Care Setting Environmental Analysis

Write a 4–7-page analysis of your care setting that supports development of a strategic plan and includes both the discovery and dream phases of an appreciative inquiry (AI) project and a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis of the care setting.

Note: Each assessment in this course builds on the work you completed in the previous assessment. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in this course in the order in which they are presented.

SHOW LESS

Identifying analysis techniques for assessing competitive advantage is important for building health care strategy. Sustaining health care competitive advantage requires that leaders understand environmental demands to assist with minimizing weakness and threats from the external environment. This assessment provides you with an opportunity to examine your health care environment to determine whether what is being accomplished in your organization, department, team, community project, or other care setting is making a positive difference.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

• Competency 1: Evaluate qualities and skills that promote effective leadership within health care organizations.
  • Analyze the leadership characteristics and skills most desired in the person leading potential performance improvement projects, taking both an appreciative inquiry (AI) and a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) approach.
• Competency 2: Apply strategies to lead high-performing health care teams to meet organizational quality and safety goals.
  • Synthesize stories and evidence about times when a care setting performed at its best with regard to quality and safety goals.
  • Conduct a SWOT analysis of a care setting, with respect to quality and safety goals.
  • Describe an area of concern identified in a SWOT analysis—relevant to a care setting’s mission, vision, and values—that should be improved.
  • Compare the AI and SWOT approaches to analysis with regard to data gathering and interactions with others.
• Competency 3: Apply cultural, ethical, and regulatory considerations to leadership decision making.
  • Propose positive, attainable quality and safety improvement goals for a care setting.
• Competency 5: Communicate with stakeholders and constituencies to build collaborative partnerships and create inclusive work environments.
  • Communicate analyses clearly and in a way that demonstrates professionalism and respect for stakeholders and colleagues.
  • Integrate relevant and credible sources of evidence to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style.

 Suggested Resources

The resources provided here are optional. You may use other resources of your choice to prepare for this assessment; however, you will need to ensure that they are appropriate, credible, and valid. The MSN-FP6210: Leadership and Management for Nurse Executives Library Guide can help direct your research, and the Supplemental Resources and Research Resources, both linked from the left navigation menu in your courseroom, provide additional resources to help support you.

Appreciative Inquiry and SWOT

• MacCoy, D. J. (2014). Appreciative inquiry and evaluation – Getting to what works. The Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 29(2), 104–127.
• Nursing Leadership: Present and Future Needs | Transcript.
• Appreciative Inquiry: Core Concepts | Transcript.
  • Review the section on the dream stage of appreciative inquiry.
• Vila Health: Comparing AI and SWOT | Transcript.
  • This media simulation walks you through a scenario within the Vila Health system that will enable you to analyze a situation in a care setting through both AI and SWOT lenses.
• Vila Health: Appreciative Inquiry or SWOT? | Transcript.
  • This media piece presents various brief scenarios in which either appreciative inquiry or SWOT is the more appropriate approach.
• TOWS Analysis in Action: Going Beyond the SWOT Analysis | Transcript.
  • This media piece will help you to gain a better understanding of the considerations, categorizations, and applications of SWOT analyses.

SHOW LESS

Strategic Planning

• Deisher, M. (2013). A systems change: Leading the way to meeting health needs. Journal of Hand Therapy, 26(3), 282–285, 286.
  • This article illustrates how strategic planning has been used to implement a new program in a clinic.

Leadership Characteristics and Skills

Any of the following resources are useful in analyzing leadership characteristics and skills:

• Grossman, S. C., & Valiga, T. M. (2012). The new leadership challenge: Creating the future of nursing. Philadelphia, PA: F. A. Davis Company.
  • Chapter 2, “The World and New Leadership: Changing our Thinking About Leadership.”
    This chapter may help you with an analysis of the leadership characteristics and skills most desired in a person leading potential performance improvement projects.
• American College of Healthcare Executives. (2016). ACHE healthcare executive 2016 competencies assessment tool [PDF]. Retrieved from
  • Competency areas A–C (including all sub-points as laid out in the ACHE self-assessment) in the Communication and Relationship Management theme.
  • Competency areas A–D (all sub-points as laid out in the ACHE self-assessment) in the Leadership theme.
• American Organization of Nurse Executives. (2015). Nurse executive competencies [PDF]. Retrieved from
  • Competency areas A–G in section 1, the Communication and Relationship Building theme.
  • Competency areas A–E in section 3, the Leadership theme. 

