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The final project for this course is the creation of a project plan presentation for the board of directors and a professional reflection.
The healthcare industry is constantly changing, and healthcare professionals should be prepared for the challenge. As the final stop in your journey toward your Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences, you will integrate the knowledge and skills you have developed in previous coursework and over the duration of the term into a capstone assessment. Your assessment will consist of two components that will allow you to evidence knowledge, skills, abilities, and dispositional growth you have experienced during your program.
The first component will require you to place yourself in the role of a new manager operating as the project lead in the development of new services or initiatives within your area of expertise/interest (e.g., radiological technology, health information management, dental hygiene). For example, those of you with experience and interest within radiological technology will be able to select a service that falls within this area. Graduates of this program will often be asked to plan, supervise, and coordinate healthcare needs of patients and clients, so these skills are featured in the assessment for this course. You will develop a project plan in the form of a presentation that is designed to be given before a board of directors for approval. In addition to the knowledge you have gained throughout your program, your presentation will also need to show your ability to communicate effectively with various stakeholder audiences, integrate appropriate presentation methods for the content and audience, as well as integrate the various soft skills necessary for successful management.
The second component of your capstone assessment is a professional reflection in which you will reflect upon your capstone, program, and professional experiences and draw connections and inferences about your growth, ethical practice, and professional goals.
Evaluation of Capstone
This capstone will be assessed somewhat differently than other courses you have taken online at SNHU. There are two separate components, which will be submitted at different times during the course; however, they both operate together to comprise the whole capstone experience and are not assessed separately. You will be evaluated on both as a unit in determining whether you have demonstrated proficiency in each outcome. Your instructor will guide you through this process, keeping a running narrative of your strengths and weaknesses in relation to the outcomes as you progress through the class. Your work is expected to meet the highest professional standards.
The project is divided into five milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules One, Two, Three, Four, and Five. The project plan presentation will be submitted in Module Seven, and the professional reflection will be submitted in Module Eight.
In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
Engage diverse healthcare stakeholders using communications that reflect keen interpersonal skills, effective collaboration practices, and deep cultural competence
Demonstrate knowledge of microeconomic, macroeconomic, and financial principles through monitoring and utilization of financial and economic data for decision making and strategic planning
Utilize principles and functions of management to foster organizational development, promote effective use of human resources, and enhance operations
Assess contemporary policies, regulations, and governance structures relevant to the United States healthcare delivery system and their implications for ethical decision-making
Promote dynamic organizational cultures that establish strategic visions, methodically analyze and interpret data based on sound epidemiological and statistical principles, and embrace change for continuous healthcare quality improvement
Demonstrate the application of healthcare management principles to improve the delivery of patient care within their technical discipline/department
Prompt
Working individually with your instructor, you will select, research, and analyze a healthcare service need for a targeted patient population. You may choose your current healthcare employer, or you may select a healthcare agency or provider with the approval of your instructor. Generally speaking, you will conduct research on a healthcare agency’s need that will form the basis of your project plan and ultimately lead to findings and recommendations that attempt to address the identified need. This first component will also inform your professional reflection, in which you will evaluate your experiences in this program, capstone experience, and field of interest and discuss the importance and impact of ethical practice in healthcare.
Capstone Component 1: Project Plan Presentation
Your project plan must be submitted in the form of a comprehensive presentation to the board of directors of your selected institution for approval and buy-in. You have the flexibility to utilize PowerPoint or another comparable presentation tool, with instructor approval. Your presentation is expected to be professionally crafted to the needs and specifications appropriate for the discipline, area of interest, and type of initiative you are proposing. Because your initiative or project plan will be different from others’ in your capstone experience, you will likely include different additional resources, information, visuals, and strategies for progress. At minimum, your presentation must address/include the following:
Profile: Provide the agency or institution profile and background (i.e., type of organization, historical information, information about growth, current or past initiatives, etc.).
Healthcare Need: Identify the need or opportunity within the organization and describe its impact for the organization, its purpose and target population, and impacts to the greater healthcare environment, if any. How do you plan on addressing this need or opportunity? What is your initiative?
Evidence: Provide the research evidence that shows that the identified need or opportunity is in fact a need, and any research you completed to formulate the initiative.
Implementation Plan: Provide a comprehensive plan for implementation that includes the following:
A discussion on the target area or intended population to be served and the identified needs to be solved by the initiative. This is also where you should establish the goals.
The timeline and implementation milestones of the initiative.
An assessment of the financial impact of the initiative, including any necessary capital expenditures, necessary fundraising, or potential financial benefits that may result from the initiative. Depending on your initiative, your response to this section may include much more detail and areas of financial impact.
