Leadership as an Important Function of the Healthcare Workforce - Essay Example

Leadership in the Healthcare Workforce Leadership is an important function of every organization that leads to the need for leadership science. Health care organizations experience change on a daily basis. This means that change is inevitable in any given organization and particularly, the health care sector. This is mainly due to the fact that the world is not at equilibrium; everything changes with time and duration from its beginning. Otherwise, there would be no any form of development-the kind that has seen planet earth migrate from point zero to where it is today- a higher point. Change in health care organizations is one thing that cannot be avoided and will always recur largely or in small doses, whether it is the employee turnover at the micro level or the governing policies put at the macro level to see that the organization delivers as expected and to its maximum capacity. Leadership is also bound to change in any given organization. It is the mandate of every leader to ensure that a health care organization has stability (Sullivan, 2008). The health care workforce is comprised of different types of professionals that work together to provide quality care to patients. Each of these professionals performs distinct or specialized tasks according to their areas of specialization. This specialization and workforce diversity results in differences in strategic orientation of the professionals: for example, objectives of nursing practitioners may significantly differ to those of medical specialists, such as gynecologists. Despite these differences, the nature of health care services requires the professionals to work collaboratively towards realization of organizational objectives. Consequently, health care leadership plays a significant role of promoting healthy working relationships among the different practitioners. As Taplin, Foster, and Shortell (2013) observe, the leadership involves creating an environment that fosters teamwork to overcome challenges of differentiation of tasks and burden of information, common in health care workforce. Leaders are required to provide organizational vision, as well as inspire and empower the workforce towards realization of the vision. In exploring the topic, future research can examine salient traits and behaviors of effective health care leaders (Wieck et al, 2002). It can also explore leadership style or styles used by these leaders to influence the workforce towards realization of common objectives (Cummings et al., 2009). The research can also seek to establish the influence of other important factors in health care leadership. This may include examining how workforce diversity, workplace conditions, government policies, and/or health care practices influence leaders in fostering a good working environment for the health care professionals (Cummings et al., 2009). Health care leadership greatly influences the effectiveness of working relationships between various health care professionals and quality of medical care. Therefore, an examination of the topic will provide an opportunity to examine what constitutes effective leadership in health care organizations. This will assist in understanding characteristics of leaders who succeed in creating a teamwork environment that ensures not only satisfaction and enhanced performance of employees, but also delivery of quality health care services. To gain stability in the health care organization, a leader should ensure that there is a state of equilibrium in the organization. This is a situation where all the influences acting in the organization whether from outside or inside the organization is cancelled. This cancellation is done by others in the organization and will most certainly lead to a balanced, stable and unchanging system. A leader also creates stability by applying physics in the health care organization, a system condition in which all the forces in the organization that are acting are equaled. Thirdly, a leader, to ensure stability in the organization should have a good and sound poise. This means that the leader should be emotionally and mentally balanced, ready to tackle any issue that might come unexpectedly. However, an equilibrium state in any organization is not always desirable; this means that the organization does not go through any changes that may probe it to develop and instead failure checks in. A leader should as a result take it upon them to accommodate and tackle changes as they come along. This gives way to development in the healthcare organization (Sullivan, 2008). To create stability in the organization, a leader should keep in mind that all systems in the organization which are living grow and evolve because of their continuous interaction with the environment. A negative or regulatory feedback also needs to be put in place to ensure that all systems are on track and are pointing towards the right direction which is achievement of the set goals. Amplifying or positive feedback also needs to be considered. This will ensure that the system is updated over time. As the new leader aligns themselves with the new environment, they should carefully consider what changes should be adapted and those that ought to be ignored to ensure stability in the health care organization (Taplin et al, 2013). First week structure in an organization Organizations that are poorly led are normally demoralized. Good leadership is critical for any given organization that wishes to flourish. A poor leader is not able to accommodate any changes in the organization at any given stage and this has a negative impact. During the first week, the new leader is supposed to master the structure of the organization as it is to have a clear view of the organization. This will enable them to have a sense of direction as they take on the leadership role in the organization. They will also know who they are answerable to and who to consult when need arises. They should also have self –reference. This is where they need to understand the makeup of the organization to find a way forward when it comes to omissions and additions that are to be put in place in future. Secondly, during the first week, the leader should understand what the organization does, its objectives, short term and long term goals, its missions and visions. This way, they already have guidelines on what changes ought to be made for growth to take place. The new leader should also consider