Writing a Compelling Prospectus to Garner Institutional Support for WOC Nurse Staffing and Education

Topic:  WOC Specialty nurses are an essential part of the hospital team, yet garnering support to expand a WOC team can seem like a daunting task.  Despite recognizing the need for succession planning and expansion of services due to increasing hospital size, WOC nurses in this organization were unable to present a compelling case to hire more staff.   One nurse administrator requested a proposal that included items which were not familiar to the WOC specialty nurse such as return on investment.

Purpose:  To demonstrate the process of proposal writing as applied to the WOC nurse for team expansion

Objective:  To demonstrate key steps in proposal writing for hiring more WOC nurses and education funding.  The process will present the value of the WOC nurse by demonstrating a case to health system administration on the value of the WOC nurse to their patient outcomes, patient satisfaction, quality of care and return on investment. The role of statistical data will be demonstrated when writing a prospectus for additional staff.  The poster will present a template that applies the principles of a business prospectus.

Outcomes:  After presentation of the proposal, one staff nurse was provided with funds to attend a WOC program.  Furthermore, the  proposal was requested as a model for other staff education proposals by the human resource department.  A proposal to hire additional WOC NP staff has now navigated its way past the first round of approvers and awaits budget funding.