| Course | HS460 Project Design and Management for Health Care |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 9 |
| Paper type | Seminar reflection |
| Length | About 790 words, 5 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Health Science |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HS460 Unit 9
A Hallway Request for Sports Physicals: A Unit 9 Seminar Reflection on Change Requests and Who May Approve Them
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
HS460: Project Design and Management for Health Care
Unit 9 Seminar Reflection
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Tillford Family Health, the partner, the classmates and every figure are composite; the sources cited are real.
The Request
It happened in the break room on a Tuesday. One of the partners, a family physician who sees many school-age patients, asked whether the Saturday session could add sports physicals in August, when families crowd the weekday schedule before the school season. She asked casually, and she clearly expected a yes.
My First Instinct
My first instinct was to agree. Sports physicals are simple, the nurse practitioner could do them, and saying yes would build goodwill with a partner whose support the project needs. I remember thinking that a few physicals would cost almost nothing. I told her I would look into it, which in the culture of our practice sounds like yes.
What the Seminar Changed
Two contributions changed my thinking. A classmate who manages projects on a hospital unit described a small addition to a supply project that doubled its budget: a request for one extra item led to a new vendor, new storage and staff training that no one had estimated. Her point was that small additions rarely stay small, because each brings work no one thinks to count.
The instructor then asked each of us who, in our own charters, had the authority to approve a change. I looked at mine. It says changes to scope, budget or opening date require the sponsor's written approval, but it does not say how a request reaches the sponsor, who writes it up, or what information the sponsor needs to decide. In practice, my hallway answer had already started the request down an informal path where the partner believed it was approved and the sponsor did not know it existed.
The charter named who could approve a change but never said how a request should travel, so the hallway became the approval process.
Thinking It Through
Sports physicals would not be free. They need a form for each school district, often a vision and blood pressure check with different equipment, and time slots longer than a minor illness visit. In August they might crowd out the sick patients the session was built for, which would undermine the objective of reducing weekend emergency visits. The scope statement had listed sports physicals as an exclusion for exactly this reason, and I had forgotten my own document within a few weeks. Project management guidance treats an integrated change control process as essential because informal changes accumulate without anyone weighing their combined effect (Project Management Institute [PMI], 2021).
What I Did
The next day I went back to the partner and explained that I could not promise sports physicals, and that I would bring a written request to the managing partner with an estimate of time, cost and effect on sick visits. She was gracious about it. I also drafted a one-page change request form: what is requested, by whom, why, estimated effect on scope, schedule, budget and risk, and a decision line for the sponsor. I added a sentence to the charter naming the form and stating that only the sponsor's signature approves a change.
Why Small Changes Add Up
The classmate's story made me think about how projects fail. Studies of large projects find that budgets slip less from one big error than from a series of optimistic assumptions that each seemed reasonable at the time (Flyvbjerg, 2014). A Saturday clinic is not a megaproject, but the mechanism is the same: each favor feels small, and nobody adds them up. If I had said yes to sports physicals, then to a partner's request for blood pressure checks, then to Stanwick patients, the session would have become something the staffing and budget could not support, and no single decision would have looked like the mistake.
The Social Side
The part I have not solved is personal. In a four-partner practice, telling a partner that her request needs a form can feel like a rebuke. Project texts recommend explaining change control early, before requests arrive, so that the process is seen as normal rather than personal (Kerzner, 2017). I plan to describe the change process at the next partners' meeting, before the next hallway request, and to frame it as protecting the sick patients the session was built for rather than as rules for their own sake. If the partners see the form as a way to keep Saturdays workable for patients and staff alike, I think they will use it willingly.
References
Flyvbjerg, B. (2014). What you should know about megaprojects and why: An overview. Project Management Journal, 45(2), 6-19. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21409
Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling (12th ed.). Wiley.
Project Management Institute. (2021). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (7th ed.). Project Management Institute.