An evaluation of additional resources needed to effectively implement the initiative, including staffing, equipment, technology needs, and so forth.
Consideration of all federal and state regulations relevant to the proposed initiative and what needs to be done to ensure that the initiative follows these regulatory and legal standards.
An ethics review to ensure ethical implementation and ethical practice regarding the initiative. This may require identifying potential ethical challenges and formulating plans for monitoring behavior, practices, procedures, and so forth.
Evaluation Plan: This plan for managing and measuring progress and success of your initiative should include the following:
A discussion of the specific goals and milestones of implementation of the initiative. Be sure to lay out your goals in a clear, obtainable fashion and to ensure that progress milestones are clear, reasonable, and consistent.
Specific definitions of measures of progress towards obtaining the intended goals and a descriiption of the tools that you would use to measure progress. What strategies will be used to measure success, and how will adjustments be made should progress towards these goals fall short or change?
How do you intend to collect and analyze information to ascertain stakeholder satisfaction with the initiative? What information will be looked at, and who are the stakeholders that will be considered?
Communication and Management Plan: This plan for communicating with the various groups and stakeholders should include the following:
Progress Communication: Discussion on the strategies and practices that will be used to communicate progress with management, the board of directors, and other stakeholders within the organization.
Change Management Plan: Discussion on strategies that will be used to guide relevant parties through the changes that the initiative will require. This will need to include strategies on dealing with impacted employees, patients, clients, and even departments and outside stakeholders, depending on the type of initiative within your organization.
Post-Implementation Communication: How will results and ongoing communications be provided? Who will be the audiences for these various communications, and how will you ensure that each audience receives the correct information in an appropriate manner and time?
Capstone Component 2: Professional Reflection
For the second and final component of your capstone, you will write an essay in which you discuss the process and outcomes of this project, and your overall Health Science program journey and experiences. You will also speak more specifically about how the project relates to your area of expertise/interest and your desired career path. Writing reflectively allows you to think deeply and consciously about your experiences, which is invaluable to successful practice in the field of healthcare management/health science.
You should envision this component as a personal reflection on the capstone and your experience in the Health Science program as a whole. For instance, relative to the capstone, you could discuss what you did—or intended to do—and then consider what worked well, what challenges you faced, and what you would change or do differently to make your experience better. In reflecting on your time here at SNHU, you might discuss where you started, where you have ended up, where you see yourself going, and so on. Note that this component is not about evaluating the capstone itself, but rather your experience within the capstone project.
Some of the issues that you could address in this final component of this capstone may include, but are not limited to, the following:
Overall, what was your capstone experience like?
Reflect on the significance of the capstone in relation to your own experience at SNHU.
What connections do you see between your capstone and your academic program?
How will you apply what you have learned to your future academic and/or professional life?
How can you relate ethics or maintain ethical principles in your profession?
Milestones
General information on milestones: Each milestone will guide you through the development of your project. Component 1 will be a slide presentation utilizing the information you developed from your milestone assignments. The milestones will be revised and submitted as part of the final project.
Milestone One: Profile and Healthcare Need
In Module One, in a post to the course discussion topic, provide the agency or institution profile and background (i.e., type of organization, historical information, information about growth, current or past initiatives, etc.). Identify the need or opportunity within the organization and describe its impact on the organization, its purpose and target population, and its impacts on the greater healthcare environment, if any. How do you plan on addressing this need or opportunity? What is your initiative? Describe the policy or guideline you identified on the Health.gov website and how this information will impact your project. Your submission to the discussion topic should be one to two PowerPoint slides.
In response to your peers, comment on their process for addressing the need or opportunity. Provide recommendations for implementation. Reference at least one article or the required readings to support your comments.
Your submission to the discussion topic should be one to two PowerPoint slides. This milestone is graded with the Milestone One Rubric.
Milestone Two: publish of Evidence
In Module Two, you will submit your publish of Evidence (Section III). In this section, discuss at least five peer-reviewed journal articles supporting the healthcare need or opportunity identified for this project and development of the initiative. This section should be at least one to two slides. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Two Rubric.
Steps for Development (Try to do at least one of these steps each day throughout the week to help you complete this milestone):
Begin by creating your ECLIPSE statement: expectation, client group, location, impact, professionals involved, and service. This framework is useful for a project related to health policy and management issues. Expectation encourages reflection on what information is needed for improvement, innovation, or knowledge. Impact looks at what you would like to achieve, for example, team communication improvements.
Identify key search terms.
Identify search databases (Medline, PubMed, etc.).
Search and review articles that support your need or opportunity and initiative development.
Synthesize the information in these articles to support your project. Synthesis is about concisely summarizing and linking different sources in order to review the literature on a topic, make recommendations, and connect your project idea to the research.
