SMART Goal SettingIssaiah WallaceChamberlain College of
SMART Goal Setting
Issaiah Wallace
Chamberlain College of Nursing
With 33 million Americans utilizing healthcare services as a means to manage mental health conditions and illnesses, adequate delivery of mental healthcare, treatment, and practice is becoming increasingly more important in the American landscape of wellness (SAMHSA, 2004a). The mental health system continues to be a challenging area of healthcare, due to: increased usage of coercion into treatment, diversity in care delivery systems, an unevolved quality measurement mechanism, and a drastically different business and marketplace infrastructure. These factors added to the, already, present stigma associated with mental health, culminates into an extremely perplexing subject of inquiry for advancing mental health services and delivery. Equipped with this knowledge, an understanding of the complexities surrounding this issue, professionals can assess, identify problems, plan, intervene, and evaluate effectiveness in the forces of change for alterations in mental healthcare. This change can only happen from a productive, sobering critique of the mental health system and from the development of a specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound (SMART) goal. This goal should draw from the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) core healthcare competencies and employ knowledge, skills, and attributes (KSA) as a means to fashion that goal (“Improving the Quality of Healthcare, 2008). In knowing the limitations and problems faced related to this topic, it is important to stay mindful that treatments exist that have proven to be effective. 21st century medicine, though continuing to evolve exponentially, has gifted evidence-based treatments that echo efficacy in each patient’s life they help improve. Research continues to maintain the delicate balance of genetic, environmental, biologic, and psychosocial factors implicated in mental wellbeing. This realization provides the rationale for
Issaiah Wallace
Chamberlain College of Nursing
With 33 million Americans utilizing healthcare services as a means to manage mental health conditions and illnesses, adequate delivery of mental healthcare, treatment, and practice is becoming increasingly more important in the American landscape of wellness (SAMHSA, 2004a). The mental health system continues to be a challenging area of healthcare, due to: increased usage of coercion into treatment, diversity in care delivery systems, an unevolved quality measurement mechanism, and a drastically different business and marketplace infrastructure. These factors added to the, already, present stigma associated with mental health, culminates into an extremely perplexing subject of inquiry for advancing mental health services and delivery. Equipped with this knowledge, an understanding of the complexities surrounding this issue, professionals can assess, identify problems, plan, intervene, and evaluate effectiveness in the forces of change for alterations in mental healthcare. This change can only happen from a productive, sobering critique of the mental health system and from the development of a specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound (SMART) goal. This goal should draw from the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) core healthcare competencies and employ knowledge, skills, and attributes (KSA) as a means to fashion that goal (“Improving the Quality of Healthcare, 2008). In knowing the limitations and problems faced related to this topic, it is important to stay mindful that treatments exist that have proven to be effective. 21st century medicine, though continuing to evolve exponentially, has gifted evidence-based treatments that echo efficacy in each patient’s life they help improve. Research continues to maintain the delicate balance of genetic, environmental, biologic, and psychosocial factors implicated in mental wellbeing. This realization provides the rationale for
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