Who will be the audiences for these various communications, and how will you ensure that each audience receives the correct information in an appropriate manner and time?

The healthcare industry is constantly changing, and healthcare professionals should be prepared for the challenge. As the final stop in your journey toward your Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences, you will integrate the knowledge and skills you have developed in previous coursework and over the duration of the term into a capstone assessment. Your assessment will consist of two components that will allow you to evidence knowledge, skills, abilities, and dispositional growth you have experienced during your program.

The first component will require you to place yourself in the role of a new manager operating as the project lead in the development of new services or initiatives within your area of expertise/interest (e.g., radiological technology, health information management, dental hygiene). For example, those of you with experience and interest within radiological technology will be able to select a service that falls within this area. Graduates of this program will often be asked to plan, supervise, and coordinate healthcare needs of patients and clients, so these skills are featured in the assessment for this course. You will develop a project plan in the form of a presentation that is designed to be given before a board of directors for approval. In addition to the knowledge you have gained throughout your program, your presentation will also need to show your ability to communicate effectively with various stakeholder audiences, integrate appropriate presentation methods for the content and audience, as well as integrate the various soft skills necessary for successful management.

The second component of your capstone assessment is a professional reflection in which you will reflect upon your capstone, program, and professional experiences and draw connections and inferences about your growth, ethical practice, and professional goals.

Evaluation of Capstone This capstone will be assessed somewhat differently than other courses you have taken online at SNHU. There are two separate components, which will be submitted at different times during the course; however, they both operate together to comprise the whole capstone experience and are not assessed separately. You will be evaluated on both as a unit in determining whether you have demonstrated proficiency in each outcome. Your instructor will guide you through this process, keeping a running narrative of your strengths and weaknesses in relation to the outcomes as you progress through the class. Your work is expected to meet the highest professional standards.

The project is divided into five milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules One, Two, Three, Four, and Five. The project plan presentation will be submitted in Module Seven, and the professional reflection will be submitted in Module Eight.

In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:

 HCM-491-01: Engage diverse healthcare stakeholders using communications that reflect keen interpersonal skills, effective collaboration practices, and deep cultural competence

 HCM-491-02: Demonstrate knowledge of microeconomic, macroeconomic, and financial principles through monitoring and utilization of financial and economic data for decision making and strategic planning

 HCM-491-03: Utilize principles and functions of management to foster organizational development, promote effective use of human resources, and enhance operations

 HCM-491-04: Assess contemporary policies, regulations, and governance structures relevant to the United States healthcare delivery system and their implications for ethical decision-making

 HCM-491-05: Promote dynamic organizational cultures that establish strategic visions, methodically analyze and interpret data based on sound epidemiological and statistical principles, and embrace change for continuous healthcare quality improvement

 HCM-491-06: Demonstrate the application of healthcare management principles to improve the delivery of patient care within their technical discipline/department

Prompt Working individually with your instructor, you will select, research, and analyze a healthcare service need for a targeted patient population. You may choose your current healthcare employer, or you may select a healthcare agency or provider with the approval of your instructor. Generally speaking, you will conduct research on a healthcare agency’s need that will form the basis of your project plan and ultimately lead to findings and recommendations that attempt to address the identified need. This first component will also inform your professional reflection, in which you will evaluate your experiences in this program, capstone experience, and field of interest and discuss the importance and impact of ethical practice in healthcare.

Capstone Component 1: Project Plan Presentation Your project plan must be submitted in the form of a comprehensive presentation to the board of directors of your selected institution for approval and buy-in. You have the flexibility to utilize PowerPoint or another comparable presentation tool, with instructor approval. Your presentation is expected to be professionally crafted to the needs and specifications appropriate for the discipline, area of interest, and type of initiative you are proposing. Because your initiative or project plan will be different from others’ in your capstone experience, you will likely include different additional resources, information, visuals, and strategies for progress. At minimum, your presentation must address/include the following:

I. Profile: Provide the agency or institution profile and background (i.e., type of organization, historical information, information about growth, current or past initiatives, etc.).

II. Healthcare Need: Identify the need or opportunity within the organization and describe its impact for the organization, its purpose and target population, and impacts to the greater healthcare environment, if any. How do you plan on addressing this need or opportunity? What is your initiative?

III. Evidence: Provide the research evidence that shows that the identified need or opportunity is in fact a need, and any research you completed to formulate the initiative.

IV. Implementation Plan: Provide a comprehensive plan for implementation that includes the following: A. A discussion on the target area or intended population to be served and the identified needs to be solved by the initiative. This is also where you

should establish the goals. B. The timeline and implementation milestones of the initiative. C. An assessment of the financial impact of the initiative, including any necessary capital expenditures, necessary fundraising, or potential financial

benefits that may result from the initiative. Depending on your initiative, your response to this section may include much more detail and areas of financial impact.

D. An evaluation of additional resources needed to effectively implement the initiative, including staffing, equipment, technology needs, and so forth.

E. Consideration of all federal and state regulations relevant to the proposed initiative and what needs to be done to ensure that the initiative follows these regulatory and legal standards.

F. An ethics review to ensure ethical implementation and ethical practice regarding the initiative. This may require identifying potential ethical challenges and formulating plans for monitoring behavior, practices, procedures, and so forth.

V. Evaluation Plan: This plan for managing and measuring progress and success of your initiative should include the following: A. A discussion of the specific goals and milestones of implementation of the initiative. Be sure to lay out your goals in a clear, obtainable fashion

and to ensure that progress milestones are clear, reasonable, and consistent. B. Specific definitions of measures of progress towards obtaining the intended goals and a description of the tools that you would use to measure

progress. What strategies will be used to measure success, and how will adjustments be made should progress towards these goals fall short or change?

C. How do you intend to collect and analyze information to ascertain stakeholder satisfaction with the initiative? What information will be looked at, and who are the stakeholders that will be considered?

VI. Communication and Management Plan: This plan for communicating with the various groups and stakeholders should include the following: A. Progress Communication: Discussion on the strategies and practices that will be used to communicate progress with management, the board of

directors, and other stakeholders within the organization. B. Change Management Plan: Discussion on strategies that will be used to guide relevant parties through the changes that the initiative will

require. This will need to include strategies on dealing with impacted employees, patients, clients, and even departments and outside stakeholders, depending on the type of initiative within your organization.

C. Post-Implementation Communication: How will results and ongoing communications be provided? Who will be the audiences for these various communications, and how will you ensure that each audience receives the correct information in an appropriate manner and time?