Nurse managers operate with their team to control all areas of day-to-day patient care in their departments or units ( Dunham-Taylor & Pinczuk, 2014 ). They help unit team members to deliver the safest possible care by ensuring the staff, patient, and patient families communicate. Also, nurse managers are mandated to coordinate the development of a budget. Nurse Managers establish aims and plan the budget for their roles or the roles of their nursing unit. After budget development, the draft is presented to the management and finally to the board of directors for approval. It is, therefore, important for nurse managers to be familiar with the budget process. Nurse Managers deal with two budgets every day, including the capital budget and operating budget. The operation budget entails all revenue and expenses for daily operations, while capital budgets entail major fixed assets and mobile equipment, for instance, renovation of the nursing administration suite.
In the development of the budget, nurse managers should identify the patient outcomes and the necessity for changing services or resources used. The information is gathered from the previous statistical budget report and the company's objectives and goals, and the healthcare trends in both reimbursement and care ( Finkler & McHugh, 2007) . The nurse manager often works with the company’s finance department in the budget process. As a nurse manager, I will always ensure I include my team in budget development using several strategies. To begin with, I will ensure I get them involved in establishing the goal and forecast of the budget. This will help assist them in comprehending the budgeting process and create an idea of shared ownership, hence motivating the intention to find creative manners to manage expenditures. Next, I will ensure different departments coordinate to develop the budget, working as a team. This will allow open communication within the different levels of staff and departments, resulting in an exchange of ideas enhancing creativity. Communication helps keep the team informed of the project’s budget forecast, ultimately encouraging productivity and accountability. Open communication also enhances the ownership of a project.
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Further, assigning roles and responsibilities to respective departments or individuals will help keep them on their toes and encouraged as they play their part. During the process of budget development, I will assign the roles that will help in ensuring I involve all the team members and the departments in the process. This will promote unity as they will have to work together and assist each other ( Finkler & McHugh, 2007) . Additionally, it will help in offloading the workload encountered by the accounting department. Nurse managers should always keep their team informed about the decision made throughout the year. They should be transparent about any changes in the goals, expenditure, and revenue of the organization. The team members should be aware of the status of the budget. An informed team is empowered to feel ownership of the project. Keeping the team informed will help in making the team be more observant of the project charges and notice any weakness or error, thus improving the overall budget of the organization ( Dunham-Taylor & Pinczuk, 2014 ).
Generally, the nurse manager is mandated to assure fiscal accountability for their department or unit. They should operate their respective unit as if it were their company, whether they are managing for-profit or non-profit health care system. They should ensure that the resources are appropriately utilized to provide the best and safest care for patients.
References
Dunham-Taylor, J., & Pinczuk, J. Z. (2014). Financial management for nurse managers . Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Finkler, S. A., & McHugh, M. (2007). Budgeting concepts for nurse managers . Elsevier Health Sciences.
