examples. 24 (24%) – 26 (26%)
An accurate summary of the strategies used to address the organizational impact of the national healthcare issue/stressor is provided.
The response explains how the strategies may impact an organization both positively and negatively. May include some specific examples. 21 (21%) – 23 (23%)
A vague or inaccurate summary of the strategies used to address the organizational impact of the national healthcare issue/stressor is provided.
The response explains how the strategies may impact an organization both positively and negatively that is vague or inaccurate. May include some vague or inaccurate examples. 0 (0%) – 20 (20%)
A vague and inaccurate summary of the strategies used to address the organizational impact of the national healthcare issue/stressor is provided, or is missing.
The response explains how the strategies may impact an organization both positively and negatively that is vague and inaccurate, or is missing. Does not include any examples.
Written Expression and Formatting – Paragraph Development and Organization:
Paragraphs make clear points that support well-developed ideas, flow logically, and demonstrate continuity of ideas. Sentences are carefully focused—neither long and rambling nor short and lacking substance. A clear and comprehensive purpose statement and introduction is provided which delineates all required criteria. 5 (5%) – 5 (5%)
Paragraphs and sentences follow writing standards for flow, continuity, and clarity.
A clear and comprehensive purpose statement, introduction, and conclusion is provided which delineates all required criteria. 4 (4%) – 4 (4%)
Paragraphs and sentences follow writing standards for flow, continuity, and clarity 80% of the time.
Purpose, introduction, and conclusion of the assignment is stated, yet is brief and not descriptive. 3.5 (3.5%) – 3.5 (3.5%)
Paragraphs and sentences follow writing standards for flow, continuity, and clarity 60%–79% of the time.
Purpose, introduction, and conclusion of the assignment is vague or off topic. 0 (0%) – 3 (3%)
Paragraphs and sentences follow writing standards for flow, continuity, and clarity < 60% of the time.
No purpose statement, introduction, or conclusion was provided.
Written Expression and Formatting – English writing standards:
Correct grammar, mechanics, and proper punctuation 5 (5%) – 5 (5%)
Uses correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation with no errors. 4 (4%) – 4 (4%)
Contains a few (1 or 2) grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. 3.5 (3.5%) – 3.5 (3.5%)
Contains several (3 or 4) grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. 0 (0%) – 3 (3%)
Contains many (≥ 5) grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors that interfere with the reader’s understanding.
Written Expression and Formatting – The paper follows correct APA format for title page, headings, font, spacing, margins, indentations, page numbers, parenthetical/in-text citations, and reference list. 5 (5%) – 5 (5%)
Uses correct APA format with no errors. 4 (4%) – 4 (4%)
Contains a few (1 or 2) APA format errors. 3.5 (3.5%) – 3.5 (3.5%)
Contains several (3 or 4) APA format errors. 0 (0%) – 3 (3%)
Contains many (≥ 5) APA format errors.
Total Points: 100
Name: NURS_6053_Module01_Week02_Assignment_Rubric
