PLANNING

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Vision, Mission, Philosophy, Goals and Objectives

Strategic and Operational Planning
Fiscal Planning
Planned Changed
Time Management
Career Development

Vision
An aspirational description of what an organization would like to achieve or accomplish
in the mid-term or long-term future. It is intended to serves as a clear guide for choosing
current and future courses of action
Mission
A written declaration of an organization's core purpose and focus that normally remains
unchanged over time. Properly crafted mission statements (1) serve as filters to
separate what is important from what is not, (2) clearly state which markets will be
served and how, and (3) communicate a sense of intended direction to the entire
organization.
A mission is different from a vision in that the former is the cause and the latter is the
effect; a mission is something to be accomplished whereas a vision is something to be
pursued for that accomplishment.
Philosophy
Philosophy is an academic discipline that exercises reason and logic in an attempt to
understand reality and answer fundamental questions about knowledge, life, morality
and human nature. The ancient Greeks, who were among the first to practice
philosophy, coined the term, which means love of wisdom. Those who study
philosophy are called philosophers.
Goals and Objectives
When you have something you want to accomplish, it is important to set both goals and
objectives. Once you learn the difference between goals and objectives, you will realize
that how important it is that you have both of them. Goals without objectives can never
be accomplished while objectives without goals will never get you to where you want to
be. The two concepts are separate but related and will help you to be who you want to
be.

Definition of Goals and Objectives

Goals are long-term aims that you want to accomplish.
Objectives are concrete attainments that can be achieved by following a certain
number of steps.
Goals and objectives are often used interchangeably, but the main difference comes in
their level of concreteness. Objectives are very concrete, whereas goals are less
structured.
Remembering the Differences between Goals and Objectives
When you are giving a presentation to a potential or current employer, knowing the
difference between goals and objectives can be crucial to the acceptance of your
proposal. Here is an easy way to remember how they differ:
Goals has the word go in it. Your goals should go forward in a specific direction.
However, goals are more about everything you accomplish on your journey, rather than
getting to that distant point. Goals will often go into undiscovered territory and you
therefore cant even know where the end will be.
Objectives has the word object in it. Objects are concrete. They are something that
you can hold in your hand. Because of this, your objectives can be clearly outlined with
timelines, budgets, and personnel needs. Every area of each objective should be firm.
Measuring Goals and Objectives
Goals unfortunately, there is no set way in which to measure the accomplishment of
your goals. You may feel that you are closer, but since goals are de facto nebulous, you
can never say for sure that you have definitively achieved them.
Objectives can be measured. Simply phrase your objective in the form of a question.
For example, I want to accomplish x in y amount of time becomes Did I accomplish x
in y amount of time? This can easily be answered in a yes or no form.

Planning
Planning as a basic function of management is a principal duty of all managers. It is a
systematic process and requires knowledgeable activity based on sound managerial
theory. Being the first element of management defined by Fayol, planning is making a
plan of action to provide for the foreseeable future. This plan of action must have unity,
continuity, flexibility, and precision.
Planning is a continuous process, beginning with the setting of goals and objectives and
then laying out a plan of action for accomplishing them, putting them into play, reviewing

the process and the outcomes, providing feedback to personnel, and modifying plans as
needed. As planning is put into action, the management functions of organizing, leading,
and evaluating are implemented, making all management functions interdependent.
Planning is a thinking or mental process of decision making and forecasting. It is future
oriented and ensures desirable probable outcomes. Likewise, it involves determining
objectives and strategies, programs, procedures, and rules to accomplish the
objectives. In nursing, planning helps to ensure that clients or patients will receive the
nursing services they want and need and that these services are delivered by satisfied
nursing workers.
Planning should be based on objectives that should be framed in terms of making a
product or providing a service for the community. Simplification and standardization are
basic to sound planning procedures. The product or service should be of the right
pattern. Planning provides information to coordinate work effectively and accurately. A
good plan should be based on an objective, be simple, have standards, be flexible, be
balanced, and use available resources first.
Planning improves with experience, gives sequence in activity, and protects a business
against undesirable changes. Fayol's concept was that planning facilitates wise use of
resources and selection of the best approaches to achieving objectives. Planning
facilitates the art of handling people. It requires moral courage, since it can fail. Effective
planning requires continuity of tenure. Good planning is a sign of competence.
TYPES OF PLANNING

