During the implementation of any project, there is always the utilization of available funds. With resources being scarce, most of the time project managers tend to allocate every available cent to a specific activity. While the organizers of a project may want to plan fully taking care of any cost that may arise, sometimes costs that were never expected arise. Since these costs have to be catered for, if the organizers had not allocated a budget for such costs, they are either forced to forego some of the tasks or use their own money to cater for the expenses. These costs that arise are either classified as hidden costs or indirect costs. A hidden cost or an indirect cost can be defined as the cost which arises if there is a need to transfer property rights or acquire information. These costs are usually not included in the budget since they are hard to anticipate though they are incurred during the implementation of the project. These costs are usually real costs but the difficulty arises in pinning them down.
In a nursing research utilization product, the hidden or the indirect costs which may arise during the implementation of a research utilization project include among others the education expenses which the student might have incurred outside the stipulated costs in the budget. Other costs may be associated with the daily upkeep of the individual such as the institution overheads such as the cost of lighting, heating air conditioning, security, and support services which the individual is likely to incur during the implementation of the project as a result of getting involved with the project indirectly. It is very hard to account for such costs (Burns & Groves, 2007). More hidden and indirect costs can also be incurred if the project takes more time than expected or uses different avenues such as the cost of accessing information, and then such costs are classified as indirect costs. Hidden costs, on the other hand, are those costs that cannot be anticipated or calculated until the end of the project implementation and they include among others the low productivity of the members involved in the implementation of the project leading to the use of extra funds. As the project is implemented, some of the involved nurses may use some of the project assets for their benefits without the knowledge of the management leading to increased hidden costs in return (Nelson, 2007). Other hidden and indirect expenses which might be incurred include library costs, general project administration, payroll, and accounting among others.
Reference List
Burns, N., & Grove, S. K. (2009). The practice of nursing research: Appraisal, synthesis, and generation of evidence. 6th Edition. St. Louis, MO: Saunders Elsevier.
Nelson, J. (2007). Ethical, legal and economic foundations of the education process. Web.