| Course | DNP 835 Strategic Leadership and Business Management |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 8 |
| Paper type | Project management plan |
| Length | About 1,014 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | DNP |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for DNP 835 Module 8
From Charter to Close-Out: The Integrated Project Management Plan for the 5 West Acute Care for Elders Initiative
Student Name
Doctor of Nursing Practice Program, Aspen University
DNP 835: Strategic Leadership and Business Management
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
From Charter to Close-Out: The Integrated Project Management Plan for the 5 West Acute Care for Elders Initiative
A project management plan brings together the separate plans a project needs, scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, communication, risk, stakeholders and change control, into one document that guides execution and holds the team accountable. Standard project management practice treats these as interdependent: a change in scope affects schedule and cost, and a risk to staffing affects quality (Project Management Institute, 2021). This paper presents the integrated plan for the initiative on 5 West, a medical unit at a composite community hospital, drawing on the charter, business case, staffing analysis and stakeholder analysis developed earlier.
Scope and Objectives
The project delivers five products: a prepared unit environment, protocols that nurses follow for walking, bathroom schedules, eating, rest and delirium, built into the electronic record, daily interdisciplinary rounds, pharmacist medication review with early discharge planning, and a trained staff with an evaluation system. The model is supported by evidence that geriatric unit care using its components reduces falls, delirium and functional decline and shortens stays (Fox et al., 2012), and that a community hospital improved its care processes with it at no added cost (Counsell et al., 2000). Objectives for the first year after go-live are a 25% reduction in falls among patients aged 70 and older, a fall in discharges to skilled nursing facilities from 31% to 26%, rounds held on 90% of weekdays and length of stay at or below baseline. Work outside these products, such as changes to other units, requires formal approval.
Schedule and Cost
The schedule runs 32 weeks to go-live, with milestones for charter approval, protocol approval by the nursing practice council, completion of the electronic record build, completion of training and go-live, followed by 12 months of evaluation. The critical path runs through protocol approval, record build and training, and the informatics build slot has been reserved in advance.
The approved first-year budget is $142,000 for the clinical nurse specialist, pharmacist time, environmental changes, education and project management, plus $78,000 for a mobility technician, for a total of $220,000. The business case estimated conservatively quantified benefits of about $231,000 from shorter stays and fewer injurious falls; with the technician included, the first-year return is close to break-even, with larger returns in later years as one-time costs end and if length-of-stay effects exceed the conservative estimate. The project manager reports spending against budget monthly.
Quality and Measures
Quality is managed through a family of measures. Outcome measures are the fall and injury-fall rates for patients 70 and older, delirium incidence, length of stay and discharge destination. Process measures are protocol completion rates from weekly audits, completed mobility sessions, rounds attendance and pharmacist reviews completed. Balancing measures are registered nurse overtime, sitter use and staff-reported workload. Data are reviewed weekly by the core team for the first three months and monthly thereafter, displayed on run charts.
Measure definitions are fixed before go-live so results cannot be reinterpreted later.
Resources and Communication
Resources include the half-time geriatric clinical nurse specialist, the mobility technician, pharmacist and physical therapy time, informatics analyst hours and education time for about 60 unit staff. The communication plan matches channels to audiences: a one-page monthly status report with milestones, budget and risks for the sponsor and executives; updates at hospitalist group meetings; shift huddles and a unit board for 5 West staff; and a handout and bedside explanation for patients and families. The stakeholder map is reviewed at each milestone.
Every report states plainly what is on track and what is not.
Risk Management
Each major risk has an owner and a planned response. Staffing shortages that prevent protocol delivery are owned by the nurse manager, with the response of holding go-live if vacancies exceed 10% and protecting the mobility technician from being reassigned. Hospitalist nonattendance at rounds is owned by the hospitalist co-lead, with attendance reported to the hospitalist group monthly. Bed management overriding the priority rule is owned by the bed management director, with weekly review of the share of older patients on the unit. Delays in the informatics build are owned by the project manager, with a paper-based interim protocol ready if needed. Nursing assistants on nights not adopting the mobility role are owned by the night charge nurses, supported by super users and direct feedback.
Change Control and Team Leadership
Proposed changes to scope, schedule or budget are documented, assessed for impact by the project manager and approved or rejected by the sponsor, which prevents gradual expansion of the project. The core team works under norms that encourage members, including staff nurses and assistants, to raise problems early, since the people doing the work usually see failures first, and decisions and action items are recorded after each meeting.
Close-Out and Sustainment
The project closes when all deliverables are accepted, protocol adherence reaches 80% in three consecutive weekly audits, and a sustainment plan is approved. At close-out, ownership transfers from the project team to operations: the nurse manager owns daily delivery, the clinical nurse specialist owns protocol updates, the quality department owns measurement, and the nursing practice council reviews results twice a year. A final report documents results, costs, lessons learned and recommendations on spreading the model to other medical units.
Lessons learned are gathered throughout rather than only at the end: after each milestone the core team records what went well, what did not and what it would do differently, so that the final report reflects the whole project and not only its last weeks. Those lessons will guide the spread decision, including which components can move to other units unchanged and which need adapting.
