Care Setting Environment Analysis
Health organizations operate in highly competitive and dynamic environments. The increasing demands and changes in consumer needs in their markets require the adoption of responsive interventions to address actual and potential issues that may affect their performance. Health organizations develop visions and strategies that communicate their aim in their markets and how to achieve sustainable outcomes in their service provision. In doing so, they build on their successes through appreciative inquiry, developing a dream, and improving their systems and processes based on findings of their situational analysis (Benzaghta et al., 2021; Hung et al., 2018). Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze my practice setting with the aim of supporting a strategic plan that includes appreciative inquiry and situational analysis of the organization.
Appreciative Inquiry Discovery and Dream
Appreciative inquiry is an approach to creating sustainable organizations in the modern world. It entails a shift in the focus from the wrong things in the organization to things that have gone well (Cooperrider & Fry, 2020). The shift in focus aims at ensuring that organizational stakeholders move from a pessimistic view of doing things to an optimistic view. Appreciative inquiry contributes to organizational success by tapping into creative capabilities of the staff by focusing on the stories they hold in the organization (Magnussen et al., 2019). Therefore, organization’s focus on appreciative inquiry creates a community with unleased creativity, commonality, and pride in organizational success by the employees.
Discovery and dream are part of the steps of appreciative inquiry. Discovery entails the identification and appreciation of the best things in the organization. The organizational stakeholders and employees focus on the times when the organization performed best in their adopted strategies (Cooperrider & Fry, 2020). An interview on appreciative inquiry was conducted with nurses and physicians in the organization to discover organizational excellence.
One of the aspects they identified as an excellence performance in the organization is effective leadership. Nurses and physicians identified that the organization has an effective leadership that advocates the adoption of strategies that meet their needs. The excellence in leadership has seen the organization have a high staff retention rate, innovation, and a highly motivated workforce (Mijakoski et al., 2018).
The other aspect of excellence identified from the interview is the culture of safety in the organization. Nurses and physicians identified that the organization has done best in instilling staff the culture of safety in the care process. It encourages them to adopt evidence-based practices that minimize patient harm. It also supports innovative practices that improve efficiency, safety, and quality in the care process (Watkins et al., 2019). The other aspects of excellence identified from the interview included teamwork, open communication, rewarding performance, and their involvement in the adoption of organizational strategies (Rosen et al., 2018). The evidences of the organizational excellence include it being awarded the best hospital in quality of care, being top ten hospitals in terms of consumer preference, and winning the best hospital in innovation in the region.
Dream in appreciative inquiry entails imagining and envisioning the future of an organization. The dream phase enables the organizational stakeholders to think about the great possibilities and thoughts for their organization. The interviewed staff envisioned a future in the organization where the best practices guide the decisions made. They considered it an effective approach for driving excellence (Dempsey & Assi, 2018). They also envisioned a future where the organization will prioritize their needs. This included ensuring adequate staffing ratios to ensure high-quality care for the patients. They also envisioned a future where leadership and management will exist to serve their interests (Nieuwboer et al., 2019). This included prioritizing their views, seeking their input, and involving them in making decisions that affect their practice.
The proposed quality and safety improvement goals that will drive excellence in the organization include providing staff regular training on issues affecting their practice for improved quality and safety of care. Training should focus on aspects such as teamwork, evidence-based practice, and advocacy for safety and quality in the patient care (Gillespie, 2022). The other goal is strengthening ensuring adequate staffing to ensure excellence in the care given to patients. Staffing shortage increases the risk of issues such as burnout, errors in care, and high turnover among the existing staff (Haddad et al., 2022). These goals align with the organization’s mission, vision, and values of ensuring excellence, quality, safety, efficiency, and patient-centeredness in the care process.
Assessment 1 Instructions
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.
Introduction
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.
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:
Complete the discovery and dream phases of an appreciative inquiry (AI) project.
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: As you revise your writing, check out the resources listed on the Writing Center’s Writing Support page.
As you prepare to complete this assessment, you may want to think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or broaden your viewpoint. You are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community. Note that these questions are for your own development and exploration and do not need to be completed or submitted as part of your assessment.
One key aspect to being an effective leader, manager, or administrator is an awareness of your leadership strengths, weaknesses, and style.
How would you assess your general leadership, communication, and relationship-building skills?
How would describe your leadership style?
Imagine the future for a care setting that is your place of practice or one in which you would like to work.
