Nurse managers set objectives and outline the budget (typically in association with the finance division) for their own duty center or nursing team. Next, when the budget has been established and efficiently restructured, it is given in to the management and, at last, to the Board of Directors for consent. When the budget is accepted and the fiscal year starts, the hospital has to deliver the premeditated services and plans (Rundio, 2012). Budget planning process consists of six steps – gathering appropriate data, scheduling services, scheduling activities, executing the plan, scrutinizing the budget, taking corrective actions when needed. Nurse managers take on some of the most serious functions in financial planning and the governing process. They act as the connection between the strategies of management and the performance of the organization’s personnel. If they fail to reach the aims and objectives of the budget, the anticipated outcomes will not be achieved (Rundio, 2012).

Role of Nurse in Budgeting: Sources of Income

In healthcare, there are numerous sources of income that are relevant to the nurses. Most probably, one would primarily pay attention to the patient-related revenues. These incomes are mostly characterized by the direct payments that came from the patients or other organizations (E.g., insurance companies). The top sources of nursing revenue are grants, community visibility, unions, industry, healthcare students and staff, third-party payments, and professional companies. In the majority of the situations, nurse managers are responsible for the elaboration of the budget and in charge of assessing and generating the revenues (Rundio, 2012). Nursing managers constantly concentrate on the issues related to revenues. This is rather important because the incomes should be acceptable in order to cover the expenses (both expected and unexpected) related to the healthcare and services provided by the organization’s staff. The money that is gained is used to recover the deficient funds for replacements and development.

The efficiency of a healthcare organization is usually assessed on the basis of the quality of its services and the profit that it makes throughout the fiscal year (Penner, 2013). Another key component of the nursing manager’s budget responsibilities is the tracking of payers and their involvement in the healthcare system. This is important because the revenues are typically projected by the payer types (Penner, 2013). The budget of the healthcare organization is recurrently affected by the following types of payers – direct payers (patients) and third-party payers (E.g., organizations that pay for their employees’ medical insurance) (Penner, 2013).