This paper presents a comprehensive project resource and management plan for a nursing facility's new-hire registered nurse orientation program. It outlines a five-year operating budget covering salaries, equipment, and nursing supplies, and identifies the physical space and equipment resources needed to simulate clinical settings. The paper also details marketing strategies—including billboards, medical journals, and social media—and examines funding sources such as Health Resources and Services Administration grants, Medicare, and patient co-payments. Finally, it addresses key project risks, including nurse turnover and poor return on investment, and provides a detailed week-by-week timeline for the program's first year.
An operating budget is a strategy — or basic blueprint — describing the manner in which the everyday activities within nursing facilities will be monitored and carried out, together with the personnel, resources, and supplies, over a defined period of time. It is essentially an approximation of revenues and expenses over that period (Foley, 2005; Clark, 2005). The table below illustrates the operating budget for the nursing facility orientation project over the first five years of operation.
Expenses — Years 1 through 5
Salaries: $1,700,000 (Year 1) — figures continue across subsequent years as part of the ongoing staffing commitment.
Advertising and Recruitment / Orientation and Training: These costs are highest in Years 1 and 2, reflecting the initial effort to attract and onboard new hire nurses.
Equipment: $1,200,000 (Year 1); $1,150,000 (Year 2); $900,000 (Years 3–5).
Nursing Supplies: $990,000 (Year 1); $900,000 (Years 2–3); $780,000 (Years 4–5).
Total: $4,560,000 (Year 1); $4,194,000 (Year 2); $3,992,000 (Year 3); $3,852,000 (Years 4–5).
It is important to note that the budget does not include revenue from the project. Prior to the inception and operation of the program, it is difficult to measure the amount the facility will gain in improved health care. It is generally accepted that the nurse manager may not be required to calculate and evaluate revenue from the program within the budget (Untalasco-Gealan, 2013). The trend in the operating budget is clearly visible. For instance, expenses incurred through advertising and recruitment will be most heavily felt in the first two years of the orientation program. The same applies to equipment investment; once new hires have undertaken their licensure examinations during the first three years, less and less equipment is required (Friedman et al., 2013). Furthermore, according to Danna (2008), every nursing unit is considered a cost center and therefore carries its own operating budget. However, nursing services that are encompassed in the general charges for room and board are not considered revenue-producing.
The orientation program is designed to bridge the gap between newly graduated nurses who lack experience and their more experienced colleagues, while simultaneously offering newly graduated registered nurses support mechanisms, educational tools, and professional mentoring. The program also provides the essential transition for new hire registered nurses from a theoretical foundation into practical application. During the initial five years of the program, there will be considerable need for both physical space and equipment (Friedman et al., 2013).
Physical space will be required to house the equipment used in the orientation program as well as to store nursing supplies. Equipment will be used to simulate the desired clinical setting, with the program developing various scenarios that replicate authentic clinical and nursing environments for the training of new hires. This will necessitate space — potentially within existing buildings — to accommodate these settings.
Examples of equipment used within the orientation program include intravenous pumps, dressing supplies, hospital beds, and stethoscopes. These are portable items that can be shared across different centers, allowing the nursing facility to utilize space within a teaching facility for such equipment. In addition, there will be a need for non-portable equipment, such as MRI scanners, which require dedicated permanent space.
The orientation program will be marketed through several channels. The sales and marketing manager of the nursing facility will be responsible for developing and phasing the marketing strategies used to communicate the orientation program offered by the establishment. Initially, the project will be marketed using billboards and posters in and around the state in an effort to attract potential new hires. Another strategy will involve advertising in medical journals and periodicals widely read by nurses, doctors, and other professionals in the nursing sector. This will not only reach prospective new hires directly but also spread awareness through word of mouth among nursing professionals.
"Grants, Medicare, and government funding sources"
"Nurse turnover and return-on-investment concerns"
"Week-by-week schedule for the first program year"
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