In this assignment you will develop the conceptual foundation for a strategic practice initiative to improve one or more health care outcomes. This is the first part of a two-part assignment series about the same strategic practice initiative. The second part is the development of a formal proposal for the initiative. This two-step process simulates a real organizational environment.

When individuals in an organization get an idea to improve or grow the organization, they develop that idea collaboratively with others in the organization to refine the idea and to test the organizations willingness to support the concept. The hope is that presenting your concept with supporting evidence that its a good idea for the organization will get a nod of approval from your colleagues and organizational leaders to develop the idea further and bring back a formal proposal for approval.

You will apply the concepts of the Triple Aim: cost, quality and access to a practice initiative in the conceptual paper which later you will develop into a full proposal in the final course assignment. Strategic practice initiatives often take the form of new or redesigned programs or roles. (For example, if you have identified a patient population that faces issues with access to or coordination of care, you might develop a nurse navigator role targeted at that population.)

Nurse leaders use their influence to bring about change that advances patient / population outcomes and promotes the organizations strategies and mission. Nurse leaders do not accomplish this in isolation, rather they develop ideas for practice initiatives collaboratively and promote them to the organizations leadership team to gain buy-in for the support that will be required to accomplish the initiatives, and to assure the initiative aligns with the organizations mission, vision, and strategic plan.

Think of an initiative that will address deficiencies in an organizations current delivery system or an idea that is entirely new to the organization that will improve health outcomes in terms of cost, quality or access. Conduct a search of the professional literature to find examples of similar initiatives and/ or evidence that supports why your proposed initiative will achieve the outcomes you are claiming for your proposal. Consider how the current organization as a whole would be impacted by the initiative. Successful nurse leaders develop their ideas in this way before presenting a proposal to their colleagues. This assignment is designed to reflect that discernment and refinement process in written form. You will not attempt to define in detail cost implications (or new revenue implications) at this stage. That would not happen until after the formal proposal (the next paper) is accepted to go forward into a business plan. Only after the formal proposal gained acceptance from the organization would a full business plan, including a detailed financial analysis, be developed.