Chapter Two: Identify Essential Elements

You are currently on this Topic of Chapter Two:
• Introduction	• Get Organized Checklist	• Review Development Work	• Identify Essential Elements	• Plan Evaluation	• Summary

Identify Essential Elements

By reflecting upon what it is you hope to accomplish and beginning to think about how you will accomplish this task, you can start to assemble a list of "essential elements" for your project. Use this checklist to answer questions about the people, resources and feasibility of the project. Use the links in the checklist to find additional information for that item.

Overview & Checklist

This is the stage where you start identifying and gathering information for your implementation project. Have a look at the checklist to get an idea of the main topic areas.

Identify Essential Elements Checklist
	How do you describe the project? What needs to be written down and what kind of documentation would be most useful?
	What people do you need to involve and what level of involvement is required?
	How do you communicate or contact people?
	What skills and resources will you need to access to get the work done?
	What is available in VIHA and how do you go about locating what you need?
	Is the project feasible? Does it make sense from a human resource and financial point of view? Who can help you draw some comparisons or analyze the feasibility?

Identifying Resources & Determining Feasibility

At this stage, you need to start identifying the human and financial resources for your project to determine whether or not it is feasible. The following information will assist you.

Describing the Project

How would you describe your project - what do you want to do? Think about your target area, audience, trials, results and measures.
Look at how care is currently provided and what will need to change in order to implement the practice change or Standard. Think about the ways you will bring about the change in practice and what needs to be done differently and by whom.
Identify critical support systems and issues that impact direct patient care.
Identify and document how each step in the practice change or Standard will be done. Identify individuals and disciplines responsible for a specific step of the practice change or Standard implementation.
Make a list of committees and other forums to contact for the purpose of involving stakeholders in the work.
Identify key individuals who can be instructed in a "train the trainer" approach, and who will then help with the practice change or Standard implementation in their area.
Use this information to write up a summary or chart of your project with a list of estimated costs and timelines.

Identifying People Issues

Getting the work done means working with folks that are interested, that may be affected by the change and who have expertise to contribute to the project. You may be working by yourself or with a team. Consider carefully who you will want to work with. Forming a team might follow these steps...

An individual, sponsor or commissioning group will identify the need to support an implementation project. They will begin to identify representatives from all levels of the organization. Participants can come from a local site or other VIHA sites depending on the nature of the project.
Identify who may be interested in participating on an implementation team.
After participant(s), an individual, sponsor or commissioning group will confirm the participation of those individual(s) in the implementation project.
As the team comes together, clearly identify the roles needed to carry out the project tasks - including the leader, and reporting responsibilities. In smaller projects - one person may have to switch hats!
The project leader can meet with supervisors, managers or directors to obtain commitment for the individual or team members' participation and to outline responsibilities of the individual(s) or implementation team.

Locating Skills & Resources

Use the Intranet to "Navigate the Organization".
Check out the organizational resources that are available.
Examine other existing resources and tools to guide you through a practice change or an implementation project.

Gathering Support

Ask yourself, "Which leaders will be most affected and interested by the project or change? How can we obtain leadership and organizational support?"
Draw up a project statement, terms of reference or stewardship agreement with your sponsor or commissioning group. Start thinking about the individuals who may respond to preliminary requests for approval and support.

Evaluating Feasibility

Have a look at what it is going to take in terms of people, time, and money to implement your project. Take time to get help looking at the "big picture" from someone with project or financial experience or consider Assessing Implementation Readiness. Ask yourself, what will the organization (e.g. clients, staff, and leadership) get from implementing the practice change or Standard? What benefits will accompany the proposed change? Do other people think this project is feasible?
After talking to your interested stakeholders, try and gauge their interest in what you are trying to do - are people enthusiastic, willing to consider change or able to commit to the implementation project?
If there is a lack of interest, or the support and commitment to the project is questionable, review the proposal with your sponsor or commissioning group.
If there are not sufficient funds or interest to move forward with the project, make the decision to end the project.
If a decision is made not to implement at this time, stop now, document your rationale and communicate the decision to your sponsor or commissioning group and affected stakeholders.

Reflections

At this point, you've had a look at what you want to do and what you may need to accomplish those tasks.

The information uncovered at this stage will influence the scope of your practice change or Standard implementation, as well as the amount of resources required. Use key stakeholders - such as leaders, and health care professionals working in the practice area - and the results of your information gathering to answer the issues and questions above.

By engaging in dialogue with your workplace colleagues, you can obtain feedback on the value of your ideas. Do you have sufficient support, interest and commitment to go forward with your implementation plans? This is the point where you need to decide if you are going to stop working on the project or continue on with implementation. After determining your project's feasibility, you can finish this chapter with our last topic - evaluation!

Get Organized Checklist
	Review development work
	Identify Essential Elements - people & tools
	Plan evaluation

Once you've given thought to the essential elements, you may want to consider some initial evaluation planning. The "next page" tab will move you to the last checklist item for this chapter.