Budget for Medical Supplies Discussion
Question Description
I’m working on a Nursing question and need guidance to help me study.
After your monthly review of your unit’s operational budget, you find you are over your budget for medical supplies. What steps would you take to investigate why this happened and how to correct the issue?
It is incredible what we learn through weekly class discussions and from each other’s posts and how applicable it is to our careers. Often managers speak about budget, staffing, supplies, and resources, and from this week’s readings, this writer has learned other importances of budgeting for businesses. Budgets help organizations control spending, determine priorities, plan for future growth, plan for the unexpected decline, plan for large capital expenditure and identify new investment opportunities (Biermeier, 2016). In healthcare, budgets are essential to reporting activities and resources used and have three primary functions planning, reporting, and managing (Penner, 2017). Managers use operating budgets to help evaluate how well a unit or organization is doing with its income and expenses. “Operating budgets are used in the day-to-day management of health settings” (Penner, 2017). Adequate resources, whether human or physical, are needed to provide safe and efficient care, which can affect a unit’s operating budget.
A manager or leader must not turn a blind eye when there is an over-the-budget of medical supplies or when costs exceed revenues. There must be some investigation or Assessment of why this has happened to solve or correct the issue. Overbudgeting can negatively impact patient outcomes, departmental outcomes, and the department’s staff. Several steps can be used to investigate a department’s overbudgeting. A manager should evaluate if the overbudget is due to internal factors such as waste of resources, increased patient count, or external factors such as increased medical supplies. Review reports and the budget to ensure there is no error on the part of the manager. Communicate budget issues with staff and reinforce the importance of staying within budget; communication is a great way to get staff involved in action plans, feedback and to help problem-solve any departmental issues. Monitoring staff adherence to planned budget; helps identify as soon as possible if there will be an issue with overbudgeting so the problem can be addressed promptly to avoid more significant problems in the future (Walsh, 2016). Managers must do a budget investigation to determine the root cause of budget problems and consider variances and supply chain management (Penner, 2017). Proper budgeting and keeping within budget limits can make or break a unit’s or an organization’s optimal functioning and overall outcomes.
References
Biermeier, C. (2016). The importance of having a budget. https://www.wegnercpas.com/the-importance-of-having-a-budget/
Penner, S. J. (2017). Economics and Financial Management for Nurses and Nurse Leaders (3rd ed.). Springer Publishing Company. ISBN: 978-0-8261-6001-0
Walsh, K. (2016). Managing a budget in healthcare professional education. Annals of Medical and Health Sciences Research, 6(2), 71-73. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4866369/
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.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
