Providing Education of the Grant Writing Process (Essay Sample)

Providing education of the grant writing process
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Introduction
Grant writing is an exercise of completing an application process with an aim of accessing funding from an institution, such as corporation, trust, government department or foundation (O'donnell, 2010). To succeed in grant writing, one has to possess an in-depth understanding and skills of grantsmanship. The fundamentals and principles of grant writing can be vastly applied. Thus, a grant writer has to have a target so that the language can be tuned appropriately.
Grants are extremely vital in advancing health care services and access such services. In the current society, it is clear that funding opportunities are dwindling, while patient needs are on the rise. In addition, many health care institutions are ill equipped, meaning that they cannot meet complex demand for patients. In addition, a health care organization, which is ill equipped, may not meet complex requirements for successful grant writing. Any health care organization that wishes to access grants must clearly articulate their requirements to potential grant agencies. The entity should be in a position to provide clear mission, goals, objectives and expected outcomes. In addition, the entity must provide a well-outlined program that will be implemented via expected financial assistance.
In that respect, it is imperative that individuals and health care practitioners must have vital skills for grant writing. With high-level grant writing skills, individuals can be able to access superior quality care for their loved ones by obtaining funds required to pay for medical bills. Successful grant application process can assist a health care organization to expand their health care services, reach out to marginalized communities, conduct research and development, invest in information technology and provide specialized services for various illnesses. Although grant writing may appear simple, government authorities closely scrutinize it. Thus, providers of grants are forced to provide their services to those applicants whose proposals are in line with high standards of health care in society. This essay will cover various aspects of grant writing including the grant writing process, importance of grant writing and different types of grant writing in a bid to inform and educate.
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Importance of grant writing
According to Dunn (2012), grant writing is a vital tool for enhancing health care service in the postmodern world because it acts as a leeway for financing individuals, nonprofit health care organizations and for-profit health care organizations. The umbrella of grants encompasses numerous programs aimed at providing tailor-made solutions for various health care challenges. Thus, the importance of grants in health care can be best studied by considering various solutions offered for different health care challenges. Overly, it can be said that grants play a key role in health care by providing much-needed financial resources for advancing services under various circumstances.
For marginalized communities, grants can assist in improving access to medical services by financing health care organizations. In many rural areas, cost of medical services increases because basic amenities may not be available. In addition, medical service providers may be forced to move from one location to another. In that case, the concerned organization may be forced to incur huge costs, which may lead to bankruptcy (Dunn, 2012). With access to grants, such organizations can comfortably provide medical and clinical services to cover all demands from marginalized communities. In certain instances, high level transport services, such as helicopters may be used to reach out to people in remote areas, who may be facing critical circumstances especially in the event of disasters.
On individual levels, grants are also provided for needy people to assist them access medical services to their loved ones. At times, one may be faced with complex medical conditions that call for immense financial resources to procure medical services. In such instances, family members may apply for grants to assist in footing for medical expenditure. Since the inception of medical grants, thousands of individuals have benefitted by being able to access medical services, which could not have been possibly attained.
Health care organizations can benefit from grants in various ways. Health care organizations normally apply for grants with a specific purpose. Notably, almost all grant applications from health care organizations are aimed at improving services and outreach. However, a health care organization can have other motives, as long as it falls within the scope and standard of health care in society.
Over the past decade, several health care groups embraced information technology in a bid to improve the quality of their services. Many grants were provided to that effect. Under the umbrella of health care grants, health IT (information technology) grant has been outstanding over the past few years. Health IT grants has been useful in raising health care standards in society. Studies have proven beyond doubt that IT enhances adeptness, effectiveness, welfare and supremacy of health care services in many spheres including transitions between care settings and ambulatory setting. Health IT grants played a key role during implementation of federally mandated electronic medical record. In addition, it is on record that, health IT grants has been useful in improving patient outcomes in areas, such as after Tele-ICU reengineering of critical care process, preventable complications among critically ill, length of stay and hospital mortality. Success in implementation of IT aided medical care was possible because the government and private grant makers interest in supporting the undertaking. Health IT grants has been used in various ways including procuring IT equipment, telemedicine, clinical care, medical education and health IT project administration. Currently, up to 40 percent of grant funds have been made available for technology equipment.
Health care grants have also been instrumental in refining the superiority of health care by providing funds for research and development. Without research and development, current and future problems facing health care service provision may not be handled. With the availability of health care grants, institutions have been able to apply various research designs to generate information (Sandy, 2009). Such information has been impactful in advancing health care quality. Areas that have been catered for with the help of health care grant include pilot and feasibility health IT research projects, secondary data analysis and retrospective or prospective analyses of health care.
Different types of grant writing
Currently, there are numerous types of grants available in the market. In this section, some types of grants will be discussed briefly. This segment will consist of a momentary discussion on mission support grants, innovation initiative grants, responsive grants, health IT grants, healthy lifestyles grants, safety net health care and mental health grants (Dunn, 2012).
To begin with, responsive grants are offered to enable organizations to respond speedily to various health activities. Such activities may include supporting community health events, novel funding opportunity, catering for time sensitive issues, leadership and development. Mission support grants cover community-oriented challenges in the field of health care. The grants are aimed at reducing costs, increasing quality of services, enhancing workforce capacity and engaging in workable alliances. Innovation initiative support innovations that address strategic priorities in line with societal health standards. Supporting transformational thinking is paramount in enhancing standards of health care.
Safety net heath care grant is aimed at supporting implementation of unique models of service delivery, particularly for oral and physical health. The model must meet the desired promise of lowering costs, better health care and better health. Mental health grants lay focus on behavioral health services for adults, children and family violence. Projects supported under the program include integration of primary health and behavioral health, access to behavioral health care and promotion and implementation of embryonic, promising, best practices. Grants are also offered to support healthy lifestyles (Sandy, 2009). The aim of the special grant is to promote issues, such as active living, healthy eating, child play and discouraging vices, such as tobacco use, excessive drinking and drug abuse. The overall goal of the healthy lifestyle grants is to create a community environment where healthy choices are embraced.
The grant writing process
Before writing a grant application, a grant applicant must first consider numerous issues. The applicant must have a clear goal and objective for the grant (O'donnell, 2010). Besides, other considerations must be made, which include the following: early preparation of application, keeping the audience in mind, careful consideration of instructions on funding announcement opportunity, being logical and organized, attendance to technical issues, exhibiting evidence of sound fiscal management and fiscal stability, being brief, concise, and clear, careful use of attachments, and timely submission of all required information.
A professional grant application must have a cover letter. The cover letter will cover vital information name of the grant applicant, agency name and proposal name. Second, the application will have proposal narrative, which is usually between 10 to 20 pages (Rosen, 2010). The contender will be anticipated to produce a draft, which will be reviewed by a profe...