Discussion: Implementation Strategies
Discussion: Implementation Strategies

Question Description
Throughout this course, you have been developing a workflow redesign that could be applied in a health care practice setting. However, determining an appropriate workflow redesign is only part of the process. It is much easier to design something on paper than it is to actually make it work effectively within an organization. Nurse informaticists must consider how the workflow redesign can be implemented in a real-world organization. Attention needs to be focused on understanding organizational risks, organizational culture, and the needs of the end user. Implementing a new project may be disruptive. The key is to plan in such a way as to minimize this disruption as much as possible.

In this Discussion, you consider possible implementation strategies for the workflow redesign measure that you selected for your Course Project.

To prepare:

Review the articles in this week’s Learning Resources and reflect on the insights they provide on implementing a workflow redesign project within a health care setting. Also reflect on your past experience with workflow redesign and technology integration. What implementation strategies were applied?
Review pages 474–478 in the Dennis text. Identify a specific implementation or conversion strategy that would be appropriate for the workflow redesign you selected for your Course Project. For example, will it be a phased implementation? If so, which applications will be launched first, and why?
Consider why the strategy you selected would be appropriate for the scope of your workflow redesign project and your practice setting. Reflect on how it will support the needs of end users.
Consider the benefits and drawbacks of applying the implementation strategy you selected. What would the positive outcomes be? What potential challenges or barriers might you encounter?
With these thoughts in mind:

Post a summary of the workflow redesign measure you plan to use for Part 3 of your Course Project. Describe the implementation (or conversion) strategy you would recommend, and justify why it would be appropriate in your practice setting and for the scope of your workflow redesign. Explain the potential outcomes of this strategy, including benefits and potential obstacles.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.