4A: Forming an Opportunity Belief

Breakthrough to the Opportunity 

Opportunity Identification is what I think separates the gifted from the great, so if I want to realize my full potential it makes sense that I should be able to identify a grandiose opportunity. That being said; I think what I can identify as an opportunity is that with an aging baby boomer populace we will be far more in need of qualified nurses for these people making way for the refinement of the medical school industry; which is long outdated for the modern world in which people need to be able to join this work force to provide in full for the elderly. The only thing that is being done to perturb this need is under-qualified nursing homes taking care of an increasing number of senior citizens, which makes room for an opportunity to create nursing programs that only take into account the vital details of assisting the disabled elderly and don't take 4+ years to complete on a bankrupting tuition.

Interview 1: 

• To what scale does this problem affect you? Are the solutions available satisfactory?
• "Yes, my 91 year old mother is in assisted living, and the programs in place for her don't really meet her needs or mine."
• Do you see a need for the services for the elderly to be increased, and would the economy suffer for it?
• "Absolutely, with medicaid and the like taking effect shortly on my generation, I think theres room to improve the systems in place for a profit."
• Reflection: None of the responses I received were too off base from the predictions, someone going into their old age would like to be taken care of properly, and she was able to recognize the coming need for the refinement.

Interview 2: 

• When did you become aware of the growing need for assisted living, and what experience if any do you have with this problem?
• "Well, probably when quite a few of my colleagues began experiencing the nature of finding homes for their aging parents, and while I consider myself lucky for my parents being able to live comfortably on their own just fine, I realized this is a problem many people are going to have to go through this without any sort of plan ahead of time."
• When you look at the nursing staff that work in these places, do you consider the elderly's experience to be good enough; as well as the price point of their care?
• "Again, going off of my earlier comment I can tell you that many of my friends parents are in these homes and the stories that can be brought up about the care they receive can be mixed. It seems that the higher you go the more comfortably your folks can be, but the price can extend beyond 50,000$ a year in some cases, so it really is just a mixed bag?
• Reflection: While not personally affected, he seemed to be very aware of the situation unfolding within his generation, and seemed appropriately in line with the need for more institutions to have better equipped nurses at a lower price point.

Interview 3:

• What familiarity do you have the assisted living community, and what would you like to see change about it?
• "My mother is actually in assisted living, so I am very in tune with it, and I wish I could change everything about it. It's honestly not affordable to make sure both she and I can live well; and I find myself wondering just how the price can be justified when the nurses constantly lose possessions in laundry, and can't seem to keep my mother healthy enough to stay out of the doctors office."
• Reflection: This boomer's answer is only confirmation to the fact that the elderly face 2 major problems. One is that the affordability just isn't there to keep the people in health and spirit, and the other is simply that some nurses aren't equipped for the care they need to be able to provide.

I really think most of the opportunity is there to refine a system in desperate need of new solutions for an incoming retiring baby boomer population; and the interviews really confirmed it. The interviewees really wanted to have their cake and eat it too. I think the price could definitely go down, and the quality of life of these places bettered, but not at the pace that they would see as being good enough. It starts with hiring more qualified nurses which increases price point; but with corporate oversight a profit margin would be workable; the average rates for a person could decrease, and the quality of care could increase.