Action Planning Process
After assessing current sustainability capacity of your patient navigation practice with the PNSAT, take the following steps to create your sustainability action plan. Visit the Tools and Templates page to download the sustainability action plan template.
Step 1: Discuss PNSAT Results with the Sustainability Planning Team, including Successes and Challenges
Review the results of the PNSAT with your organization's sustainability planning team and take some time to discuss the successes and challenges of each Sustainability Domain within the context of your patient navigation practice. Include discussion of your responses to the guiding questions as well as scores for specific items.
Consider the similarities and differences of your individual PNSAT scores with the average scores of the sustainability planning team.
Step 2: Develop the Goal and Focus for Your Sustainability Action Plan
Select domains of focus: Identify and prioritize 1-2 domains to be addressed in a time-bound sustainability action plan that are feasible to target for change. Use the PNSAT results to guide your decision, but don't focus your selection on only the scores. You may need to develop longer-term strategies to tackle the more difficult domains to modify.
Draft the sustainability goal and sub-objectives: Write an actionable goal that will enable your organization to increase sustainability capacity for the patient navigation practice. The objective should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time Bound (SMART). We recommend focusing the goal on 1-2 domains that can be feasibly targeted for change. You may need to create sub-objectives for each domain addressed.
Identify essential partners and resources needed: list the internal and external partners that are important to involved in the development and implementation of the sustainability action plan, as well as the resources needed to reach the sustainability goal.
Step 3: Write the Sustainability Action Plan
For each sustainability objective, outline the necessary steps and timeline to achieve the objective. Be as specific as possible. For each step, include the individual(s) responsible for the work, key metrics and benchmarks, resources needed, and deadlines.
Step 4: Implement the Sustainability Action Plan
Follow the steps of the sustainability action plan, documenting progress made along the way and making adjustments to the plan as needed. We recommend checking in with the sustainability planning team and key partners at least quarterly (or more often).
Step 5: Reassess Sustainability Capacity and Update the Sustainability Plan Annually
Sustainability planning is not a one-time activity; it is an iterative process. In order to measure change in sustainability capacity over time, we recommend that the sustainability planning team retake the PNSAT at least annually and use the results to update the sustainability action plan.
Consider:
Changes in the PNSAT scores, as well as recent successes and challenges.
Have you been successful in achieving your sustainability goal? Why or why not?
How the sustainability goal and action plan can be updated to further strengthen sustainability capacity. Are there different domains that are now priorities?