Our week 7 TD focuses on the budget.  This week’s TD was designed assuming all students would be in a traditional practicum setting.  The main prompt will be hard to address for the virtual students so I’ll pose a different question for you.

Traditional students (Sherry and Stephan): Respond to the main prompt related to your actual project.  You may have to dust off some of your notes from NR533 and refresh your memory on concepts and tools such as variance and forecasting.  For many nurse leaders, budget and finance is a weak point in their skill set.  But it’s important to understand the budget process in your organization.

You’ll recall that as part of developing your project charter (Week 2), you submitted a preliminary budget. This week’s lesson goes into much greater depth on the financial aspects of a project. This is a good time to look at your preliminary budget, consider what was presented in this week’s lesson, and reflect back on other financial concepts and tools you learned throughout the nurse executive track. Use the following questions as the basis for your discussion this week.

• What variances can you identify on your project to date? If you had to report on the reason for variances +/- 10% of budget, what would your report say?

Think back to lessons and discussions on forecasting. What adjustments do you feel you need to make to your project budget based on your progress to date and what you foresee moving forward? What changed to cause you to have to adjust (forecast) the project budget?

???? Virtual students: You are told that your original budget of $1 million is being cut to $750,000.00.  Go back to the budgets that you set for your project where I encouraged you to budget for most, if not all (or more) of the $1 million.  Given this reduction in your budget, what changes will you make to bring your project in line with the new amount?  Talk about your decision-making process.  What will you cut and why?  How will this impact the overall success or quality of your project?

Important note: All projects have a budget!!!  No project is “budget neutral” or “costs nothing to the organization”.  Even if you’re the only person assigned to the project, your salary or the time you spend on the project is costing the organization money.  Please think carefully about your project’s resources and the financial implications of your project.  As executive leaders this is an important aspect of your role.