Strategic Planning process from perspectives of the members of the strategic planning committees

Strategic planning in clinical specialities is a beginning forthe linkage of these disciplines with the Islamic Republic of Iran’s vision for the year 1404, and the related development plans. It is a starting for opening of a field of competition with the region and the world, and institutionalization of a planed movement towards the realization of the country’s vision in the area of medical sciences. Since this is the first experience of the country in this filed, right entry into the planning process, right conduct of the process, and more importantly, implementation of the prepared plans can help to institutionalize the planning process and will end with many useful outcomes. This study was conducted with the aim of exploring the perspectives of the members of the planning committees about theprocess of the strategic planning and its outcomes in clinical specialty disciplines. This was a qualitative study. Using a purposive sampling method, we selected four planning committees and interviewed with the secretary and one the active members of each committee. The interviews were semi-structured, and we used an interview guide for conduction of the interviews. The interviews were tape recorded, transcribed, and through an iterative process coded, and summarized. The participants observed that strategic plan is a plan for determining the future direction of the clinical disciplines. All of the interviewees stressed on the necessity of the strategic planning. They believed that planning process started without enough preparation of the participants. They remarked that the planning process had many outcomes other than the strategic plan. They told that they could use the experiences from the implementation of the plans in the future rounds of the planning. But, they were very concerned about the implementation, that is, they either had doubts about the implementation of the plans, or they believed that the devised mechanisms for the implementation were inadequate. The lessons learned from the first experience of the strategic planning in clinical specialties must be used in the next round of the strategic planning, and for the institutionallzation of the planning process in the clinical disciplines as well.