Team Leader: the Healthcare Sector - Assignment Example

Team leader February 28, Team leader The healthcare sector incorporates many professions that often require collaboration for effective service delivery to clients. The interdependence may occur across departments or may require team operations and outcomes depend on quality of leadership and communication skills in a given set up. Personal experience with teams such as inter-professional teams has improved my interpersonal competence in service delivery and established my base for further leadership development. Team experience Nurses assume diversified roles that require a level of specialization. Similarly, nursing programs may require expertise from other professions to identify inter-professional teams in a healthcare initiative. One of my team experiences involved a multidimensional approach to social behavior change for prevention and management of Chlamydia trachomatis infection among adolescents in a locality. The team needed to identify underlying risk factors among the target population and develop a behavior change strategy for prevention and management. Even though involved nurses had a level of multidimensional skills and experience such as in psychology, research, and education, specialized professionals were incorporated to spearhead these interests. The multidimensional team that was also diverse in demographic factors such as age, gender, and race was organized in groups, each with specific tasks, but open forums for progress evaluation ensured input of every team member in each of the involved activities. Of special interest was difference in rationale among the non-nurse professionals and the role that the difference played on the team’s success and on team members. Analysis of the team, using Team Performance Survey (Thompson, et al., 2009), identify a high-level effectiveness of the team. Group leaders briefed the team on progress and plans but every team members participated in deliberations, questioning validity of reports by each group, or introducing a new idea. The team leader also ensured an inclusive participation by being specific in eliciting responses and new ideas. Members also explained their opinions in cases of conflicts and even external information sources were used resolve differences in opinions. Difference in professional backgrounds and even specialization among nurses formed most of the differences, but this also played a critical role in resolving differences in opinion through multiple strategies such as brainstorming, illustrations, and both primary and secondary research. Besides being open to confrontations in which members expressed their opinions freely, respect for autonomy and paying attention to each member’s contribution were supreme team principles. A high level of dedication also existed in the team and rewards for outstanding contributions moderated intrinsic motivation that all team members had. In spite of the positive team performance traits, however, there were a few moments when members got personal on their opinions or responses to their opinions. Lack of respect for other team members’ personal opinion also existed, especially at earlier stages of the team but effective leadership managed this. There were also few instances when members did not pay attention to a member’s contribution, especially during controversial inputs and during normal distractions but the team leader ensured control. I therefore consider the team effective because the shortfalls only occurred in few instances and were managed. Future team leadership An evidence-based approach to preventing and managing incidence of falls in my healthcare facility is the upcoming issue in which I would assume a leadership role. Patients’ well being is the focus of health care and while care facilities and personnel focus on managing patients’ conditions, patients’ physical safety should be of similar concern. National statistics on falls are alarming and our facility is not an exception. Data from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014) shows that significant number of falls occur, especially among the elderly population. While more than one million elderly people live in nursing homes, more than half of the sub population experience falls in a year and a significant incidence rate exist in the community set up. An estimated value of 1800 die every year from falls and this is just 20 percent of total mortality from falls in the United States. Falls also cause different types of injuries and incidence of falls is estimated to double by the year 2030. This identifies need for action and I perceive the need to emulate Florence Nightingale’s scientific approach to solving care problems (Hanks, 2013). Leadership assumption I perceive a leadership role in advocacy towards patients’ safety from falls in order to control fall rates and to reduce it instead of anticipating the projected increase. I would lead a team of nurses in an evidence-based practice approach for understanding causes of falls in my facility, trends in falls, and possible solutions to the problem. I would then lead other nurses towards further research on the problem and towards advocacy for actions for reducing falls and associated injuries, morbidity, and mortality. I would assume leadership through democratic leadership approach, derived from behavioral leadership theory. The leadership approach, according to Lussier and Achua (2015), involves engaging stakeholders in decision making and encouraging them to participate in the decision making process. The democratic leaders also offer a room for followers’ independence, though not as much as in laissez faire in which followers enjoy full autonomy. I would conduct a preliminary report on falls as a potential threat to the facility’s service delivery and to the entire healthcare sector. I would then seek permission to conduct a research on causes and possible solution of the problem in the facility and use to results to influence further action across the sector. The behavioral leadership approach would influence input from such stakeholders as my facility director, members of my research team, and regulators of the county healthcare sector and other nurses in the county and beyond. Regular open forum that would incorporate the research team and the other stakeholders would be the main engagement avenue while direct links will also be established for continuous communication between the team and external stakeholders. Plan development for goal achievement A democratic leader delegates powers to followers, motivate the followers, and depends on followers respect for influence and the followers’ competence for goal realization (Daft, 2007). My leadership goals for the team are earning team members’ respect, creating an environment of positive self-concept and determination, integrating team members into the team’s activities, and moderating the relationship between team members and other stakeholders. Leadership plan and timeline Stage Sub-stage Leadership activities Time Establishing and communicating team objectives and significance Developing preliminary information on the proposed practice and encouraging my facility’s director to review the findings for possible approval and financing Week 1 – week 3 Recruiting team members Identifying potential team members and informing them of significance of their contribution and potential benefits Week 5 Evaluation of team members’ traits and potentials Engaging human resource management department in determining suitable recruits for the exercise Week six (Four days) Orientation into the team’s objectives Detailed discussion of the project’s activities and members’ responsibilities and development of a culture for the team Week seven (One day) Strategy alignment Team members Organizing a retreat for understanding strengths and weaknesses of team members, and their preferences Week nine (Three days) External stakeholders Contacting stakeholders with potential high level stake and inforporating their interest in the team’s activities Week 10, and in subsequent stages of the project Team operations Identification of challenges to the project and development and implementation of solutions Week 12 to week 17 (during the project’s implementation) as need arises Evaluation Analysis of success in solving challenges that face the team Week 12 to week 17 after implementation of any challenge Conclusion The healthcare sector requires interdependence and effective leadership. One of my team experiences involved a multidimensional team that sought to investigate factors to Chlamydia trachomatis and possible solutions. Even though the team faced some challenges during its early stages, its analysis, through the Teams Performance Survey identifies effectiveness. An evidence-based approach to controlling number of falls in care facilities is the issue on which I would like to assume a leadership role. I would apply a democratic leadership approach in influencing my project team in the project that would take about 17 weeks to implement. My leadership plan for the project would include influencing support for the project, selection, evaluation, and orientation of team members, and strategy alignment. References Daft, R. (2007). The leadership experience. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. Hanks, R. (2013). Social advocacy: A call for nursing action. Pastoral Psychology, 62(2), 163-173. Lussier, R. and Achua, C. (2015). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2014). Falls in nursing homes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/Falls/nursing.html. Thompson, B. M., Levine, R. E., Kennedy, F., Naik, A. D., Foldes, C. A., Coverdale, J. H., & Haidet, P. (2009). Evaluating the quality of learning-team processes in medical education: Development and validation of a new measure. Academic Medicine, 84(10), s124-s127. Read More