What aspirational goals can you envision that would lead to improvements in health care quality and safety?
How well do these goals align with the mission, vision, and values of your care setting?
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. Use the APA Style Paper Tutorial [DOCX]. 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.
Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide 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.
Care Setting Environmental Analysis Scoring Guide
CriteriaNon-performanceBasicProficientDistinguishedSynthesize stories and evidence about times when a care setting performed at its best with regard to quality and safety goals.Does not list stories and evidence about times when a care setting performed at its best with regard to quality and safety goals.Lists but does not synthesize stories and evidence, or fails to clearly relate stories and evidence to quality and safety goals.Synthesizes stories and evidence about times when a care setting performed at its best with regard to quality and safety goals.Synthesizes stories and evidence about times when a care setting performed at its best with regard to quality and safety goals. Identifies knowledge gaps, unknowns, missing information, unanswered questions, or areas of uncertainty (where further information could improve the synthesis).Propose positive, attainable quality and safety improvement goals for a care setting.Does not propose positive goals for a care setting.Proposed goals are positive but not attainable, or will not lead to ethical and culturally sensitive improvement of organizational quality and safety, or are not clearly aligned with the care setting’s mission, vision, and values.Proposes positive, attainable quality and safety improvement goals for a care setting.Proposes positive, attainable quality and safety improvement goals for a care setting, and identifies assumptions on which proposed goals are based.Conduct a SWOT analysis of a care setting, with respect to quality and safety goals.Does not present the findings of a SWOT analysis of a care setting.Conducts a SWOT analysis of a care setting that is not clearly focused on quality and safety goals.Conducts a SWOT analysis of a care setting, with respect to quality and safety goals.Conducts a SWOT analysis of a care setting, with respect to quality and safety goals, and impartially considers conflicting data and other perspectives.Describe an area of concern identified in a SWOT analysis—relevant to a care setting’s mission, vision, and values—that should be improved.Does not describe an area of concern identified in a SWOT analysis that should be improved.Describes an area of concern identified in a SWOT analysis, but does not show its relevance to a care setting’s mission, vision, and values.Describes an area of concern identified in a SWOT analysis—relevant to a care setting’s mission, vision, and values—that should be improved.Describes an area of concern identified in a SWOT analysis—relevant to a care setting’s mission, vision, and values—that should be improved. Identifies criteria that could be used to evaluate such an improvement.Compare the AI and SWOT approaches to analysis with regard to data gathering and interactions with others.Does not describe data gathering and interactions with others.Describes data gathering and interactions with others, but does not compare these activities using an AI and SWOT approach to analysis.Compares the AI and SWOT approaches to analysis with regard to data gathering and interactions with others.Compares the AI and SWOT approaches to analysis with regard to data gathering and interactions with others, and acknowledges one’s own assumptions and biases.Analyze the leadership characteristics and skills most desired in the person leading potential performance improvement projects, taking both an AI and SWOT approach.Does not analyze leadership characteristics and skills most desired in the person leading potential performance improvement projects.Analyzes leadership characteristics and skills most desired in the person leading potential performance improvement projects, but does not clearly distinguish between an AI and SWOT approach.Analyzes the leadership characteristics and skills most desired in the person leading potential performance improvement projects, taking both an AI and SWOT approach.Analyzes the leadership characteristics and skills most desired in the person leading potential performance improvement projects, taking both an AI and SWOT approach. Identifies areas of uncertainty or knowledge gaps.Communicate analyses clearly and in a way that demonstrates professionalism and respect for stakeholders and colleagues.Does not communicate analyses clearly and in a way that demonstrates professionalism and respect for stakeholders and colleagues.Communication is not consistently clear and professional; errors in grammar or mechanics distract from the message, or communication lacks respect for stakeholders or colleagues.Communicates analyses clearly and in a way that demonstrates professionalism and respect for stakeholders and colleagues.Communicates analyses clearly, logically, and persuasively, demonstrating professionalism and respect for stakeholders and colleagues. Grammar and mechanics are virtually error-free.Integrate relevant and credible sources of evidence to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style.Does not integrate relevant and credible sources of evidence to support assertions; does not correctly format citations and references using APA style.Sources lack relevance or credibility, are poorly integrated, or are incorrectly formatted.Integrates relevant and credible sources of evidence to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style.Integrates relevant and credible sources of evidence to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style. Citations are error-free.
