Categories: SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis in Nursing & Health care

SWOT analysis for Nurses and Health care environments

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in a health care environment.

SWOT – for management, mentoring and nursing

A SWOT analysis is a tool that can provide prompts to the managers, clinical leads, nurse tutors, nurse mentors and staff involved in the analysis of what is effective and less effective in clinical systems and procedures, in preparation for a plan of some form (that could be an audit (CQC), assessments, quality checks etc.). In fact a SWOT can be used for any planning or analysis activity which could impact future finance, planning and management decisions. It can enable you (the management& clinical staff) to carry out a more comprehensive analysis.

Definitions of SWOT

Strengths – Factors that are likely to have a positive effect on (or be an enabler to) achieving the clinic’s objectives
Weaknesses – Factors that are likely to have a negative effect on (or be a barrier to) achieving the clinic’s objectives
Opportunities – External Factors that are likely to have a positive effect on achieving or exceeding the clinic’s objectives, or goals not previously considered
Threats – External Factors and conditions that are likely to have a negative effect on achieving the clinic’s objectives, or making the objective redundant or un-achievable.

Before starting any planning or analysis process you need to have a clear and SMART goal or objective. What is it that you need to achieve or solve? Ensure that all key stakeholders (relevant to the issue being explored) buy into this objective or goal.

Then undertake a PESTLE analysis (or PESTLE in Clinics), this will provide you with the external factors (OT).

Use the PRIMO-F model to ensure all internal factors are considered

Conducting a SWOT analysis in a clinical environment

One of the most effective ways to conduct a SWOT analysis is not in isolation, but with a team effort. When the goal is shared, then a brainstorming session can be run.

Ensure than when running such a session it is facilitated by a person not involved with the content – this is best with an independent person. If budgets do not allow this – then talk to another establishments head, and arrange a contra deal.

Do this activity in a number of phases:

Share the goal
Data collection (no filtering or comments – record verbatim) consider all areas of PRIMO-F
Take a break of at least 1 hr
Filter, sort and analyse into the 4 areas – SWOT – be critical and SMART avoid ambiguous statements or ideas at this stage
Prioritise the elements

Have a second session where the planning phase takes this data and puts it into a realistic plan.

IMPORTANT TIP – do not hide or underestimate threats or weaknesses – if you ignore them or underplay them now they will come back to haunt you at some stage – probably when they can do most damage!

The goal of any session like this is not necessarily to neutralise any weakness or threat – that is impossible – but to have it on your radar – and where possible take avoiding action. To some extent it is all about risk.

What sort of tasks and issues can this be used for?

At its most complex and comprehensive, it can be used for business planning, however it is also of value to solving localised issues and challenges.

An Example of a nursing based SWOT

We will use an example of a nurse working within a primary care clinic who want to improve the relationship with their patients.

TASK

Define the goal and measurable outcomes – i.e. to have less than 50% of patients spending one hour waiting for treatment
Consider the current activities you have in place to encourage patient-partnerships within your clinic.
Complete a SWOT analysis, identifying your current strengths and realistically appraising your current weaknesses. This can only be done involving other nurses, doctors, support staff and patients.
From the current analysis identify factors which could be improved
Identify opportunities that could be created
Put a plan and set of measures in place.

The clinic identified the following objective:

To improve parent-partnership by encouraging patients to visit the clinic and become active members of the community.
Outcome – to have less than 50% of patients waiting more than one hour for treatment

Currently, the clinic holds an open day once each year. It uses this as a way to encourage patients to visit the clinic and engage with clinic staff. The following is the initial SWOT Analysis.

