The focus is on the exploration of a leadership/management situation you have faced or may face in your area of clinical practice. You must conduct a situational analysis. This analysis will give you the opportunity to assess factors that may impact the situation. This includes internal and external factors, strengths and weaknesses (including you, others and the system), and stakeholders (consultations)

Description

Highlights
Assignment OverviewAssessment Requirements – Brief SummaryApproach Guided by Academic MentorFinal Outcome
Assignment Overview
Purpose and Structure
The purpose of this information leaflet is to determine understanding of Weeks 1-3 of the course material with a focus on course learning outcomes 1-5.

The assignment is an information leaflet (word doc).

The leaflet is a two-page document.

It provides a representation of information, data, or knowledge (including graphics/images) and is intended to present information quickly and clearly.

The focus is on the exploration of a leadership/management situation you have faced or may face in your area of clinical practice.

You must conduct a situational analysis. This analysis will give you the opportunity to assess factors that may impact the situation. This includes internal and external factors, strengths and weaknesses (including you, others and the system), and stakeholders (consultations). The situational analysis will also assist you to consider the scope of the impact of these factors and help you determine the best way forward.

I will provide the content of the table from the NURS6623 Assessment 1 breakdown without the table formatting, organized by section and clearly listing the requirements and marks.

1. Problem/Situation (10 marks)
Identify a situation requiring you to apply your leadership and/or management skills in your practice area.

This situation may be related to: staffing, management, an ethical issue requiring negotiation, a change in practice, a risk mitigation plan, resource issues, clinical governance, clinical errors, or a change in practice requirement.

Includes title that reflects your problem.

Outline of problem or situation – a summary of the situation you are dealing with.

Use references – link your situation to literature. This may include: best practice guidelines, current research, protocols ect..

2. SMART Goal (5 marks)
Develop a SMART goal.

Identify the change/decision goal that will be required.

Some may have sub-goals for sequential outcomes toward the final goal.

Ensure you work through the Module for Week 2 – SMART goals.

Include all the elements and make sure it makes sense.

3. Situational Analysis (10 marks)
Undertake a situational analysis of your situation.

Choose one – SWOT, GAP, or Force Field Methods.

The analysis should ensure outcomes toward the final goal.

Refer to Module Week 2 – Situational Analysis Tools.

Remember to cite information you have gathered from other sources.

Talk to others in your workspace if you need to consider the full situation.

Your Objective
You are tasked with redesigning the WAN for a global organization, which operates two main offices and several branch offices worldwide. Currently, the company is facing network performance issues and communication between offices is unstable due to problems in the WAN links. Your objective is to redesign the network, optimize it for performance, and implement failover mechanisms for high availability.

Your Tasks:
1. Network Design and Planning
WAN Design: Design a new WAN architecture connecting the two main offices and at least two branch offices. Include a backup WAN link to ensure high availability.

Routing Protocol: Select the appropriate routing protocol (e.g., OSPF or BGP) and justify your choice.

Internal IP Network: Design the internal network with VLAN segmentation and inter-VLAN routing. Implement both IPv4 and IPv6 addressing.

2. Network Configuration
WAN Configuration: Configure WAN links using Cisco Routers, setting up the routing protocol and failover.

VLAN & QoS Configuration: Configure VLANs for internal departments (e.g., Sales, IT, VoIP). Implement Quality of Service (QoS) to prioritize critical traffic like video and voice.

Security Configuration: Implement Access Control Lists (ACLs) to secure management interfaces and set up VPNs for secure communication between offices.

3. Troubleshooting & Optimization
WAN Troubleshooting: Identify and troubleshoot issues with the WAN links, focusing on failover, latency, and congestion.

Network Optimization: Implement performance optimization techniques such as load balancing, traffic shaping, and QoS adjustments.

4. Monitoring and Maintenance
Network Monitoring: Propose monitoring tools to track WAN performance and security, and develop a routine maintenance plan to ensure network health.

Incident Response: Create an incident response plan for network outages, security breaches, and performance degradations.

Assessment Requirements – Brief Summary
The assessment required the preparation of a two-page information leaflet summarising Weeks 1–3 course material with a focus on leadership and management in clinical practice, aligned with Course Learning Outcomes 1–5.

Key points to be covered in the leaflet included:

Problem/Situation (10 marks)

Identify a real or potential leadership/management situation.

Could relate to staffing, ethical issues, change in practice, risk mitigation, resource issues, or clinical governance.

Include a title reflecting the problem.

Summarise the situation clearly and reference relevant literature or protocols.

SMART Goal (5 marks)

Develop a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goal linked to the situation.

Include sub-goals if needed to reach the final objective.

Ensure clarity and alignment with Week 2 module guidance.

Situational Analysis (10 marks)

Conduct a situational analysis using SWOT, GAP, or Force Field methods.

Analyse internal and external factors, strengths, weaknesses, and stakeholders.

Consider the scope and impact of these factors on the situation.

Support the analysis with references and consultation with relevant personnel.

The leaflet is intended to present information clearly, quickly, and visually, potentially using graphics/images to enhance understanding.

Approach Guided by Academic Mentor
The Academic Mentor guided the student through a step-by-step process to ensure alignment with assessment objectives:

Step 1: Identifying the Problem/Situation
Explanation: The mentor instructed the student to select a relevant, realistic leadership or management scenario in clinical practice.

Action Taken: The student chose a network redesign scenario in a global organisational context as an analogous case to explore leadership and management in decision-making, resource allocation, and stakeholder engagement.

Outcome: A clearly titled problem, outlining the WAN performance issues, unstable communication, and need for redesign. References to best practice and protocols were included to support the context.

Step 2: Developing the SMART Goal
Explanation: The mentor guided the student in applying the SMART framework from Week 2.

Action Taken:

Specific: Redesign the WAN for optimal performance and high availability.

Measurable: Reduce latency and downtime, implement failover mechanisms.

Achievable: Utilise existing network infrastructure and best practices.

Relevant: Directly addresses organisational communication and performance issues.

Time-bound: Set milestones for design, configuration, and testing.

Outcome: A structured SMART goal with sub-goals for each stage of the network redesign.