HS460 Unit 9 instructions, in plain terms
In the ninth unit the seminar's argument about changes and approvals is turned on your own project. Expect to describe the situation, your first instinct, what changed your thinking, what you did and what remains uncertain. Plan on roughly a page written as I; many sections also accept a written alternative for those who miss the live session. Open with a real moment from your project rather than with the session. Admit your first reaction honestly. Present the specific contributions that changed your view. Connect the lesson to your own project documents. Report concrete actions you took afterward. End with what you are still unsure about, such as the social side of enforcing a process.
Inside the HS460 Unit 9 example
The reflection opens with the hallway request and the writer's instinct to agree. The seminar section reports a classmate's supply budget story and the instructor's question, and shows the gap in the writer's own charter, which the highlighted sentence states. A section thinks through what sports physicals would actually require and links back to the scope statement and project guidance on change control. A section explains how small changes add up, citing research on optimistic estimates. Actions follow: going back to the partner, drafting a form and amending the charter. A closing section on the social side plans to explain change control before the next request.
HS460 Unit 9 rubric: what earns full points
Seminar reflections in HS460 are commonly marked on honesty about the starting point, specificity of what changed the writer's view, application to the writer's project, concrete action and writing. Application and action often weigh most: graders reward reflections that find a gap in the writer's own documents and show what was done about it. Specificity earns credit when particular contributions are named. Honest uncertainty adds points. Connection to course concepts, such as change control, is expected. First-person clarity and citations complete the grade. Reflections that summarize the discussion without changing anything in the project tend to lose points. A plan to raise the issue with colleagues before the next request is often valued for its realism.
HS460 Unit 9 help from the desk
The most common weakness here is a reflection that recounts the seminar without connecting it to the writer's project. Another is skipping the writer's first instinct, which hides the change. Some writers state lessons without reporting any action. Concepts are named but not applied. Social and political difficulties are often ignored, though they are real in small organizations. If your seminar discussion turned on a different issue, perhaps a missed milestone or a sponsor's sudden request, describe the moment and what you did next, and we will build the reflection around it. Ending without a specific next step makes the change of view hard to believe.
Get an HS460 Unit 9 example written to your instructions
Which request or approval question came up when your class met for Unit 9? Describe it, or attach the written-option instructions instead, plus the rubric, and whichever charter or scope statement is already drafted. No fee applies to the first reflection, which is back within 24-48h and grounded in a real change request from your own project. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More HS460 papers and BS in Health Science samples
- HS460 Unit 1: Project Charter
- HS460 Unit 2: Discussion Board Post
- HS460 Unit 3: Scope Statement
- HS460 Unit 4: Work Breakdown Structure
- HS460 Unit 5: Stakeholder Register
- HS460 Unit 6: Schedule and Milestone Plan
- HS460 Unit 7: Budget Worksheet
- HS460 Unit 8: Risk Register
- HS460 Unit 10: Project Closeout Report
- HS450 Unit 9: Stakeholder Communication Plan
HS460 Unit 9 questions, answered
Can the reflection be about a request that was approved?
Certainly. The concept is authority and process, not refusal. A reflection could follow a request that reached the right person, was weighed and approved, and still show learning about how the decision was made. The example's request is refused because the scope statement excludes it, but approval with a documented change would demonstrate the same idea.
What if my project has no change requests yet?
Use a likely one. Most projects attract a predictable request, an extra service, a second site, a longer day, and a reflection can test the seminar's ideas against it. The example's request actually happened, but the reflection would work as well if the writer had anticipated it. Say clearly whether the request is real or expected.
Should the reflection name the partner who asked?
Use a role rather than a name. The example says one of the partners, which keeps the focus on the request and avoids identifying a colleague. The same applies to classmates: describe what they contributed, by role or setting where useful, so the reflection stays about the argument rather than the people.
Where can I find a free HS460 Unit 9 sample paper?
The complete Unit 9 reflection is here, tracing a hallway request for sports physicals to a gap in the charter and a new change form.
Who should approve a change to a small clinic project?
The sponsor named in the charter, through a written request that states the effect on scope, schedule, budget and risk, so that changes are not approved in hallways.