| Course | NSG 321 Advanced Leadership and Management |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 8 |
| Paper type | Management action plan |
| Length | About 800 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | RN to BSN |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NSG 321 Unit 8
Six-Month Management Action Plan for a 30-Bed Medical Unit, April to September 2026
Student Name
Department of Nursing, Herzing University
NSG 321: Advanced Leadership and Management
Instructor Name
March 12, 2026
Six-Month Management Action Plan for a 30-Bed Medical Unit, April to September 2026
Situation and Goals
I am the nurse manager of a composite 30-bed medical unit with 52 staff. The course's earlier work identified more problems than one manager can address in six months: new graduates leaving in their first year, patient-handling injuries, safety information lost between shifts, inconsistent delegation to nursing assistants, and a punitive response to errors that has discouraged reporting. This plan selects three goals for April through September 2026 and defers the rest, because a plan that attempts everything at once usually finishes nothing (Marquis & Huston, 2021).
Goal 1: first-year turnover among new graduates hired from April onward at or below 25%, tracked by cohort. Goal 2: ceiling lifts installed in eight rooms and lift use in dependent transfers above 70%. Goal 3: a daily safety huddle attended by at least 9 of 11 day staff, with safety events reviewed under a just culture approach.
Each goal was chosen because the unit's own data showed the problem and because published work suggests the chosen approach can move it. Hospitals with established, structured transition programs have reported lower new-graduate turnover than hospitals without them (Spector et al., 2015). Short, scripted safety huddles are a recognized way for a team to share what it knows about risk each day (Goldenhar et al., 2013). The goals were also chosen for what they unlock: a working huddle makes the later handoff redesign easier, and retaining new graduates reduces the overtime that makes every other change harder.
Actions
Each action has one responsible role, a start date, a completion date, and a way to confirm it happened that does not rely on asking whether it was done.
| Action | Owner | Start | Done by | How completion is confirmed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Submit ceiling lift request to capital fund | Nurse manager | April 1 | April 15 | Committee minutes record approval |
| Install lifts in eight rooms | Facilities, with educator | After approval | July 31 | Facilities sign-off per room |
| Train all staff on ceiling lifts | Unit educator | July 15 | August 31 | Training roster, 100% of direct care staff |
| Stepped assignments for new graduates after orientation | Charge nurses | April 1 | Ongoing | Assignment board audit, weekly |
| Primary and backup preceptor pairing | Scheduler and educator | April cohort | Ongoing | Share of orientation shifts with assigned preceptor, monthly |
| Manager check-ins at 3, 6, 9, 12 months | Nurse manager | April | Ongoing | Check-in log against hire dates |
| Move safety huddle to 10:30 a.m. with fixed script | Charge nurses | April 6 | April 30 | Huddle attendance sheet, daily |
| Just culture training for charge nurses | Manager, with risk management | May 4 | June 15 | Attendance for all 8 charge nurses |
| Review each reported event with the just culture algorithm | Nurse manager | June 15 | Ongoing | Event log shows classification and response |
Dependencies
The order of the actions follows what depends on what. Lift installation cannot start before capital approval, and training cannot finish before installation, so the lift actions run April to August even though the need is urgent. Event reviews under the just culture algorithm begin only after charge nurses are trained, so that the same approach is used whoever is in charge. The huddle comes first among the safety actions because it is where the other changes will be announced and where problems with them will surface.
Resources
Money: $59,200 in capital funds for the lifts and about $6,400 a year for slings and maintenance from the supply budget; about $13,300 a year for stepped assignments, absorbed through reduced agency use. Time: my own time for check-ins, about 11 new graduates at four meetings of 30 minutes each, or 22 hours a year, plus about 3 hours a week for event reviews and plan tracking. Educator time for lift training, about 30 hours. These estimates matter because the plan must fit alongside scheduling, budget work, and daily operations.
Risks and Responses
Capital request denied or delayed: install four rooms first if partial funding is offered, and continue the floor lift audit so the need stays visible. Staffing shortage in the summer: stepped assignments are the action most at risk; if the unit is short, new graduates keep the stepped load and experienced nurses take the extra patient, because losing a new graduate costs more than one difficult week. Huddle attendance falls: shorten the script before relaxing the expectation. My own capacity: if an unexpected demand, such as a survey or a leadership vacancy, takes my time, check-ins are delegated to the assistant manager rather than dropped.
Communication
Staff hear about the plan at the April staff meeting and in writing, with the three goals and the reasons for them. Progress is posted monthly at the station as three numbers: new graduate retention by cohort, lift use, and huddle attendance. The director receives a one-page update each month. The nurse manager competencies describe communication of this kind, linking unit goals to staff understanding of why they matter, as a core management skill (American Organization of Nurse Executives [AONE], 2015).
Deferred, and Why
Two needs are deliberately deferred to the next six months. Delegation practice with nursing assistants needs a competency validation program that the educator cannot build while also running lift training; it starts in October. The bedside handoff redesign depends on the huddle being established and on staff having capacity for another change; it starts in November. Naming these now tells staff the problems have been heard, and keeps them from being quietly forgotten.
Review Points
I will review the plan with the director at the end of June and the end of September. At each review, every action is marked done, on track, or behind, with the reason, and the plan is adjusted. An action that is behind twice is either given more resources or moved to the deferred list; it is not left on the plan as an intention.
