D158 Strategically Planning the Execution of a Healthcare Improvement Project sample papers, task by task

Reviewed by Signe Hallberg, MSN, RN Strategically Planning the Execution of a Healthcare Improvement Project Western Governors University Free custom samples in 24–48h

D158 is the middle of the three course improvement sequence: the case is made, and now someone has to run it. You write the execution plan, with owners, order, resources and the resistance you expect.

How this shelf works

Send the exact assignment or rubric from your course of study and a custom sample written to it lands in 24 to 48 hours, the first one free. D158 is WGU’s Strategically Planning the Execution of a Healthcare Improvement Project course. It centers on turning an approved improvement idea into an execution plan with owners, sequence, resources and a clear read on barriers. Searches like "d158 task 2 assignment example", "D158 sample paper", and "D158 task samples" land on this page.

What D158 is really about

Planning is the part people assume they are already good at. D158 tests that by asking for a plan detailed enough that someone else could pick it up: who does what, in what order, with what resources, against what resistance, and how the change gets held in place once the enthusiasm wears off. The material draws on change theory, project management practice and implementation science, and versions that center on Lewin, Kotter or a plan do study act cycle expect the model to organize the plan rather than decorate it. Stakeholder analysis carries real weight here, because most healthcare improvements come apart on people rather than on logistics.

Because this is the second stage of one continuous project, the setting and problem you argued earlier should walk straight in, and the evaluator is reading a plan for that specific change rather than a general method. Pacing stays in your hands: submit when the plan is coherent, and the evaluator moves through the rubric aspect by aspect. Plans get returned for gaps more than for errors, most often a step with no name attached to it, and the fix is usually additive rather than a rewrite. Any hours or documentation from the field experience remain your own record and are not something we produce. The two drawers below sketch the shapes this course's writing tends to take.

What D158’s tasks ask for

The task typically wants a stated goal with a measurable target, the people affected and their interests, the resources required, a sequence of steps with a time frame, an owner for each step, the barriers you expect with a response to each, and a plan for keeping the change once it lands. Time frames need to be plausible against how the setting really works, which means allowing for orientation of staff, competing priorities and the pace at which a policy actually changes. If a model of change organizes your plan, say which stage each group of steps belongs to and why the order follows from it. Concrete beats comprehensive: a plan for one floor that could start tomorrow reads better than an organization wide plan nobody could begin.

Why D158 tasks come back for revision

Execution plans come back for three absences, and usually more than one at a time. The first is the ownerless step, written in the passive voice: staff will be educated, the protocol will be updated, compliance will be monitored. By whom, and instead of what else they were doing that day. The second is a list pretending to be a sequence, where every item sits as a bullet with no dependency, so nothing tells the reader that training cannot start until the documentation change is built. The third is a barrier section made of things that could not stop anything, such as possible resistance to change or limited time. Name the resistance you actually expect, from the group you expect it from, with the reason it is reasonable, then say what you would trade to get past it.

D158 grading scale at WGU: how the work is graded, from WGU Assignments
How WGU grades D158, visualized by WGU Assignments.

The D158 drawers

Task 1

D158 Task 1 example

In many versions one part maps stakeholders, resources and barriers around the chosen change. On request, free, 24-48h.

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Task 2

D158 Task 2 example

The applied part typically sequences the rollout with named owners and decision gates. On request, free, 24-48h.

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Different?

Your course of study shows something else?

Western Governors University revises courses; task counts and deliverables shift between terms. Send what your classroom shows and the desk matches it exactly.

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Using a D158 sample the right way

Read a finished plan for its skeleton. Notice that every action has a person, that the order is justified rather than assumed, and that the barrier section names groups and reasons instead of abstractions. Then write yours around your own setting, because a plan is only as good as the specifics under it. Send the task instructions and rubric, with a draft or without one, and the sample comes back built to them, free the first time, inside 24-48h. Tell us the aspect an evaluator flagged and the sample will be shaped to answer it directly.

How these samples are written

The discipline behind every task here: aspects are the outline, each gets its section, artifacts match their narratives, and OA courses get prep-note treatment instead, because the sit is always yours. Send your portal's rubric with a request and the sample matches it, revisions included.

D158 questions, answered

How specific do owners have to be?

Roles, not names, unless the task asks otherwise: charge nurse on days, nurse educator, informatics analyst, the manager who signs the policy. One accountable role for each step, even when several people help with it. If a step lists three owners it usually needs splitting into three steps, and that split is often what the rubric is waiting for.

What makes a barrier analysis convincing?

A barrier the reader can picture, from a named group, with a cost attached to it. Night shift will not attend a daytime education session, so the teaching runs twice or moves to the shift huddle. That is a barrier with a response. Resistance to change on its own is a category rather than an analysis, and evaluators read it as a placeholder.

What do you need from me to write a useful plan?

The task instructions and the rubric, plus two lines about your setting: what the improvement is and where it would run. That is enough to write a plan that sounds like a real place rather than a template. The first sample is free and comes back within 24-48h, written to the aspects you sent, with sources you can verify.