There are many ways to ensure the success of a change project, and one of them is to choose stakeholders. Stakeholder management is a complex process that includes the identification of internal and external stakeholders, the assessment of their skills and knowledge, and the determination of their interests and needs (Pandi-Perumal et al., 2015). In a clinical research setting, change projects should have external (independent consultants, patients, and media) and internal (a healthcare setting that needs change and a project team) to promote support, reduce risks, and grant acceptance.
Stakeholder engagement plays a crucial role at the beginning of the project. During the change proposal project implementation stage, stakeholders must be identified to understand their potential impact and responsibilities. Although it is easy to introduce change and prove its urgency for a healthcare setting, it turns out to be difficult to find supporters and explain the necessary actions in a clear way. Therefore, stakeholders are divided into external and internal to define the scope of their contributions (Pandi-Perumal et al., 2015). In a project, internal stakeholder support is obligatory to enhance coordination and the choice of resources locally. External stakeholder support incorporates the feedback of service users (patients), public opinion, and independent expert consultations. All these stakeholders promote a possibility to understand if the change is appropriate for a healthcare setting.
To secure the presence of internal and external stakeholders in my project, I am going to focus on statistics, outside examples, and personal experiences. First, stakeholders must understand that the offered change has meaning. Then, definite numbers and examples should represent strong evidence. Finally, my personal involvement and the desire to change and contribute to improvements in nursing and healthcare demonstrate the project’s feasibility due to human factors, knowledge, and experiences.
Reference
Pandi-Perumal, S. R., Akhter, S., Zizi, F., Jean-Louis, G., Ramasubramanian, C., Edward Freeman, R., & Narasimhan, M. (2015). Project stakeholder management in the clinical research environment: How to do it right. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 6. Web.