The Preparation of Allied Health Practitioners - Article Example

The article compared the preparation of Allied Health Practitioners for management positions to a box. Employees are unable to reach their maximum potential because institutions enclose them in a box that limits their improvement. Among the examples are allied health professions in physical therapy, occupational therapy, medical technology, nutritional science, diagnostic imaging specialties, and speech-language pathology (Bender, 2005, 364).
Job levels limit allied health practitioners to fulfill the staff-level clinical roles. Professional growth in hospital-based employment is slow; thus, employees seek new jobs. As a result, hospitals become understaffed and experienced personnel is lost, leading to increase hospital costs laid on the training of new employees.
To increase job satisfaction and employee retention, intrinsic satisfiers such as work itself, achievement, recognition, responsibility, and opportunities for growth and advancement must be addressed; therefore, a sense of autonomy, responsibility, and authority will retain the allied health practitioners (Bender, 2005, 365). Most of the health care providers mistakenly thought that one’s clinical expertise is enough to achieve professional growth and development without even analyzing that other factors such as patient appreciation or promotion might contribute to job satisfaction.
Experienced allied health professionals have the capacity to transcend into administrative positions. In addition, they could also help in other hospital tasks such as risk management or quality improvement. Climbing the ladder is not easy; allied health professionals must take the step to go beyond the box and enter administrative and policy-making positions. This can be done by conducting an annual review of performance, opportunities analysis, threats analysis, and planning for a career direction. Aside from professional skills preparation, networking or developing an interpersonal relationship with other people from the non-clinical field will also help in achieving administrative roles as this will emphasize administrative roles as a distinct area of specialization.
Aspiring for an administrative or managerial position may not interest most clinicians; however, this type of marketing strategy will help the hospitals and other allied institutions in attracting new staff or employees that will help in providing quality care.
Purpose and Intended Audience. The purpose of the article is to encourage members of the allied health professions to aspire for managerial or administrative positions. Furthermore, the article also aims to address the different factors that may enhance job satisfaction and employee retention. The article’s intended audiences are members of the allied health professions and different hospitals.
Review/Reflection
The article relates to allied health by stating that most of the problems in terms of realizing one’s maximum potential are observed in allied health professions. Slow progressions make these allied health professions dissatisfied and later on seek new employment.
Clinical experience is related to the article as the article emphasized clinical experience as one of the motivating factors for clinicians in achieving professional growth and development. The mastery of skills increases employee satisfaction which culminates skills from novice to expert position and creates opportunities for administrative training that enhanced autonomy, authority, and sense of responsibility.
The strengths of the author’s main points include: the lack of opportunities for allied health professions for professional growth in most of the hospitals because they are typically hired for clinical staff positions but career development is slow; innovative staff developments will be able to retain experienced employees; intrinsic satisfiers is important because payment itself will not assure that employees will maintain in the institution for long; professional clinical ladder does not guarantee steady upward movement in position and leadership because clinical experience should also be considered; even an allied health practitioner is promoted, salary does not increase and authority is limited unlike in administrative positions; guidance from co-workers has significant impact on performance of non-clinical roles; and allied health professions moving into the administrative or managerial role are at the advantage because of previous clinical experiences in dealing with people and in making decisions.
On the other hand, despite numerous strengths, a number of weaknesses from the author’s main points were also noted such as: going into administrative roles may not interest clinicians because as the article said, employees want satisfaction in job and some of them may not feel it if jobs are not appropriate in their field of expertise, and innovative staff developments may be able to retain experienced employees but not for long. Read More