| Course | DNRS 6211 Finance and Economics in Healthcare Delivery |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 7 |
| Paper type | Capital request with narrative and source table |
| Length | About 790 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for DNRS 6211 Week 7
Capital Request: A Dedicated Bladder Scanner for an 18-Bed Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit
Student Name
College of Nursing, Walden University
DNRS 6211: Finance and Economics in Healthcare Delivery
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Capital Request: A Dedicated Bladder Scanner for an 18-Bed Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit
Capital Request Form
The form below follows the fields the hospital's capital committee requires.
Table 1
Capital Request Form Fields
| Field | Entry |
|---|---|
| Requesting department | Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit (18 beds) |
| Item description | Portable ultrasound bladder scanner with cart, printer, and 3-year manufacturer warranty |
| Quantity | 1 |
| Useful life | 7 years (biomedical engineering standard for this device class) |
| One-time acquisition | $12,400 (vendor quote, group purchasing price) |
| Training | 30 staff for 30 minutes at $40 an hour: $600 |
| Total one-time cost | $13,000 |
| Recurring: service contract | $950 a year from year 4, after the warranty ends |
| Recurring: consumables | Gel and printer paper, $300 a year |
| Proposed funding source | Fiscal year routine capital pool, nursing division |
| Requested in-service date | First month of the fiscal year |
Narrative
The unit requests one dedicated bladder scanner, at a one-time cost of $13,000, to replace its current practice of borrowing a scanner shared with the medical unit on the floor above.
The problem. Many of the unit's patients have neurogenic bladder after stroke or spinal cord injury, and nurses scan bladder volume before intermittent catheterization and after voiding. The CDC guideline for preventing catheter-associated urinary tract infection recommends considering portable ultrasound to assess urine volume in patients having intermittent catheterization, to reduce unnecessary catheter insertions (Gould et al., 2010).
The current workaround and what it consumes. The unit averages four scans a day that require fetching the shared scanner, and each trip, including waiting when it is in use upstairs, takes about 15 minutes of registered nurse time, or 365 hours a year. At the unit's registered nurse cost of $58.50 an hour including benefits, that is $21,353 a year of nursing time spent on walking and waiting. When the scanner cannot be found, nurses catheterize on schedule without scanning. The unit's catheter supply log shows about 100 such catheterizations a year that a scan would likely have avoided, costing $12 in supplies and 15 minutes of nurse time each, or $2,663. A meta-analysis found that use of a bladder scanner was associated with fewer urinary tract infections (Palese et al., 2010); that benefit is not counted in the figures below.
Alternatives considered. A refurbished scanner at $6,800 was rejected because it carries a 1-year warranty and the vendor would not offer a service contract. Leasing a new scanner at $310 a month was rejected because it would cost $26,040 over the device's 7-year life, twice the purchase price.
Payback. The method is simple payback, the one-time cost divided by the annual net savings (Reiter & Song, 2021). Annual savings are $21,353 in nursing time and $2,663 in avoided catheterizations, less $1,250 in recurring costs, for $22,766 net. Payback is about 7 months. Because the saved nursing time will be redeployed to patient care rather than removed from the budget, the committee may prefer a cash-only view: on avoided catheterizations alone, payback is about 9 years, still within the device's useful life.
Risks. The main risk is that nurses keep borrowing out of habit or that the new scanner migrates to other units. The unit will store it in a fixed charging dock at the nurses' station, sign it out by shift, and check its location at each charge nurse handoff. The second risk is that the scan count falls as the patient mix changes; even at half the current count, payback on the full view stays under 14 months.
If deferred a year. The unit will spend another 365 nursing hours walking to and waiting for a shared device, and patients will have about 100 more catheterizations than they need.
Attachment: Where Each Input Came From
The committee's instructions ask that every number in a request be traceable. Table 2 lists each input used in the narrative with its source and the period it covers, so a reviewer can check any figure without asking the unit for it.
Table 2
Sources of the Inputs Used in the Payback Calculation
| Input | Value | Source | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scans needing the shared scanner | 4 a day | Two-week time log kept by charge nurses on all shifts | Two weeks in the prior quarter |
| Time per trip, including waiting | 15 minutes | Same time log, median of 112 recorded trips | Same |
| Registered nurse cost per hour | $58.50 | HR wage table ($45.00) plus 30% benefit rate memo | Current fiscal year |
| Catheterizations done without a scan | About 100 a year | Catheter supply log compared with scanner sign-out sheet | Prior 6 months, annualized |
| Supply cost per catheterization | $12 | Supply cost report | Prior fiscal year |
| Acquisition price | $12,400 | Vendor quote at group purchasing price, valid 90 days | Current |
| Service contract and consumables | $950 and $300 a year | Vendor quote; biomedical engineering estimate | Current |
| Lease option | $310 a month | Second vendor quote | Current |
References
Gould, C. V., Umscheid, C. A., Agarwal, R. K., Kuntz, G., Pegues, D. A., & Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee. (2010). Guideline for prevention of catheter-associated urinary tract infections 2009. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 31(4), 319-326. https://doi.org/10.1086/651091
Palese, A., Buchini, S., Deroma, L., & Barbone, F. (2010). The effectiveness of the ultrasound bladder scanner in reducing urinary tract infections: A meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 19(21-22), 2970-2979. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2010.03281.x
Reiter, K. L., & Song, P. H. (2021). Gapenski's healthcare finance: An introduction to accounting and financial management (7th ed.). Health Administration Press.
