NU802 Unit 8 DNP Budget and Resource Plan Example

Course	NU802 DNP Project I
Unit	Unit 8
Paper type	Budget and resource plan
Length	About 1,000 words, 6 pages double-spaced
Format	APA 7 student paper
School	Purdue University Global
Program	Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Updated	October 2026

Free sample paper for NU802 Unit 8

Seventy-Eight Thousand Dollars, Ninety Percent of It Already on the Payroll: A Unit 8 Budget and Resource Plan for an Insulin Discharge Project

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

NU802: DNP Project I

Unit 8 Budget and Resource Plan

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The hospital, wages, costs and savings are composite and illustrative; the studies cited are real.

What this part is doingSplitting the total into in-kind and new money in the lead answers the first question a sponsor will ask.

Why the Budget Changed From the Business Case

The business case prepared in an earlier course assumed a second full-time diabetes educator at $104,000 a year, which made up most of a first-year cost of about $167,000. The chief nursing officer signaled that a new position was unlikely this year. The design was therefore changed in two ways that also follow the evidence. Drincic et al. (2017) describe a tiered model in which diabetes educators trained staff nurses as diabetes resource nurses on their units, and readmission for patients with diabetes fell after it began. The project adopts that model with one resource nurse per spread unit. Second, two-way text follow-up, tested in three PDSA cycles, replaces most educator calls, so the existing educator's time covers follow-up for eight more units.

Costs: Staff Time Already Paid For

All wages below include benefits and use the hospital's average rates.

Resource nurses' unit time. Eight resource nurses, each spending four hours a month on chart audits, staff coaching and huddle support for 14 months, total 448 hours at $52 an hour, or $23,296.

Resource nurse training. A four-hour course taught by the diabetes educator for eight nurses: 32 hours, $1,664.

Staff training. About 360 nurses on the eight units each give 45 minutes to training, half online and half at a pen station on the unit: 270 hours at $50, or $13,500, taken from the units' existing annual education hours.

Diabetes educator time. About one-fifth of the educator's time for 14 months, covering the follow-up queue, the virtual class and resource nurse support: $24,267. This time is reallocated from consult calls the text tool replaces.

Pharmacist time. Starting prior authorization or assistance enrollment at the first insulin order for Medicaid and uninsured patients, about 15 minutes each for an estimated 140 patients: 35 hours at $78, or $2,730.

Quality analyst. Four hours a month for 14 months: 56 hours at $46, or $2,576.

Information services. Extending the readiness flag, discharge fields and text enrollment to eight units: 40 hours at $65, or $2,600.

The in-kind total is about $70,600.

Most of the project's cost is time the hospital already pays for; what changes is where that time goes.

What this part is doingPricing staff time even when no new money is spent shows the site what it is actually committing.

Costs: New Spending

Bridge supply fund. For the roughly 20 patients a year whose pen coverage is still pending when they leave, the hospital's outpatient pharmacy dispenses a one-month supply at its own cost, budgeted at $6,000. Stedge et al. (2023) found that bedside delivery reduced readmissions more when prescription costs were subsidized for uninsured and underinsured patients, and that paying for the medicine bought each point of improvement more cheaply than bedside delivery without it, which supports funding supply rather than only delivery.

Translation. Plans and text messages in Spanish and Marshallese, written with community reviewers: $1,400.

Printing. Pen station cards and plan templates: $350.

Text messaging fees. At the vendor's per-message rate, about 470 patients over 14 months: about $60.

New spending totals about $7,810. The hospital foundation has been asked to fund the bridge supply from its patient assistance fund, and the nursing department's education budget covers translation and printing.

What the Project Could Return

At baseline, about 56 of the 403 yearly insulin starters on the spread units came back with a glucose problem. If the aim of 10 percent is met, about 40 would return, 16 fewer each year once all units have started. Following the method used in the business case, finance values one-third of avoided returns as cash, at a variable cost of $9,800 each, because those returns would otherwise be unpaid or fall under penalties or value-based contracts. The remaining two-thirds are valued as freed bed capacity, at about $4,250 each. Sixteen avoided returns would be worth about $52,300 in cash and $45,300 in capacity, about $97,600 a year. A cautious case of eight avoided returns would be worth about $48,800.

Rauh et al. (2011) warn that improvement savings often fail to appear on the bottom line, because freed capacity has value only if it is used and fixed costs do not fall when fewer patients return. The plan therefore reports the cash and capacity figures separately and makes no promise of a smaller hospital budget. It claims only that it will avoid unpaid costs and free beds that boarded emergency patients need.

What this part is doingSeparating cash from capacity, with a published warning about the difference, protects the budget from the criticism that its savings are imaginary.

Return Over the Project Period

Because units start in waves, the full annual benefit is reached only in the last months of the project. Over the 14 months, the expected case returns about $57,000 against about $78,400 in total cost, and the cautious case about $28,000. On new spending alone, about $7,800, both cases more than cover the cost. In a full year after all units have started, ongoing costs fall to about $51,000, mostly resource nurse and educator time, against an expected return of $97,600.