keenly the changes that are already in place and adapt to those that are helpful ignoring those that are not. It is during this week that they should also learn their way through the organization, the present employees, and the organizational culture to prepare for future changes (Hethcock, 2011). Most importantly, it is during this week that the new leader should know what the previous leader did wrong or right and make changes. Are hospitals self-organizing systems? Hospitals are self-organizing systems because they get stable as changes come by and time passes. For example, if there is a new outbreak of diseases in the country, hospitals should adapt to new methods of treatment and medication to be able to cure. Change in the hospital organization does not necessarily implicate a complicated issue; even very small changes can make a change in the organization, a point in science known as the bifurcation point. They also undergo co-evolution; a process where the systems created poses changes in the environment which in turn poses changes to the systems put in place (Cummings et al, 2009). Good leadership is crucial for any organization. It is good leadership that can adapt changes in the organization and still make the organization stable resulting in its growth (Taplin et al, 2013). A leader should be keen enough to fasten himself or herself with the right skills to do the correct thing at all times in their entire time of leadership in any healthcare organization. Efficient communication between the healthcare providers and the management is very crucial in health care leadership. The two need to work together in order to ensure there is success in the healthcare. Effective communication promotes interpersonal relations between the healthcare managers and employees. As such, the health care practitioners can win the trust of their employees and are thus able to get needed information from them. They are also in a good position to give the needed advice to their workers (Sullivan, 2008). Good communication ensures that the health care service providers understand the needs of their employees and they are able to meet them in the best way possible. This creates satisfaction to the medical care givers and workers. Additionally, the Human resource department at the clinic should ensure they implement a working communication mechanism. This is because for any good business to prosper, it is always important that they there exists excellent organizational communication. Effective communication would curb poor flow of information at the workstation. In turn, this would improve productivity because there is role confusion. Another way to modify performance management process at the clinic is to implement set skill training programs, for the employees whereby they are able to receive assistance in their career development from their managers. When the managers fail to monitor the performance of the employees and fail to develop training programs, which will improve their productivity, then employees begin to suffer on their set skills training. Developing and implementing a team building or training program for all workers including contract staff. Training enhances employee effectiveness and increases employee work standards. Employee’s intellect is enhanced on how to deal with different challenges and responsibilities that they encounter at work, at home and in the society. Training and development endows a worker with the necessary manual and mental ability to perform their roles effectively (Cummings et al, 2009). A leader in health care work force should be a problem solver with the ability to devise solutions to challenges facing his or her workers immediately. When a leader in health care system is faced with a problem, he sorts out for answers and solutions with the assumption that it is out there somewhere rather than expressing worry over it. He or she should collect all details about the problem in order to get the best solution at the shortest time possible. It will be very unwise for a leader to aim at solving problems solely out of his opinion or intuition without involving workers in the process of decision making. At this point, he or she should be able to decide how best to solve the problem, maybe by breaking it into small steps. He can also assess how bad the problem is altogether (Wieck, 2002). A solution that best fits the state of affairs is picked and implemented. A quick fix solution is needed first followed by a long-term fix. He should finally check and monitor any solutions implemented and not just assuming he is done. A team leader in health care workforce holds a significant role in directing and guiding team members and inspiring them to stay focused (Sullivan, 2008). Such a leader should make his team members understand their roles and responsibilities and they should be assigned to them as per their qualification, interest, and experience not just forced on them. He should be impartial or unbiased, treat each team member equally, and not favor one simply because he or she is friend or family. Health care leaders need to encourage team members and other workers to assist each other by establishing a conducive working environment. He should avoid criticizing or making fun of anyone’s mistakes but rather encourage them to work hard and improve their weak areas. References Cummings, G.G., MacGregor, T., Davey, M., Lee, H., Wong, C.A., Lo, E., Stafford, E. (2009). Leadership styles and outcome patterns for the nursing workforce and work environment: A systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 47(3), 363-385. Retrieved from http://www.journalofnursingstudies.com/article/S0020-7489(09)00283-1/fulltext Hethcock, B. (2011). Hospital employment of physicians rising. Retrieved 1 April 2014 from http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2011/01/19/hospital-employment-of-physicians- rising.html Taplin, S.H., Foster, M.K., & Shortell, S.M. (2013). Organizational leadership for building effective health care teams. Annals of Family Medicine, 11 (3), 279-281. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3659146/ Wieck, K.L., Prydun, M., & Walsh, T. (2002). What the emerging workforce wants in its leaders. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 34 (3), 283-288. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1547-5069.2002.00283.x/pdf Sullivan, E. (2008). Effective leadership and management in nursing (7th Ed). 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