Nurse Leader’s Approach To Budget Management Discussion Paper

Mentor Interview

This document is designed to give you questions to consider and additional guidance to help you successfully complete the Mentor Interview assignment. You may find it useful to use this document as a pre-writing exercise, an outlining tool, or as a final check to ensure that you have sufficiently addressed all the grading criteria for this assignment. This document is a resource to help you complete the assignment. Do not turn in this document as your assignment submission. Nurse Leader’s Approach To Budget Management Discussion Paper

Interview

Conduct an interview with your site supervisor or another nurse leader whom you consider to be a mentor in the area of health care finance. Discuss their experience with operations and capital budgets in their current role or a previous role. Explore the following topics in your interview:

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Their experience managing an operating budget:

• How do they define an operational budget?
• How did they gain their experience with the process?
• What challenges have they encountered?
• What is their financial management approach?
• How do they manage budget variances?
• What lessons learned would they offer to other nurse leaders?
• What access do they have to ongoing training and support?

Their approach to managing productivity within the parameters of the budget:

• What are their major challenges, and how have they overcome them?
• What productivity solutions have they found to counter or ameliorate the effects of budget reductions?

Their approach to oversight of the appropriate use and availability of equipment and supplies:

• What steps do they take to help ensure the ongoing availability of equipment and supplies?
• What policies are in place that address this issue? Nurse Leader’s Approach To Budget Management Discussion Paper

Their experience managing a capital budget:

• How do they define a capital budget?
• How did they gain their experience with the process?
• What challenges have they encountered?
• What is their financial management approach?
• How do they manage budget variances?
• What lessons learned would they offer to other nurse leaders?
• What access do they have to ongoing training and support?

How managing a capital budget differs from managing an operating budget:

• What are the key considerations for each approach?
• Do the factors that have the greatest effect on successful budget management differ with each approach? Why?

Their application of finance principles to fulfill the organization’s mission and goals:

• What strategies or theories do they employ to help ensure their plan for profitability and fiscal success works?

Analysis

Prepare a written analysis of your findings from the interview, supplemented by your own research and evaluation of budget management techniques.

Compare the process of managing an operating budget to that of managing a capital budget.

• What are the differences in management between these two types of budgets?
• What financial management techniques are common to both?
• What are the key considerations and challenges for nurse leaders?

Describe the process of allocating resources for labor, equipment, and services.

• What are the sources of applicable data and information?
• With whom should you consult? What information can they provide?
• What are the key considerations that enable effective decision making?

Describe an effective approach that contributes to planning for profitability and fiscal success.

• How does budget creation and management affect the financial health of the organization?
• How should budget variances be dealt with?
• What are the implications or potential consequences of discretionary spending?

Evaluate the nurse leader’s approach to budget management.

• What aspects of their approach are effective or ineffective? Why?
• What aspects of their management approach would you adopt as best practices?
• What improvements to their approach would you suggest?
• Write clearly and concisely, using correct grammar and mechanics.
• Express your main points and conclusions coherently.
• Proofread your writing to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it more difficult to focus on the substance of your analysis.

Integrate relevant and credible sources of evidence to support your assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style.

• Integrate relevant evidence from at least five scholarly or professional sources.

Submission Reminders

• Have you made a thorough comparison of the processes for managing an operating budget and a capital budget?
• Have you provided a complete description of the process of allocating resources for labor, equipment, and services?
• Have you provided a complete description of an effective approach to planning for profitability and fiscal success?
• Have you provide your evaluation of a nurse leader’s approach to budget management?
• Are your claims and conclusions well supported by at least five sources of credible evidence?
• Is your analysis properly formatted and 3–5 pages in length, not including the title page and reference page?
• Have you proofread your writing to minimize errors?

Professional Context

Business acumen, including financial management skills, is a key competency for nurse leaders, and a primary responsibility for many is the development and management of operating and capital budgets.

The assignment this week involves you speaking with a leader who has experience with creating and managing budgets. You will learn about that person’s approach to budget management and consider techniques or strategies you may emulate when you are creating and managing budgets.

Scenario

You are the nurse manager of a new urgent care clinic, and one of your first tasks is to prepare next year’s operating budget. Like many nurses, you have had little or no direct experience with the budgeting process, and you realize that financial management is not one of your strengths as a leader. Consequently, you have decided to reach out for help from someone in the facility with budgeting experience and financial management expertise who can offer you help and insight. Nurse Leader’s Approach To Budget Management Discussion Paper

Instructions

Interview

Conduct an interview with your site supervisor or another nurse leader whom you consider to be a mentor in the area of health care finance. Discuss their experience with operations and capital budgets in their current role or a previous role. Explore the following topics in your interview:

• Their experience managing an operating budget.
• Their approach to managing productivity within the parameters of the budget.
• Their approach to oversight of the appropriate use and availability of equipment and supplies.
• Their experience managing a capital budget.
• How managing a capital budget differs from managing an operating budget.
• Their application of finance principles to fulfill the organization’s mission and goals.

Analysis

Note: The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the Mentor Interview rubric, so be sure to address each point. You may also want to review the performance level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed. Additionally, the Guiding Questions: Mentor Interview document, linked in the Resources, provides additional considerations that may be helpful in completing your assignment.

Prepare a written analysis of your findings from the interview, supplemented by your own research and evaluation of budget management techniques. Nurse Leader’s Approach To Budget Management Discussion Paper

• Compare the process of managing an operating budget to that of managing a capital budget.
• Describe the process of allocating resources for labor, equipment, and services.
• Describe an effective approach that contributes to planning for profitability and fiscal success.
• Evaluate the nurse leader’s approach to budget management.
• Write clearly and concisely, using correct grammar and mechanics.
• Integrate relevant and credible sources of evidence to support your assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style.
  

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You are the nurse manager of a new urgent care clinic, and one of your first tasks is to prepare next year’s operating budget. Like many nurses, you have had little or no direct experience with the budgeting process, and you realize that financial management is not one of your strengths as a leader. Consequently, you have decided to reach out for help from someone in the facility with budgeting experience and financial management expertise who can offer you help and insight. Nurse Leader’s Approach To Budget Management Discussion Paper