Reading the DNRS 6211 Week 7 instructions
This assignment asks you to prepare a capital budget request for a piece of equipment or a small project above your organization's capital threshold. You will usually complete a request form, giving the item, quantity, cost, useful life, recurring costs and funding source, and write a short justification. The justification should state the problem, describe the current workaround and what it costs, compare alternatives including doing nothing, and calculate payback or return with the method shown. Faculty also look for a clinical or safety rationale backed by a source. Some sections add an attachment listing where each number came from. Submit in APA format with references for any guideline or study cited.
How this DNRS 6211 Week 7 example is built
The form occupies the first page: requesting department, item description, quantity, useful life in years, one-time acquisition lines, recurring lines for service contract and consumables, training time, the proposed funding source, and an in-service date. The narrative follows on one page and opens with the request itself rather than with background. A short problem paragraph gives way to the current workaround and what that workaround consumes, which is the paragraph that converts an inconvenience into a running cost. Two alternatives appear, each priced and each rejected in a sentence with a reason. The payback paragraph names the method and the source of every input rather than presenting a result on its own. A final line states what happens if the request is deferred a year.
Where the marks sit in the DNRS 6211 Week 7 rubric
The analysis credit rides on whether the document argues return rather than need, and need is what most submissions argue. Statements that the department requires the equipment to provide quality care collect nothing, because every request says that. Useful life left blank or set implausibly is caught immediately by anyone who has sat on a capital committee, and rubrics reflect it. Omitting recurring cost is the most expensive single mistake here and it costs in two areas, since it damages both the financial section and the credibility of the whole request. The alternatives section separates strong documents from adequate ones, and the strongest ones price the option of doing nothing. In DNRS 6211 Week 7, formatting and completeness weigh unusually heavily, because a form is being graded as a form.
DNRS 6211 Week 7 help from the desk
Requests are most often marked down for arguing that the unit needs the equipment, which every request says, instead of showing a return. Put a price on the current workaround, such as staff time spent fetching a shared device. Fill every field on the form, especially useful life and recurring costs like service contracts and consumables; blank fields look careless. Price at least two alternatives, and include the option of doing nothing with its cost. Show the payback method and inputs so a committee member can check them. Keep the clinical rationale short and cite a guideline for it. Close by saying what happens if the request is deferred for a year.
Get a DNRS 6211 Week 7 example written to your instructions
Attach the request form your section supplies, the equipment or position the prompt specifies and any cost figures it provides, and a completed request with its narrative comes back to you. The first custom one is free, inside 24 to 48 hours. A capital form carrying an institution's internal numbers is that institution's document and is left where it sits.
More DNRS 6211 papers and DNP samples
- DNRS 6211 Week 1: Discussion Post
- DNRS 6211 Week 2: Concept Analysis
- DNRS 6211 Week 3: Budget Worksheet
- DNRS 6211 Week 4: Variance Analysis
- DNRS 6211 Week 5: Cost-Benefit Analysis
- DNRS 6211 Week 6: Discussion Post
- DNRS 6211 Week 8: Payer Mix Analysis
- DNRS 6211 Week 9: Business Case
- DNRS 6211 Week 10: Executive Summary
- DNRS 6211 Week 11: Reflection Paper
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DNRS 6211 Week 7 questions, answered
Can a capital request be written for a position rather than equipment?
Some prompts do ask for exactly that, and the structure barely changes: the recurring lines grow, useful life becomes a commitment period, and payback rests on productivity or avoided premium coverage instead of on throughput. The alternatives section becomes more important, not less, because a reviewer will want to know why existing staff cannot absorb the work.
How is payback usually expressed?
The example states it in months with the method shown above the result, which is what allows a reviewer to accept or reject an input rather than the conclusion. Other sections ask for return on investment or net present value instead. Since the calculation differs, read which one your prompt names before writing the financial paragraph.
Does the narrative need citations?
Most rubrics in this course expect a small number, usually supporting the clinical claim behind the request rather than the arithmetic. The example carries three, all inline, none decorative. Internal figures are attributed to the record they came from rather than cited in reference style, and the reference list holds only published material.
Where can I find a free DNRS 6211 Week 7 sample paper?
The bladder scanner request is shown in full here: the committee form, the one-page narrative and the attachment that sources every input.
How do you calculate payback for a DNRS 6211 capital request?
Divide the one-time cost by the yearly net saving to get years, or by the monthly saving to get months, and show each input and its source above the result.