Strategic Planning
Drucker defines strategic planning as "a continuous, systematic process of making risktaking decisions today with the greatest possible knowledge of their effects on the
future; organizing efforts necessary to carry out these decisions and evaluating results
of these decisions against expected outcome through reliable feedback mechanisms."
Nursing administrators can increase effectiveness through strategic planning, which can
promote professional nursing practice and the long-range goals of the organization and
the division of nursing.
Strategic planning in nursing is concerned with what nursing should be doing. Its
purpose is to improve allocation of scarce resources, including time and money, and to
manage the agency for performance. Strategic planning provides strategic forecasting
from one year up to more than twenty years. It should involve top nurse managers and

representatives of all levels of nursing management and practice. It will include analysis
of such factors as projected technological advances, the internal and external
environments, the nursing and health-care market and industry, the economics of
nursing and health care, availability of human and material resources, and judgments of
top management.
In today's world, the strategic planning process is used to acquire and develop new
health-care services and product lines, including new nursing services and products.
Strategic planning is also used to remove outdated services and products. Both
activities present moral and ethical dilemmas for the managers and practitioners of
nursing. Strategic planning can foster better goals, better corporate values, and better
communication about corporate direction. It can lead to changes in operating
management and organization. Strategic planning can produce better management
strategy and analysis and can forecast and mute external threats.
Odiorne recommends the following process for crafting a strategic plan:
1. Identify the major problems of your organization, determining where you are headed
and where you want to be. This is "gap analysis," a technique to examine markets,
products, customers, employees, finances, technology, and community relations.
Cabinets or task forces from each area may be helpful in doing gap analysis and
identifying major problems.
2. Examine outside influences that relate to the key problems of your organization.
Focus on the few major issues.
3. List the critical issues: those that affect the entire organization, have long-term
impact, and are based on irrefutable evidence rather than media hype.
4. Rank the critical issues according to their importance to your organization and plan
accordingly: "must do" and "to do" and "important but not urgent." Then divide them into
"success producers" and "failure preventers.''
5. Decide the critical issues to all organization managers.
6. Include time in the budget.
Strategic plans should be developed from the bottom up, the front line where business
occurs. The written plan should be shared with everyone, should not be slavishly
followed, as it will be constantly affected by change, and should be modified every year.

How Strategic Planning Can Be Used to Improve Nursing Management

To provide accountability and monitoring of performance; to tie merit to performance.
To set up more formal planning programs and require divisional and unit planning.
To integrate strategic plans with operational and financial plans.
To improve knowledge of and training in strategic planning.
To increase top management involvement and commitment.
To improve focus on competition, market segments, and external factors.
To improve communication from top administration and nursing management.
To allow better execution of plans.
To be more realistic, and less rationalizing and vacillating.
To improve the development of nursing management strategies.
To improve the development and communication of nursing management goals.
To put less emphasis on raw numbers.
To anticipate the future and plan for it.
To develop the annual budget.
To focus on quality outputs that will improve nurse performance and productivity,
decrease losses, and increase return on equity.
Summary of Phases of Strategic Planning Process
PHASE 1: The Mission and the Creed
Develop statements that define the work, the aims, and the character of the division of
nursing. These include idea statements of shared values and beliefs. They are called
mission (or purpose) and creed (or philosophy) statements and relate to personnel,
patients, community, and all other potential customers.

PHASE 2: Data Collection and Analysis

Collect and analyze data about the health-care industry and nursing. Such data should
include internal forces that define the work and affect employees, clients, stockholders,
and creditors; technological advances; threats; opportunities to improve growth and
productivity; external forces, such as competition, communities, government and
political issues, and legal requirements; marketing and public relations or image; trends
in the physical and social work environments; and communication. Use simple and
complex forecasting techniques, including trend lines, group consensus, nominal group
process, and a qualitative decision matrix that uses probabilities based on conditions of
certainty, risk, and uncertainty.
PHASE 3: Assess Strengths and Weaknesses
Define those factors from the data analysis that influence the management of the
division of nursing. List them as strengths or opportunities that will facilitate
effectiveness and achievement of goals and objectives or as weaknesses or threats that
will impede achieving goals and objectives. Define the current position and strength of
the unit.
PHASE 4: Goals and Objectives
Write realistic and general statements of goals. Break the goals down into concrete
written statements of objectives the division of nursing intends to accomplish in the next
three to five years.
PHASE 5: Strategies
Identify untoward conditions that could develop in achieving each objective. Note
administrative actions to avoid or manage them. Use this information to modify goals
and objectives, making contingency plans for alternative actions. Define the
organization needed for doing and implementing strategic plans. It should be interactive
if cross-functional activities are involved in a matrix organization.
PHASE 6: Timetable
Develop a timetable for accomplishing each objective. Identify by geographic units as
well. This phase will produce or become part of the plans.
PHASE 7: Operational and Functional Plans

Provide guidelines or general instructions that lead the functional and operational nurse
managers to develop action plans to implement the goals and objectives. These will
include detailed actions, policies, practices, communication and feedback, controlling
and evaluation plans, budgets, timetables, and persons to be held accountable.
PHASE 8: Implementation
Put the plans to work.
PHASE 9: Evaluation
Provide for formative evaluation reports before, during, and after the operational plan is
implemented. Provide for summative evaluation that is quantified. Report actual versus
expected results. Frequently evaluate the strategic mission and plan. Provide
continuous feedback that can be used to modify and update the plan. Use people who
implement the plan to evaluate it.

