Dear Editor,

I am responding to an article written in the July-September 2008 issue of the Journal of Nurse Administrator, where the authors, Claire Young, MSN, RN, MBA, and Dawn Gubanc- Anderson, RN, CNAA, BC, CHE, explained how healthcare organizations must develop a careful planned strategy that entails business-driven revenues while still delivering quality service efficiently and effectively, if they are to succeed. They have further explained that most healthcare organizations like hospitals have strategic plans that are nonfunctional and cannot be practically applied, which could sabotage the organization's expectation of defining their mission vision and core values.

In their research on the evolving role of the chief nursing officer (CNO), the authors found the secret of strategically managing an organization, especially when its core is focused "creating new values for its organization and its stakeholders." The cutting edge of technology demands strategies that are focused on outcomes with the aim of delivery, and not on a process. Therefore, strategic plans that are written and detailed lack creativity and simply do no work.

The authors found in their studies that healthcare organizations that consult system analysts like the "Kaplan and Norton's Consulting" that study strategic operations within healthcare organizations and have suggested that it would be a far better strategy to deploy an office of strategy management to oversee the corporate strategy execution. A far better plan came into view, however, to empower the employees within the organization and "equip them with the skills, tools, and methods to implement strategic change."

The evolving role of the chief nursing officer as the nurse strategy officer has since become increasingly challenging, and their attention must now be refocused on the improvement of strategic plans for the organization as well as the vision for the future. Strategic planning, therefore, must incorporate leaders at all levels that would advocate for nursing while still providing input for strategic development.

I am impressed with the research of these 2 talented authors and nurses as they have so eloquently addressed the ever-changing infrastructure of today's healthcare system and how we might begin to change our approach in the way we deliver healthcare today as opposed to many years ago. I am hoping that other hospitals will copy the strategic planning efforts that are now practiced by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation to implement strategic planning as well as providing a productive nursing organization.

Thanking you kindly,

-Joyce Perez-Paret, RN, BSN