Strengths Highly-skilled clinical staff. History of successful Open day events Clinic has a strong ethos of openness, sharing and commitment to increasing patient confidence Patients wanting to get involved Local charities willing to participate	Weaknesses Nurses not available to meet patients often enough Current open days events not increasing voluntary activity Not enough staff time to plan more events Staff not clear of their role in the patient relationship Narrow focus on open events not partnership activities Services too stretched for additional activity
Opportunities Active volunteer committee willing to plan and organise events Patients active in the clinic’s Patient Participation Project can be asked for their opinions and suggestions. Head Nurse is willing flex clinic times to free up clinical staff time Use patients to contribute to practice delivery	Threats Confidentiality is at risk Patient coercion to do things they do not wish to do

The next step is to develop a plan with interested stakeholders

SWOT Analysis templates for Nursing, clinics & health care

SWOT Analysis Template/ Worksheet – use these templates to start your SWOT process

	SWOT Analysis on ____________________ (organisation name or product/ service/ project)Clinic/ establishment/ organisation Background/ situation ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________(usual business partners, relationships, channels to market, assumptions etc…) Date PESTLE completed ____________________ Date of SWOT Analysis ____________________ ____________________v
		INTERNAL
	Under each of the PRIMO-Ffactors list the relevant strengths and weaknesses.List the Opportunities and threats from your PESTLE analysis below.Then considering the combination of these factors generate some options or alternative strategies for action.	Strengths (PRIMO-F) People (nurses, patients, CLINICAL GOVERNANCE TEAM etc) ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ Resources ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ Innovation & Ideas ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ Marketing (communications) ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ Operations (day to day running) ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ Finance ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________	Weaknesses (PRIMO-F) People (nurses, patients, CLINICAL GOVERNANCE TEAM etc) ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ Resources ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ Innovation & Ideas ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ Marketing(communications) ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ Operations(day to day running) ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ Finance ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________
E X T E R N A L	Opportunities ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________	SO Alternatives / Strategies ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________	WO Alternatives / Strategies ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________
E X T E R N A L	Threats ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________	ST Alternatives / Strategies ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________	WT Alternatives / Strategies ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________

Try our organisational SWOT analysis tool for free NOW – Or return to our main SWOT analysis page

SWOT Analysis Template / Worksheet for Nursing/ Clinical Environments 2

	SWOT Analysis on ____________________ (Clinic/ establishment organisation name or product/ service/ project)Background/ situation__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ (usual operational partners, relationships, channels to market, assumptions etc…) Date PESTLE completed ____________________ Date of SWOT Analysis ____________________v
		INTERNAL
	Under each of the PRIMO-Ffactors list the relevant strengths and weaknesses.List the Opportunities and threats from your PESTLE analysis below.Then considering the combination of these factors generate some options or alternative strategies for action.	Strengths	Weaknesses
E X T E R N A L	Opportunities	SO Alternatives / Strategies	WO Alternatives / Strategies
E X T E R N A L	Threats	ST Alternatives / Strategies	WT Alternatives / Strategies

Try our organisational SWOT analysis tool for free NOW – Or return to our main SWOT analysis page

SWOT Analysis Template / Worksheet for Nursing/ Clinical Environments 3

SWOT analysis – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and threats
Date
Company/ Department name
Internal Factors
Our Strengths	Ways to exploit	Our Weaknesses	Ways to reduce
External factors
Our Opportunities	Ways to exploit	Our Threats	Ways to reduce

Try our organisational SWOT analysis tool for free NOW – Or return to our main SWOT analysis page

A SWOT analysis in a clinic, college or other health care establishment can be a simple and yet effective tool for ensuring that all appropriate factors are considered. In this environment it is particularly important to use the PRIMO-F template to ensure that all elements have been considered. Indeed ensure that under People – nurses, support staff, patients and children are considered along with third party people (police, local health etc that can form a part of your community.

Nurses, Mentors, CLINICAL GOVERNANCE TEAM, management committees etc all have a valuable contribution to make

Under Resources, remember to include IT, and consumables that can be used as part of the process

Keywords: swot analysis nursing, clinical, health care, hospitals, management, paramedical, hospital, infection control

Originally Published on: Oct 30, 2011 reviewed June 2014

SWOT Analysis in Nursing & Health care was last modified: March 12th, 2024

Mike Morrison

Mike is a consultant and change agent specialising in developing skills in senior people to increase organizational performance. Mike is also founder & director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. Check out his linkedin profile MikeMorrison LinkedIn Profile

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Mike Morrison

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