Financial and Business Management for the Doctor of Nursing Practice
Key Definitions and Concepts
Staffing Mix: The ratio of different types of personnel, such as RNs (Registered Nurses), LVNs (Licensed Vocational Nurses), and other staff (e.g., RNs 40%, LVNs 40%, others 20%).
Standard Deviation: A measure of the dispersion of a set of values. It is the positive square root of the variance of the distribution. Represented mathematically as: Variance
Statement of Cash Flows: A financial statement reporting a company's cash flow activities, categorized into operating, investing, and financing activities.
Statement of Comprehensive Income: A financial report detailing an institution's income, expenses, and profits over a specific period; also known as the profit and loss statement (P&L).
Statement of Financial Position: A report on a company's assets, liabilities, and ownership equity at a specific point in time; also known as a balance sheet.
Statistical Deviation: The amount by which an individual data point differs from the mean (average) of the group.
Statistical Significance: A statistical measure (p-value) evaluating the probability that the observed result occurred by chance. It determines whether to reject or accept the null hypothesis based on a predefined significance level.
Statistician: A professional who collaborates with the Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-Investigators (Co-I) to set specific research aims, design the analysis plan, assist in database development, and oversee the analysis process.
Statistics: The mathematical procedures used to organize, analyze, and interpret data.
Strategic Goals (Objectives): High-level statements that define targets and describe how an organization aims to progress from its current mission to its desired vision.
Strategy Committee: The group responsible for guiding the strategy process within an organization.
Strategy Process: A systematic, cyclical, dynamic, and comprehensive framework for organizational management, encompassing formulation, operationalizing, execution, and monitoring.
Substrategies: Specific methods implemented to achieve strategic goals.
Sunk Costs: Resources already spent on a project or investment that should not be considered when evaluating net present value.
Supply Chain Management: Systems for the careful management of supply ordering, purchasing, and dispensing.
SWOT Analysis: A tool used to analyze an organization's strategic capabilities and positioning by evaluating its Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
Synergistic Effect: The phenomenon where a group produces more knowledge or output than the sum of its individual members working independently.
Systems Theory: A theory used in complex settings like healthcare to analyze processes by breaking them into parts and then reassembling them to understand how the parts function within the overall system.
Systems Thinking: A method of root cause analysis that examines the interrelationships of individual parts; problem-solving through investigating cause-and-effect actions between systems.
Tactical Map: A document illustrating the specific tactics to be performed by units, departments, teams, and individual employees within an organization.
Tactical Planning: A component of operationalizing, involving deriving strategy execution tasks, assigning them to responsible parties, and setting completion timelines.
Tactics: Planned activities undertaken to meet stated strategic objectives.
Terminal Value: A method for estimating the worth of a project or investment at a future point. It involves applying an industry-comparable earnings multiplier to the EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) to estimate the overall value of a mature enterprise.
Therapeutic Fibbing: Making untrue statements to patients to avoid causing distress and to help them feel safe and comforted.
3-F Framework: An approach for vetting capital projects and expenditures in organizations that considers three components: finances, fit, and feasibility.
Time-Constrained Project: A project where the timeline is inflexible, and additional resources are allocated to compensate for the fixed schedule.
Total Paid Hours: The total number of hours an employee is paid for, including both time spent in assigned duties (worked hours) and nonproductive time (e.g., education).
Total Worked Hours: Total hours an employee has worked and been paid for. It does not include benefit time or nonproductive time such as education, meetings, and orientation (if classified as nonproductive).
Turnover Rate: The rate at which employees leave an organization, calculated by dividing the number of employees leaving by the average number of employees during the year and multiplying by 100.
Uninsured: Individuals without health insurance due to choice, cost, or other barriers.
Units of Service (UOS): The number of activities performed in a unit, linked to the revenues measured against labor and other expenses. For example, census for inpatient units and visits for outpatient clinics. Reported as hours, dollars, or FTEs per unit of service.
Validity: The degree of certainty that collected data accurately represent the intended concept.
Value: A payment model where the organization providing services is rewarded based on the value delivered.
Values: A framework that guides prioritization, problem-solving, conflict resolution, and strategy development. It allows individuals within an organization to evaluate decisions, take pride in their work, and make commitments.
Variable Costs: Costs that change in proportion to volume, such as payroll costs.
Variance: The difference between planned costs and actual costs.
Variation: The degree to which data points in a group are spread out or close together. It measures the sameness of a group of data points.
Virtual First Model: A healthcare model where digital communication with a physician or other healthcare provider is the initial point of contact for patient care; also known as the digital first model.
Vision Statement: A forward-looking statement describing what a firm aspires to be and do.
Wage Index: A value, associated with the Office of Management and Budget's core-based statistical area (CBSA), based on geographic designations that is used to adjust the base rate.
Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC): A discount rate representing the combined risk-adjusted opportunity cost for a company's debt and equity holders or an organization's cost of accessing cash for investment.
Wicked Problems: Complex problems that are difficult or impossible to solve due to incomplete or contradictory knowledge, the number of people and opinions involved, the large economic burden, and interconnectedness with other problems.
Work Agreements: Specifications of the contract under which an individual was hired, including hours to be worked, job code/position, hourly or nonexempt/exempt status regarding overtime, and expected benefits.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): A diagram outlining a project's work elements.
Working Capital: An organization's current assets and current liabilities.
Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB): A budgeting system where each year's budget starts at zero, requiring justification for all expenses.