Approvals Needed

The chief nursing officer approves the resource nurse hours and the educator's reallocation. Each unit manager approves training hours for staff. The director of pharmacy approves pharmacist time and the bridge supply process, with the foundation approving its funding. The director of information services approves the build hours, and the quality director approves the analyst's time. The budget will be reviewed at the end of NU804 against actual hours logged.

Conclusion

The project can spread the bundle to eight units without a new position, using resource nurses and text follow-up in place of a second educator. Its cost is mostly existing staff time, with less than $8,000 in new spending. Its likely return covers its cost within a year of full operation, and the plan states plainly which part of that return is cash and which is capacity.

References

Drincic, A., Pfeffer, E., Luo, J., & Goldner, W. S. (2017). The effect of diabetes case management and Diabetes Resource Nurse program on readmissions of patients with diabetes mellitus. Journal of Clinical & Translational Endocrinology, 8, 29-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcte.2017.03.003

Rauh, S. S., Wadsworth, E. B., Weeks, W. B., & Weinstein, J. N. (2011). The savings illusion: Why clinical quality improvement fails to deliver bottom-line results. New England Journal of Medicine, 365(26), e48. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp1111662

Stedge, B., Xu, J., Kubes, J. N., Han, E., Russie, C., Woods, L., & O'Donnell, C. (2023). Meds to beds at hospital discharge improves medication adherence and readmission rates in select populations. Southern Medical Journal, 116(3), 247-254. https://doi.org/10.14423/SMJ.0000000000001532

NU802 Unit 8 instructions, in plain terms

In Unit 8 of NU802, students are usually asked to prepare a budget and resource plan for the DNP project. Expect to list every cost, separate new spending from staff time and other in-kind support, name funding sources and justify each line. Many prompts ask for an estimate of return, such as costs avoided, and for the approvals each line needs. Instructors look for realism: staff time should be priced even when no new money is spent, and savings should be stated cautiously. Changes from earlier cost estimates should be explained. Some versions also want a timeline of spending or a comparison of scenarios. The plan should match the methods and data plan, so every role and activity described there appears with a cost. A short conclusion that a sponsor could read on its own is a useful closing element.

How this NU802 Unit 8 example is built

The plan opens by explaining why the budget fell from the earlier business case: no second educator, replaced by unit resource nurses on Drincic and colleagues' model and by text follow-up already tested in improvement cycles. In-kind costs follow line by line with hours and rates, from resource nurse audits to information services build time, under a highlighted line that most of the cost is time the hospital already pays for. New spending covers a bridge supply fund justified by Stedge and colleagues, translation, printing and message fees. A return section estimates 16 avoided returns a year and values them as cash and freed capacity separately, with Rauh and colleagues explaining why. Returns over the project period, ongoing costs after it and the approvals needed for each line close the plan.

NU802 Unit 8 rubric: what earns full points

Budget plans tend to be graded on completeness, realism and justification. Every activity in the methods should appear as a cost, with hours, rates and totals that add up. Pricing in-kind staff time earns credit because it shows the site's true commitment. Justification is judged line by line, and a cited reason, such as evidence that subsidies improve results, strengthens a new spending request. Return estimates score well when their assumptions are stated and when cautious and expected cases are both shown. Distinguishing cash savings from freed capacity reflects financial literacy and is increasingly expected at the doctoral level. Naming who must approve each line shows the student understands how sites make decisions. Tidy layout, figures that agree with the earlier units and sound APA 7 references for each study cited finish the list.

Common NU802 Unit 8 mistakes, and how to avoid them

Budgets often lose points by counting only new money and leaving out staff time, which makes a project look free and makes approvers suspicious. Another common problem is a return on investment built on optimistic assumptions with no cautious case. Some writers count every avoided readmission as cash saved, ignoring fixed costs and payment rules. Others propose positions or purchases the site has already said it cannot fund, without an alternative. Totals that do not match the sum of their lines undermine the whole plan, so check the arithmetic. Leaving out who approves each line leaves the sponsor unsure what to sign. Begin by listing every person who will touch the project and the hours each will spend, then price them with your site's rates. A custom budget can be built around your project's actual resources.

Get an NU802 Unit 8 example written to your instructions

Send the project, its resources and the budget instructions with the rubric. A custom budget sets out costs, in-kind support and a justification line by line. The first is free, delivered within 24-48h. 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.

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NU802 Unit 8 questions, answered

Should staff time be counted in the budget?

Yes, usually as in-kind cost, since the site pays for it even when no new money is spent.

Does the budget need a return on investment?

Many rubrics ask for one, at least an estimate of costs avoided.

What if the project costs nothing new?

Show the in-kind costs anyway, because approval depends on the site seeing them.

Where can I find a free NU802 Unit 8 sample paper?

The complete NU802 Unit 8 budget and resource plan is published on this page, pricing every line of an insulin discharge project and separating new spending, staff time, cash savings and freed beds.

Why does the NU802 Unit 8 sample avoid hiring a second educator?

The sponsor signaled no new position was likely, so the design uses a trained resource nurse on each unit and text follow-up, a tiered model linked to fewer readmissions in Drincic and colleagues' study.