Increasing demands on state health districts to assure the health of the public necessitates planning that is meaningful and coordinated. Many vulnerable populations are included in the purview of these districts and strategic planning that produces real results is the goal of health district nurse managers. In a two day workshop with 25 nurse managers and program coordinators who worked in a health district in the southeastern United States, a strategic planning process was taught which resulted in long-range meaningful plans. This workshop was the response of the district’s lead nurse to increasing demands on the district Public Health Nurses (PHNs) to incorporate a population based approach to care while maintaining some direct service components. This two day course helped nurse managers to explore what their organization was trying to create and position their contributions in relation to the organization’s needs. Based on the Team Creating Process, as designed by Fritz, participants learned to create a vision, identify current reality around that vision and plan action steps. They also learned to structure their actions for greater success, evaluate and adjust their actions for greater impact and to understand the motivation for obtaining results. Participants discovered that change, when well motivated, is not difficult at all and is sustainable. Managers and coordinators left the workshop with 3 to 5 year coordinated action plans for women’s health, school health, maternal-child health and tuberculosis.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant in this session will be able to: 1. Discuss the importance of unified strategic planning in articulating nursing outcomes. 2. Describe the steps in the creating process. 3. Develop beginning skills in using the creating process for strategic planning
Keywords: Public Health Nursing, Outcomes, Planning
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
Disclosure not received
Relationship: Not Received.