References
American Organization of Nurse Executives. (2015). AONE nurse manager competencies. American Organization of Nurse Executives.
Goldenhar, L. M., Brady, P. W., Sutcliffe, K. M., & Muething, S. E. (2013). Huddling for high reliability and situation awareness. BMJ Quality & Safety, 22(11), 899-906. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2012-001467
Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2021). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (10th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
Spector, N., Blegen, M. A., Silvestre, J., Barnsteiner, J., Lynn, M. R., Ulrich, B., Fogg, L., & Alexander, M. (2015). Transition to practice study in hospital settings. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 5(4), 24-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2155-8256(15)30031-4
Reading the NSG 321 Unit 8 instructions
Unit 8 asks you to write a management action plan that brings together the course's earlier work. Expect to state the situation and goals, list actions with owners, dates and confirmation methods, explain dependencies, list resources, name risks with responses, plan communication, state what you are deferring and set review points. Many versions ask how many actions to carry and what counts as confirming completion. Six months is a common span, though some sections ask for a year. Confirmation should not rely on someone's word; use minutes, logs or data. Deferring some needs shows judgment. Review points with clear status categories turn the plan into something a director can track. Each goal should trace to an earlier unit's finding, such as injuries or turnover.
Inside the NSG 321 Unit 8 example
The plan opens with the unit and three goals drawn from earlier analyses. A table lists each action with owner, dates and confirmation method. The dependencies section explains which actions must wait for others. The resources section lists money and hours. The risks section pairs each risk with a response. Staff learn the goals at the April meeting and see progress posted monthly. The deferred section names two needs left for later and why, such as delegation training that needs a competency tool first. The review section sets dates and status categories. The plan reads as something a manager would actually use, and each action traces back to an earlier unit's findings.
Reading the NSG 321 Unit 8 rubric
Herzing's rubric for the action plan typically covers goals, actions with owners and dates, confirmation methods, dependencies, resources, risks, communication and review. Confirmation methods and dependencies draw the closest reading, since graders want actions that can be verified and sequenced. Goal points reward links to earlier analyses. Resource criteria look for money and hours. Risk earns credit for paired responses. Deferred items show judgment and are often credited. Review points should have dates and status categories. Plans with fewer, well-confirmed actions usually score higher than long lists. Communication with staff, including how progress is shared, is often credited separately. The AONE nurse manager competencies and Marquis and Huston's text belong in the APA 7 references.
Common NSG 321 Unit 8 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Action plans in Unit 8 commonly lose points through actions without owners or dates. Another frequent problem is confirmation that relies on someone saying it was done. Students often ignore dependencies. Too many actions make the plan unrealistic. Risks are not named. Communication with staff is missing. Nothing is deferred, which suggests the plan tries to do everything. Finally, set review points with status categories, because graders reward a plan a director could check at the end of June without asking the manager what happened. Another weak spot is a plan whose goals do not match the earlier analyses, so it reads as new ideas rather than follow-through. Resources should list hours as well as money, since staff time is often the real constraint.
Get a NSG 321 Unit 8 example written to your instructions
Send the Unit 8 instructions and the rubric from your NSG 321 classroom, plus the earlier units your plan draws together. We write a custom example where every action has an owner, a date and a confirmation method, returned in 24 to 48 hours. The first custom sample is free.
More NSG 321 papers and RN-to-BSN samples
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- NSG 321 Unit 2: Staffing and assignment plan
- NSG 321 Unit 3: Performance feedback conversation
- NSG 321 Unit 4: Team communication redesign
- NSG 321 Unit 5: Resource justification memo
- NSG 321 Unit 6: Just culture event review
- NSG 321 Unit 7: Staff retention plan
- NSG 324 Unit 8: Evidence presented to the unit
- NU 305 Unit 8: Self-assessment against BSN competencies
- NU 345 Unit 8: One health issue across the lifespan
- NU 476 Unit 8: Sustainability and handover plan
NSG 321 Unit 8 questions, answered
How many actions should the plan carry?
Fewer than you want. A nurse leader executing this plan is also running a unit, and a document with fifteen actions produces three completed and twelve carried forward looking like failure. Choose what matters most for the period, sequence the rest explicitly for later, and the plan becomes something that can actually be delivered.
What counts as confirming completion?
Something observable rather than a status update. A document produced, a schedule published, a training register showing attendance, a policy signed. Asking whether an action is on track reliably returns yes until the deadline arrives, so name the artifact or the event that would demonstrate it happened and check for that instead.
Why state what I am not doing?
Because it makes the rest believable and protects you later. A plan that appears to address everything invites the assumption that all of it is underway, and when three things move and nine do not, the plan looks failed rather than prioritized. Naming the deferred items, with the reason and the intended cycle, is the mark of a leader who has decided.
Where can I find a free NSG 321 Unit 8 sample paper?
This page holds the whole NSG 321 Unit 8 six-month action plan free, actions with owners and confirmation, dependencies, risks and review points. A custom action plan can draw on your own earlier units.
What should a nurse manager action plan include?
Goals, actions each with one owner, dates and a way to confirm completion, dependencies, resources, risks with responses, staff communication, deferred items and review dates. This sample covers each for a medical unit over six months.