Operational Planning
Operational management is the organization and directing of the delivery of nursing
care. It includes such planning as creating a budget, creating an effective organizational
structure that encompasses a quality monitoring process, and directing nurse leaders,
an administrative staff, and new programs.
Operational plans are everyday working management plans developed from both longrange objectives and the strategic planning process and short range or tactical plans. In
development of operational objectives, new strategic objectives can emerge or old ones
can be modified or discarded. Strategic and tactical plans are made into operational
plans and carried out at all levels of nursing management, not just at the patient-care
level.
Operational managers develop goals, objectives, strategies, and targets to set the
strategic plan in motion. They match each unit goal or objective to a strategic goal or
objective. Their objectives can be much more detailed and specific than the strategic
objectives. Numerous operational objectives can support one strategic objective.
All aspects of an operational plan are based on goals and their achievement. The
individual leadership style determines whether goal setting will be of the top-down or
bottom-up variety. Bottom-up goal setting is participatory, using guidelines from the

operational manager. Participatory goal setting is believed to increase workers'

commitment and achievement. Increased participation leads to greater group
cohesiveness, which in turn fosters increased morale, increased motivation, and
increased achievement and productivity. Individuals, including professional nurses, can
ensure greater relative success in achievement of goals by building in some slack in
terms of projected resources and time. Nurses who reject goals of participating staff
should explain their reasons for rejection. Participation in goal setting does not alone
ensure success
The goal is to plan, assess progress toward goals and objectives at all levels, and
provide feedback to all levels of management. Efficiency is also a goal; all levels of
management should guard against unnecessary time spent in meetings. As organizing
changes are occurring, controlling activities are in operation and activities are being
evaluated.
NATURE OF PLANNING
The nature of planning can be highlighted by studying its characteristics. They are as
follows:
(a) Planning is a mental activity. Planning is not a simple process. It is an intellectual
exercise and involves thinking and forethought on the part of the manager.
(b) Planning is goal-oriented. Every plan specifies the goals to be attained in the future
and the steps necessary to reach them. A manager cannot do any planning, unless the
goals are known.
(c) Planning is forward looking. Planning is in keeping with the adage, look before you
leap. Thus planning means looking ahead. It is futuristic in nature since it is performed
to accomplish some objectives in future.
(d) Planning pervades all managerial activity. Planning is the basic function of managers
at all levels, although the nature and scope of planning will vary at each level.
(e) Planning is the primary function. Planning logically precedes the execution of all
other managerial functions, since managerial activities in organizing; staffing, directing
and controlling are designed to support the attainment of organizational goals. Thus,
management is a circular process beginning with planning and returning to planning for
revision and adjustment.
(f) Planning is based on facts. Planning is a conscious determination and projection of a

course of action for the future.

PURPOSES OF PLANNING
The following are some reasons for planning:
1. Planning increases the chances of success by focusing on results, not on activities.
2. It forces analytic thinking and evaluation of alternatives, therefore improving
decisions.
3. It establishes a framework for decision making that is consistent with top
management objectives.
4. It orients people to action instead of reaction.
5. It includes day-to-day and future-focused managing.
6. It helps to avoid crisis management and provides decision-making flexibility.
7. It provides a basis for managing organizational and individual performance.
8. It increases employee involvement and improves communication.
9. It is cost-effective.
Among the activities of planning that Douglass addresses are assessment by collection,
classification, analysis, interpretation, and translation of data; strategic planning;
development of standards; identification of needs and priority setting; management by
objectives; and formulation of policies, rules, regulations, methods, and procedures.
Donovan wrote that planning has several benefits, among which are satisfactory
outcomes of decisions; improved functions in emergencies; assurance of economy of
time, space, and materials; and the highest use of personnel. She included decision
making, philosophies, and objectives as key elements in planning.
REFERENCE
Swansburg, Russell and Swansburg, Richard. Introductory Management and
Leadership for Nurses: An Interactive Text, 2nd edition. Jones & Bartlett Publishers,
Inc.1999

Fiscal Planning
Financial Planning is the process of estimating the capital required and determining its
competition. It is the process of framing financial policies in relation to procurement,
investment and administration of funds of an enterprise.
Importance of Financial Planning
Financial Planning is process of framing objectives, policies, procedures, programmes
and budgets regarding the financial activities of a concern. This ensures effective and
adequate financial and investment policies. The importance can be outlined as1.

Adequate funds have to be ensured.

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Financial Planning helps in ensuring a reasonable balance between outflow and

inflow of funds so that stability is maintained.

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Financial Planning ensures that the suppliers of funds are easily investing in
companies which exercise financial planning.

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Financial Planning helps in making growth and expansion programmes which

helps in long-run survival of the company.

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Financial Planning reduces uncertainties with regards to changing market trends

which can be faced easily through enough funds.

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Financial Planning helps in reducing the uncertainties which can be a hindrance

to growth of the company. This helps in ensuring stability an d profitability in
concern.