Module 4 Discussion: Initial Post
Words on the Lobby Wall: What a Mission Statement Commits a Hospital To
The composite independent hospital we have followed in this course has a mission statement in its lobby: "To provide compassionate, high-quality care to every person we serve." Its vision is "To be the region's most trusted hospital," and its values are compassion, excellence, integrity and teamwork. None of these statements is wrong. The problem is that almost every hospital in the country could hang them, which means they tell a new nurse, a board member or a patient very little about what this hospital will do when choices are hard.
Ginter et al. (2018) treat the mission as the starting point of strategy, and the research on mission statements supports a cautious view of their power. Pooling twenty years of research, Desmidt et al. (2011) estimated that mission statements bear only a small positive link to financial performance, and the size of that link swung widely with how each study measured it. In hospitals specifically, Bart and Tabone (1998) found that the reasons behind a mission statement and, above all, the degree to which the organization aligned its behavior with it mattered to both the mission's and the hospital's success. A mission helps when it guides decisions; it does little when it only decorates walls.
What This Mission Should Commit the Hospital To
Our analyses in earlier modules showed that the hospital's real advantages are its nursing culture, its primary care network and its community's trust, and that the community most needs help with diabetes, mental health and getting a primary care appointment. A more useful mission would name those commitments. I would propose: "We keep the people of our region healthy close to home, through nurses and physicians who know them, and we measure ourselves by the health of our community, not only by the patients in our beds." A vision could follow from it: "By 2030, every patient with diabetes or heart failure in our service area will have a care team that follows them between visits." The values could stay, but each should be defined by a behavior, for example integrity as "we tell patients and staff the truth about costs, risks and mistakes."
How Staff Can Tell Whether It Is Real
A staff nurse cannot audit the strategic plan, but can use three practical tests. The first is resources: when the budget is tight, does money follow the mission? A hospital committed to care close to home should protect its community clinics and home-based services before it cuts them. The second is hard decisions: when a service loses money but meets a stated community need, as behavioral health often does, does leadership explain its choice in terms of the mission, or only in terms of margin? The third is everyday permission: can a nurse who stays an extra twenty minutes to arrange a diabetic patient's follow-up point to the mission and be supported rather than questioned about overtime?
If the answers are mostly yes, the mission is doing its work. If they are mostly no, the statement is marketing, and staff will know it. My question for classmates: can you name one decision in your organization in the last year that was explained by its mission, and did the decision match the words?
References
Bart, C. K., & Tabone, J. C. (1998). Mission statement rationales and organizational alignment in the not-for-profit health care sector. Health Care Management Review, 23(4), 54-69. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004010-199810000-00005
Desmidt, S., Prinzie, A., & Decramer, A. (2011). Looking for the value of mission statements: A meta-analysis of 20 years of research. Management Decision, 49(3), 468-483. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741111120806
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). The strategic management of health care organizations (8th ed.). Wiley.
How this N 547 Module 4 example is structured
Aspen does not publish N547 module prompts, so check your classroom for the exact discussion question. This example quotes and critiques a composite hospital's statements, uses research on when missions affect performance, proposes a revised mission and vision tied to earlier analyses, defines values as behaviors, offers three practical tests and closes with a question for peers.
N547 Module 4 questions, answered
What does N547 Module 4 usually ask for?
Strategic planning in N547 includes setting direction, and a discussion of an organization's mission, vision and values is a common mid-course task. Check your classroom for the exact question and reply requirements.
What is the difference between a mission and a vision?
A mission states why the organization exists and whom it serves now. A vision describes what the organization wants to become or achieve in the future, ideally concretely enough that progress can be measured.
Do mission statements affect performance?
Research finds a small positive relationship on average, and studies of not-for-profit hospitals suggest the benefit depends on whether the organization actually aligns its decisions and behavior with the mission.
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