Finance Management in Nursing
In this paper, I discuss my financial knowledge and competence relating to budgeting, financial indicators, accountability, and breakeven cost analysis. I believe the mentioned areas of competence are significant to future nurse leaders. To start with, understanding and making budgets is my core strength. Per Muller (2013), nurses need to demonstrate great awareness when budgeting for supply, medication, equipment, and staffing. I possess the financial literacy to evaluate the costs of medication, equipment acquisition, and staffing against the revenue streams. I rely on quick and helpful nursing tips and reminders to allocate adequate funds to the different units to enhance sustainability and ability to generate substantial revenues.
Monitoring an institution’s financial indicators is one of my core weaknesses. I struggle to understand the financial operations and expectations within departments or units. Muller (2013) affirms that nurses should be able to discern whether a hospital unit generates sufficient revenues to sustain operations. I tend to struggle in understanding financial indicators because the various units of a hospital or clinic are driven by different missions and operations. The differences in missions and operations make difficult the expected revenue flows. This means I cannot be able to provide time-saving financial insights to middle-level managers promptly when needed.
Integrating the different units into a common financial system represents an opportunity to demonstrate my financial competence. Muller (2013) avers that future nurse leaders need to acquit themselves with finance and performance indicators knowledge to succeed. Since monitoring the financial indicators is a weakness, I believe that integrating the units can eliminate complexities and barriers to appropriate financial management in healthcare institutions. I rely on my negotiation and convincing skills to secure senior managers buy-ins with regard to integrating the financial systems. Providing concise explanations are instrumental in convincing senior managers to support the integration initiatives.
The presence of non-credible sources of information in hospital units is a core threat that affects the utilization of financial data to make decisions. Muller (2013) opines that nurse should be proficient and feel comfortable when discussing finance with key organizational stakeholders during decision-making process. However, inaccurate data may affect the entire decision-making process. This means I need to examine and locate credible sources information among the untrusted sources. The hospital units can, therefore, manage credible information relating to consumer reports, equipment acquisitions, and inventory. I can then be able to discern the difference in bargains and scams that may jeopardize the financial credibility of a healthcare organization and decisions implemented.
There are unique financial principles not examined by Muller. Apart from understanding the budget process and financial indicators, nurses should demonstrate competence in financial accountability and breakeven analysis. Financial accountability is directly linked to the mission, vision, and values of an entity aimed at achieving mission-advancing performance. This means that before I examine the financial indicators and costs, I have to comprehend what the organization attempts to achieve. Consequently, I can then analyze the costs to achieve a balanced scorecard outcome for the healthcare institution. Additionally, the breakeven analysis is a core fundamental principle for healthcare leaders because it provides the frameworks to discern the bottom-line of revenues and costs. As such, understanding the breakeven point of a healthcare business is essential in influencing future investment decision. The investment decisions made by an entity will likely depend on expected profits and losses derived from the breakeven analysis.
Reference
Muller, R. (2013). Bull’s eye! Hitting the financial knowledge target. Nursing Management, 44(10), 53-55.