Discuss the purpose of strategic planning in a healthcare environment. Planning in a Health Care Environment Explain what factors affect future planning in an organization and what tools can be used for future planning.

Planning in a Health Care Environment

The Purpose of Strategic Planning in a Health Care Environment

Strategic planning is a powerful tool for effective change in an organization. It is fun, empowering, important, timely, and logical. According to Sare & Ogilvie (2016), the purpose of strategic planning is to solve problems and to establish an excellent framework for guiding decision-making. In a healthcare institution, nurses, for instance, are able to comprehend the process of nursing and view strategic planning as an expanded and extended form of nursing process applicable to problems, projects, and processes of any kind. In brief, strategic planning is a guide to a healthcare organization’s future direction based on a rigorous assessment of what happens in the present day and forecasting into the future. Every nurse has to understand how to thrive and survive effectively within and with a business model while maintaining and asserting care excellence (Sare & Ogilvie, 2016). In order to do this, strategic planning is necessary for nurses.

Factors Affecting the Future Planning of an Organization

The factors that influence the future planning of an organization can be internal or external. The internal factors include the operational cost, management, research vis-à-vis the dynamics in the health care field, fixed costs, training expenses, skills of the employees, the achievement or failure of short-term goals, administration system, and financial stand of the organization, among others (Abd Ghani et al., 2010). External factors can be government regulations, relationships with the community, political relationships, innovation, technology, changing terms of industry, research, and development, as well as economic growth, among others.

Tools for Future Planning

The key tools that can be used for future planning in an organization include SWOT analysis, Objectives and Key Results (OKR), PESTEL analysis (Political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors), as well as a safety culture assessment. A safety culture tool entails a product of group and individual competencies, behavior patterns, perceptions, attitudes, and values that determine the proficiency and style of and commitment to an organization’s safety and health management (Nieva & Sorra, 2003).

References

Abd Ghani, K. D., Nayan, S., Mohd Ghazali, S. A., Shafie, L. A., & Nayan, S. (2010). Critical internal and external factors that affect firms’ strategic planning. International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, 51, 50-58.