Project Management Plans for Improvement

Overview
You work at a health or healthcare organization where you identified a health or healthcare issue you believe needs to be addressed. To address this issue, you have been asked to design an effective health program. As a first step, you will conduct a needs justification to gather information on the population you intend to target, as well as an analysis of best evidence-based practices implemented by other organizations with similar programs. This work will help you identify a health or healthcare issue to be addressed through a program that you will plan with the help of your team.

You are required to work on and share your needs justification with senior management at your organization so they can decide whether to approve the plan and implement it. Then, you will use facts, statistics, and published information to identify the scope of the need and validate its relevance to the present scenario. This assignment will help you identify and validate the program idea you will use for the course project. Remember, before you begin working on future project preparation assignments and the course project, integrate the feedback you will get from your instructor.

Prompt
Write a needs justification analysis that focuses on the health or healthcare issue and the target population for your eventual program plan.

Specifically, you must address the following rubric criteria:

Health or Healthcare Issue: Describe the health or healthcare issue that needs to be addressed.
Location and Target Population: Describe the specific location and target population impacted by the selected health or healthcare issue. Your selected location must be somewhere within the United States or its territories and cannot be larger than a city or county. Be sure to include appropriate demographic information, such as age, income, education, ethnicity, and so on. Consider the following questions to guide your response:
What are the primary and secondary populations impacted by the identified problem or issue?
Which two key characteristics of your target population should you consider while designing the program? Explain your reasoning.
Program Goal: Describe the overarching goal of your program. Consider the following questions to guide your response:
What are the two measurable outcomes that would help evaluate your progress toward the goal?
What challenges do you foresee in attaining the goal or outcomes?
Health or Healthcare Disparities: Describe how you will address health or healthcare disparities among the target population related to your chosen health or healthcare issue.

Consider the following questions to guide your response:
What are two health disparities that you believe exist in your community, city, or state?
What are the potential causes of these disparities?
What is the significance of considering and incorporating health or healthcare disparities in program planning?
Healthcare or Community Service Organization: Describe why the healthcare or community service organization is, or should become, involved in addressing your chosen health or healthcare issue. Consider the following question to guide your response:
What role can the identified healthcare or community service organization play in addressing the problem?
Note that all the claims in your needs justification should be evidence based. Your citations should be from your independent search for evidence (not from the scenario, textbook, or module resources) of credible sources and be current within the last five years. You are required to cite a minimum of two sources overall. Refer to the Shapiro Library Guide: Nursing—Graduate located in the Start Here section of the course for additional support. If you need writing support, access the Online Writing Center through the Academic Support module of your course.

Guidelines for Submission
Your submission should be a 2- to 3-page Word document. Also include a title page. Use 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. Sources should be cited according to APA style.