Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to expand a project on the use of onboarding, mentoring, and orientation can improve nurse retention. Information about the communication plan, risk assessment, the organization, and the human resource plan is provided. A summary of key information, including its application and challenges faced, is also given.
The Communications Plan
The current project stakeholders are nurses, the hospital’s administration, and patients. A new stakeholder is the hospital’s board of directors. This stakeholder is in charge of the hospital’s board of directors. Their purpose is to make important decisions for the hospital, such as employment, and keep an eye on the chief executive officer (Fuente, GarcĂa-Sanchez, & Lozano, 2017). Other functions include managing the financial wellbeing of the hospital, guaranteeing the provision of quality care by the hospital, and representing the hospital in the community (Mannion et al., 2015).
Therefore, in this project, the board of directors needs information regarding the problem of nurse turnover in the hospital and the need to implement a project involving onboarding, mentoring, and orientation to improve nurse retention. The messages to be communicated include the budget of the project and the commencement of the project, the progress of the project, major challenges encountered during implementation, and the outcomes of the project. This information should be provided at regular intervals based on the need and phase of the project. For example, brief communication should be made to the board once the project starts. Monthly updates concerning the progress should then be made alongside any major challenges. At the end of the project, the board requires information about project outcomes. The person responsible for communication is the chief executive officer. The recommended medium for communication is email. However, an oral presentation can be made during a face-to-face meeting.
Risk Assessment
Despite careful planning, there is a likelihood that a project can still run into unexpected problems or face risks. A risk is defined as any unforeseeable incident or condition that might interfere with the running of the project (Shirley, 2016). Potential risks that can get in the way of timely project completion within the budget include inadequate funding to facilitate the training of staff members in charge of orientation and onboarding, withdrawal of mentors, or absenteeism of trained members on the orientation days.
Risk planning is the process of pinpointing likely problems that could affect the project, evaluating their probability, acting to prevent avoidable risks, and reducing the inevitable ones. The seriousness of likely damage leads to the assigning of a severity rating, which can be from 1 to 10, with 1 indicating inconsequential effects and 10 representing catastrophic outcomes (Baybutt, 2018). Another rating scale uses four classes to categorize potential risks: minor, moderate, major, and catastrophic (Fuller, 2018). After assigning the severity, the next step is to determine the frequency or likelihood of the occurrences in what is termed as the probability of occurrence. Five scores are possible: 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 for improbable, remote, occasional, probable, and frequent, in that order. The following table shows a risk mitigation plan with a severity ranking.
The most severe risk is faulty data, which would interfere with the evaluation of the project. Consequently, it would be impossible to determine whether the interventions have been successful or not. This risk can be triggered by missed documentation. This risk can be mitigated by accurate data recording and tracking. For example, a handbook can be used to document pertinent facts regarding the project, for example, the project start and stop dates, the execution of the interventions, the number of nurses at the beginning and end of the project, as well as the number of newly employed nurses within the life of the project. Such data should also be backed up online to avoid the loss of information. With these measures in place, it would be possible to have the right facts at the end of the project. The team member responsible for responding to the risk is the nurse leader.
The Organizational and Human Resources Plan
A project organization refers to an arrangement that simplifies the harmonization and execution of project activities. It creates a setting that promotes interactions among team members without significant interruptions, intersections, and conflict. The following figure shows the proposed project organizational structure.
The first category of project team comprises sponsors. Their duty is to provide financial resources to execute the project. This role is played by the board of directors, who will be involved in the planning phase of the project. No specific qualifications. However, they should be able to authorize the spending of hospital resources on specific projects.
The second project team member is the project coordinator. Their role is to synchronize the running of the project by appointing leaders in charge of the different interventions. This position requires at least a bachelor’s degree in healthcare management. The project coordinator should be capable of leading teams towards a common goal and will be involved throughout the project life.
The third member of the project team is the training coordinator. Their duty is to appoint trainers and oversee training to implement orientation and onboarding. Therefore, they will be involved in the second part of the project together with the mentorship leader. The minimum qualification for this role is a master’s in nursing degree. The training coordinator should be capable of evaluating and measuring the training needs of staff, have strong communication and interpersonal skills.
The fourth member is the mentorship leader. His or her role is to appoint mentors who will be tasked with mentoring newly employed nurses. The expected qualification is a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree and at least 15 years of working experience. The mentorship leader should be capable of effective communication.
The fifth category of members consists of trainers. Their role is to execute the orientation and onboarding of new nurses. They should have a minimum of a diploma in nursing. Conversely, their capabilities include approachability, effective communication skills, and friendliness. The sixth group of the project team members consists of mentors. Their duty is to mentor the newly employed nurses. They should have at least a master’s degree in nursing and a minimum of 10 years of nursing experience. Additional capabilities include good communication skills, objectivity, honesty, compassion, good listeners, and inquisitiveness. These two teams will be appointed in the last phase of the project. A responsibility assignment matrix outlining the duties of each member is shown in the following table.
Summary of Key Information
This project has facilitated the learning of fine details regarding project planning and implementation. The most important ideas learned include conducting a risk assessment and creating an organizational structure based on project needs and execution. The most challenging idea is projecting possible risks in the risk assessment process. This knowledge can be applied in the management and implementation of healthcare projects at my place of work.
References
Baybutt, P. (2018). Guidelines for designing risk matrices. Process Safety Progress, 37(1), 49-55.
Fuente, J. A., GarcĂa-Sanchez, I. M., & Lozano, M. B. (2017). The role of the board of directors in the adoption of GRI guidelines for the disclosure of CSR information. Journal of Cleaner Production, 141, 737-750.
Fuller, C. W. (2018). Injury risk (burden), risk matrices and risk contours in team sports: a review of principles, practices and problems. Sports Medicine, 48(7), 1597-1606.
Mannion, R., Davies, H., Freeman, T., Millar, R., Jacobs, R., & Kasteridis, P. (2015). Overseeing oversight: Governance of quality and safety by hospital boards in the English NHS. Journal of Health Services Research & Policy, 20(1_suppl), 9-16.
Shirley, D. (2016). Project management for healthcare. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.