Assessment Instructions

Note: You will use the results of this analysis to develop a strategic plan in Assessment 2.

Preparation

You have been asked to conduct an analysis of your care setting that will result in two potential pathways toward a strategic plan to improve health care quality and safety in your organization, department, team, community project, or other care setting. To accomplish this, you will take two approaches to the analysis:

1. Complete the discovery and dream phases of an appreciative inquiry (AI) project.
2. Conduct a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis.

To help ensure that your analysis is well-received, the requester has suggested that you:

• Present your analysis results in four parts:
  • Part 1: Appreciative Inquiry Discovery and Dream.
  • Part 2: SWOT Analysis.
  • Part 3: Comparison of Approaches.
  • Part 4: Analysis of Relevant Leadership Characteristics and Skills.
• Your analysis should be 4–7 pages in length.

Note: Remember, you can submit all, or a portion, of your draft plan to Smarthinking for feedback before you submit the final version for this assessment. However, be mindful of the turnaround time for receiving feedback, if you plan on using this free service.

Analysis Requirements

Note: The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide, so at a minimum, be sure to address each point. In addition, you are encouraged to review the performance level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.

Writing, Supporting Evidence, and APA Style

• Communicate professionally when conducting interviews and collecting data.
• Write clearly, with professionalism and respect for stakeholders and colleagues.
• Integrate relevant sources of evidence to support your assertions.
  • Cite at least 3–5 sources of scholarly or professional evidence.
  • Include relevant interview information.
• Format your document using APA style. The APA Style Paper Template and associated tutorial, linked in the Resources, are provided for your use. Be sure to include:
  • A title page and reference page. An abstract is not required.
  • A running head on all pages.
  • Appropriate section headings.
  • Properly formatted citations and references.
• Proofread your writing to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it more difficult to focus on the substance of your analysis.

Part 1: Appreciative Inquiry Discovery and Dream

• Synthesize stories and evidence about times when a care setting performed at its best with regard to quality and safety goals.
  • Collect stories from your care setting. You may collect stories through interviews or conversations with colleagues or provide your own.
  • Explain how your stories are related to quality and safety goals.
  • Describe the evidence you have that substantiates your stories.
  • Identify the positive themes reflected in your stories.
  • Describe other evidence (for example: data, awards, accreditations) that validates your care setting’s positive core.
• Propose positive, yet attainable, quality and safety improvement goals for your care setting.
  • Explain how accomplishing these goals will lead to ethical and culturally-sensitive improvements in quality and safety.
  • Explain how your proposed goals align with your care setting’s mission, vision, and values.

Part 2: SWOT Analysis

• Conduct a SWOT analysis of your care setting, with respect to quality and safety goals.
  • Provide a narrative description of your analysis.
  • Identify the assessment tool you used as the basis of your analysis.
  • Describe your key findings and their relationships to quality and safety goals.
• Describe one area of concern that you identified in your SWOT analysis—relevant to your care setting’s mission, vision, and values—for which you would propose pursuing improvements.
  • Explain how this area of concern relates to your care setting’s mission, vision, and values.
  • Explain why you believe it will be necessary and valuable to pursue improvements related to this area of concern.

Part 3: Comparison of Approaches

Compare the AI and SWOT approaches to analysis and reflect on the results.

• Describe your mindset when examining your care setting from an AI perspective and from a SWOT perspective.
• Describe the types of data and evidence you searched for when taking an AI approach and a SWOT approach.
• Describe the similarities and differences between the two approaches when communicating and interacting with colleagues.

Part 4: Analysis of Relevant Leadership Characteristics and Skills

Analyze the leadership characteristics and skills most desired in the person leading potential performance improvement projects, taking both an AI and SWOT approach.

• Explain how these characteristics and skills would help a leader facilitate a successful AI-based project and a successful SWOT-based project.
• Comment on any shared characteristics or skills you identified as helpful for both AI and SWOT approaches.