Conclusion
The integrated plan links the project's scope, schedule, cost, quality measures, resources, communication, risks, change control and close-out into a single framework for the 5 West initiative. Updating the cost picture for the added staffing, naming owners for every risk and planning the handoff to operations from the start give the project a realistic path to improving care for older patients and a basis for deciding whether to spread it.
References
Counsell, S. R., Holder, C. M., Liebenauer, L. L., Palmer, R. M., Fortinsky, R. H., Kresevic, D. M., Quinn, L. M., Allen, K. R., Covinsky, K. E., & Landefeld, C. S. (2000). Effects of a multicomponent intervention on functional outcomes and process of care in hospitalized older patients: A randomized controlled trial of Acute Care for Elders (ACE) in a community hospital. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 48(12), 1572-1581. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2000.tb03866.x
Fox, M. T., Persaud, M., Maimets, I., O'Brien, K., Brooks, D., Tregunno, D., & Schraa, E. (2012). Effectiveness of acute geriatric unit care using acute care for elders components: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 60(12), 2237-2245. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.12028
Project Management Institute. (2021). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (7th ed.). Project Management Institute.
DNP 835 Module 8 instructions, in plain terms
The final DNP 835 prompt is available only inside Aspen's course, so this sample was assembled from the course summary in the catalog. A closing project plan usually asks you to integrate scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, communication, risk and change control into one document, often following the areas of project management practice. Your prompt may require a specific template, appendices such as a Gantt chart or risk register, or a presentation. Feedback from earlier modules may also need to be addressed, if your instructor asks for it. Check the length, the source count and whether earlier tables can be reused. Many instructors welcome reuse as long as every figure has been updated to match the final plan.
How this DNP 835 Module 8 example is built
The example is roughly 1,015 words across eight sections. Scope and objectives restate what the project will and will not do. Schedule and cost summarize the timeline, the critical path and the updated budget. Quality and measures define outcomes and process measures. Resources and communication list staff, roles and the reporting rhythm. Risk management names risks with owners and responses. Change control and team leadership explain how changes are approved and how the team is led. Close-out and sustainment describe handing the model to unit operations and monitoring it afterward. The conclusion restates how the plan integrates the course's tools and why honest updates matter. Each section is short enough for a sponsor to read before a steering meeting.
Reading the DNP 835 Module 8 grading rubric
The rubric for a final project plan will reward integration, accuracy and realism. This example earns integration points by linking every section to the same scope and measures, and the margin notes explain why updating the return to include new staffing strengthens credibility. Owned risks and change control show management discipline that graders look for. Close-out and sustainment address a criterion students often miss. Organization follows standard project management areas. Because this is the final paper, consistency with earlier modules adds synthesis points. Format credit depends on accurate citation of sources and consistent figures across sections, including the same budget total wherever it appears.
DNP 835 Module 8 help from the desk
Students often assemble earlier assignments without updating them, so the budget, timeline and staffing no longer agree. Reconcile every number. Another common mistake is leaving out change control, which is how real projects handle new requests without losing scope. Include it. Papers also stop at go-live, with no plan for handing the work to operations. Add close-out and sustainment. Some students list risks without owners or responses. Assign both. Finally, keep the plan readable. Leaders will not read a long narrative, so use headings, short paragraphs and tables where they help the reader. Put the decision points and dates where a sponsor will see them first.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Aspen University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
More DNP 835 and DNP sample papers
- DNP 835 Module 1: Systems Theory and Resistance to Change
- DNP 835 Module 2: Critique of a Health Care Leadership Role
- DNP 835 Module 3: Comparing Quality Improvement Models
- DNP 835 Module 4: Project Charter, WBS and Timeline
- DNP 835 Module 5: Business Case and Return on Investment
- DNP 835 Module 6: Staffing, Productivity and Resources
- DNP 835 Module 7: Stakeholders and Leading the Project Team
- DNP 830 Module 2: An Emerging Infection Expanding Its Range
- DNP 851A Module 4: Barriers and Small Tests of Change
- DNP885 Module 1: Environmental Scan and SWOT
- DNP880 Module 1: Project Problem and PICOT
DNP 835 Module 8 questions, answered
What does DNP 835 Module 8 usually ask for?
Aspen's DNP 835 description builds toward leading health care projects, so a complete project management plan for an initiative is a typical final assignment. Check your classroom for the required sections.
What does a project management plan include?
Integrated plans for scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, communication, risk, stakeholders and change control, plus how the project will close and hand off to operations.
What is change control?
A formal process for proposing, assessing and approving changes to a project's scope, schedule or budget, which prevents uncontrolled expansion.
Where can I find a free DNP 835 Module 8 sample paper?
This page carries the full integrated project management plan for the acute care for elders initiative, annotated throughout, and it is free to read. Plans for other projects are drafted to order through the form.
What does a DNP 835 Module 8 project plan include?
It usually covers scope, schedule, cost, quality, resources, communication, risk, change control and close-out, integrated into one document. This example includes each area and updates the budget to reflect changes made earlier in the course.