Milestone Three: publish of Implementation Plan
In Module Three, you will submit your publish of Implementation Plan (Section IV). This section is meant to discuss the target area or intended population to be served and identify problems and at least one innovative solution and how it will be implemented. This section should be at least two to three slides. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Three Rubric.
Steps for Development (Try to do at least one of these steps each day throughout the week to help you complete this milestone):
Begin by formulating a discussion on the target area or intended population to be served and the identified needs to be solved by the initiative. This is also where you should establish the goals.
Explain the timeline and implementation milestones of the initiative.
Conduct an assessment of the financial impact of the initiative, including any necessary capital expenditures, necessary fundraising, or potential financial benefits that may result from the initiative. Depending on your initiative, your response to this section may include much more detail and areas of financial impact.
Conduct an evaluation of additional resources needed to effectively implement the initiative, including staffing, equipment, and technology needs.
Take into consideration all federal and state regulations relevant to the proposed initiative and what needs to be done to ensure that the initiative follows these regulatory and legal standards.
Complete an ethics review to ensure ethical implementation and ethical practice regarding the initiative. This may require identifying potential ethical challenges and formulating plans for monitoring behavior, practices, procedures, and so on.
Milestone Four: publish of Evaluation Plan
In Module Four, you will submit your publish of Evaluation Plan (Section V). In this section, indicate the specific goals and milestones of implementation. Identify how quality measures and strategies will be used to indicate whether the solution is effective. Specify your data collection method and how data will be analyzed. Keep in mind that data will be recorded using Excel. This section should be at least three to four slides. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Four Rubric.
Steps for Development (Try to do at least one of these steps each day throughout the week to help you complete this milestone):
Begin by formulating a discussion on the specific goals and milestones of implementation of the initiative. Be sure to lay out your goals in a clear, obtainable fashion and to ensure that progress milestones are clear, reasonable, and consistent.
Provide specific definitions of measures of progress towards obtaining the intended goals and a descriiption of the tools that you would use to measure progress. What strategies will be used to measure success, and how will adjustments be made should progress towards these goals fall short or change?
How do you intend to collect and analyze information to ascertain stakeholder satisfaction with the initiative? What information will be looked at, and who are the stakeholders that will be considered?
Milestone Five: publish of Communication and Management Plan
In Module Five, you will submit your publish of Communication and Management Plan (Section VI). In this section, identify strategies and practices to ensure stakeholder involvement and support for the project. Discuss models, theories, and/or methods to support the change management, and specify details that address the post-implementation communication process. This section should be at least three to four slides. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Five Rubric.
Steps for Development (Try to do at least one of these steps each day throughout the week to help you complete this milestone):
Progress Communication: Discuss the strategies and practices that will be used to communicate progress with management, the board of directors, and other stakeholders within the organization.
Change Management Plan: Discuss the strategies that will be used to guide relevant parties through the changes that the initiative will require. This will need to include strategies for dealing with impacted employees, patients, clients, and even departments and outside stakeholders, depending on the type of initiative within your organization.
Post-Implementation Communication: How will results and ongoing communications be provided? Who will be the audiences for these various communications, and how will you ensure that each audience receives the correct information in an appropriate manner and time?
Component 1: Project Plan Presentation for Board of Directors
In Module Seven, you will submit the Project Plan Presentation for the Board of Directors (Component 1). The Project Plan Presentation should be a 15–20-slide presentation. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the final project. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course. This submission will be graded together with the Professional Reflection in Module Eight using the Final Project Rubric.
Component 2: Professional Reflection
In Module Eight, you will submit the Professional Reflection (Component 2). It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the final project. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course. The Professional Reflection should be a 2–3-page Word document. This submission will be graded together with the Project Plan Presentation in Module Eight using the Final Project Rubric.
What to Submit
This rubric will be applied to both components as a whole, and neither component will be assessed on its own. Your Project Plan Proposal will be submitted in the form of a 10–15-slide presentation. You may use any presentation tool to prepare the visuals for your presentation (such as PowerPoint or Prezi). You also have the ability to submit presentation speaker notes in place of audio recording, if approved by your instructor. You must include at least 10 references. Your Professional Reflection should be submitted in the form of a well-crafted, reflective essay, most likely consisting of 2–3 pages, in a Word document with double-spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one-inch margins. For both submission artifacts, you should properly cite research and references in APA format.
The “Possible Indicators of Success” are examples for you and the instructor of the types of concepts to look for to demonstrate proficiency. They are neither exhaustive nor proscriiptive and should be used as guides for illustrating how your capstone embodies the outcome. All outcomes are weighted equally.