Introduction
Leadership is a process whereby one person directs members of a group towards the attainment of a common goal. Like all phenomenon, leadership is susceptible to changes over time as variables in society changes. The evolution of leadership has changed from autocratic models to democratic systems whereby the concern for people is a very important aspect of attaining group goals and objectives.
Health Science Education is now complicated and designed to cover a wide array of issues and matters in the 21st Century. This includes amongst other things, cross-specialization, interaction of people from different professional backgrounds, a high rate of patient autonomy, and responsiveness to complex financial and economic goals. In line with this, there are high concerns in coordination, control, communication and attainment of financial goals in health science and this is evident in the education of the next generation of healthcare professionals.
The purpose of the proposed study is to identify an ideal model of leadership appropriate for health education in modern institutions which cuts across technical, social and economic variables. This paper is a proposal that puts forward an approach for the formulation of a study into the methods and teaching of an integrative cross-disciplinary perspective on leadership in the 21st Century health sector. In order to attain this end, the following objectives will be explored:
An evaluation of leadership in cross-disciplinary professional health practice;
An assessment of the leadership processes within the context of patient autonomy and
An analysis of how leadership in health services could lay the foundation for optimal financial goals and expectations.
Leadership in Cross-Disciplinary Practice (Technical)
This research proposes that cross-disciplinary practice and the ability to ensure they are efficient and effective is important and vital in the 21st Century. And as such, leadership in such coordination and communication is important, central and vital. This is because leadership education in the healthcare sector will have to be logical and must be based on a set of objectives that must be met including knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that must be demonstrated before graduation. These pointers must be done in ways that guarantee the highest and best results.
There are high standards of professionalism including “altruism, respect, compassion, honesty, integrity” . These are important in promoting cooperation and coordination and also allowing people from different disciplines and specializations to work together for the achievement of great results.
Healthcare has a complicated system of bringing together different aspects of professional specializations in the same organization. There is the need to balance professionalism in a system of complex systems. This therefore provide the blueprint and framework for the proper conduct of affairs in order to balance different competing claims and demands in the healthcare industry.
Anderson and McDaniel Jr identify that in order to achieve results, there must be eight variables a leader in healthcare needs to achieve optimal results for complex adaptive professional systems:
Focus on relationship building;
Loose coupling;
Complicating;
Diversifying;
Sense-making;
Learning
Improvising and
Adapting new ways of thinking
Through this, there could be proper cooperation and coordination in areas relating to specialization and also the achievement of synergistic effort. This is essential in the teaching and training of the next generation of healthcare professionals to give them the abilities to be cooperative and also lead people to achieve the best and the highest level of results in anything they do.
Leadership with a focus on Patient Autonomy (Social)
Patient satisfaction is a fundamental and central part of healthcare practice. This was not the case in the 20th Century where the essence of healthcare was to ensure that patients with the most serious and most painful conditions got solutions. On the other hand, today’s definition of professionalism includes ensuring that patients are satisfied in both qualitative and quantitative aspects of their lives.
Professionalism is important in practice but will have to be reviewed and analyzed in order to accommodate social elements of medical practice. This is because society is dynamic and there is the need for leaders to identify what the outside world is and how things around a given medical practice has changed. Through that, practitioners can find ways of dealing with issues and work on them to achieve results.
This procedure has caused a lot of things to be added into standard medical procedures and these are due to contemporary matters which have direct implications for leadership. A leader must be trained to understand these things and not just focus on the traditional elements of orthodox medicine and treatment of patients.
A research indicated that the new vision for healthcare in the 21st century include:
Patient centered-care
Interdisciplinary effort and respect for patient autonomy
Evidence-based practice
Quality improvement measures
Utilization of informatics
This shows that the running of healthcare facilities are more likely to be focused on what patients actually want and not what ought to be. There is a general trend towards ensuring that the highest and best quality of life of patients are guaranteed. Therefore, there is the need for a more thorough and in-depth analysis of what each patient needs and what must be done to meet the best interest and goals of each patient.
There is also the need for the identification of interdisciplinary measures and joint effort to achieve the best results of patients. This means leadership is more about coming together to focus on what is best and what the patient wants, rather than what the technical elements are. This is because in the past the focus was on maximizing meager resources as opposed to today’s era of relative abundance where the emphasis is on the quality of life. Thus, leadership should be about focusing more on quality of life rather than a pure quest for quantity of life.
Also, there is the need for evidence to be gathered through informatics and the use of quality measures. As a fundamental right of patients, this information must be shared with them and they should be given the options they have. With that update, they can make choices which doctors will have to pursue in all ways and forms possible.
This is expressed in conventional leadership textbook as a conflict trend towards concern for people as opposed to concern for production. Concern for production was in vogue when society was focused on enriching a small group of people and not being sensitive enough to the feelings emotions and desires of people who were connected to an organization. However, this has changed significantly. Leaders must be aware of and concerned with people as well as they are concerned with production. Human beings are an end in itself not a means to an end.
Concern for production and concern for people translates directly into transactional leadership and transformational leadership. Transactional leadership is about trying to focus on the leader’s own interest and the interest of the organization with no sensitivity to stakeholders and consumers. This is detrimental and must not be encouraged in healthcare education.
On the other hand, transformational leadership ties the needs of the organization with all stakeholders and all people to create a win-win situation. This helps to get the best of solutions to problems and also provide the best goals and ends for all stakeholders. This ties the best interest of people and patients to the healthcare facility and promotes the best of results for all.
Furthermore, situational leadership is one that is consistent and “leaders should match the leadership to the competence and commitment of subordinates”. This means a leader in a healthcare facility will have to use his strength as a leader to evaluate the realities of what people need socially and then guide them to achieve the best of results.
There are four styles of achieving goals under situational leadership and this includes Delegating, supporting, coaching and directing. There is the need for medical professionals and other workers to focus on gaining competencies in achieving core goals and core competencies in these vital areas. This is because such areas are necessary and vital in moving organizations forward and achieving goals and objectives.
Leadership for Financial Optimization (Economic)
Healthcare practice bodies and principles continue to change and in the 21st Century, the focus on financial goals are important and vital in affairs. Over the past 100 years, evidence shows that transmitting knowledge, imparting skills and inculcating values have been the most important matters.
The contingency theory is about empirically grounded theories that are logical and necessary at a given point in time. Today, stakeholders and processes are necessary to promote the best of results in terms of what consumers really want and what they need and then provide them. And one of the most important variables today are financial and economic targets.
In the medical field, the concern of finance and earning was exclusively the preserve of the management of a facility and the accountants. However, in today’s era of strategic operations and affairs, all levels of professionals including technical staff members have to ensure that the earning targets are met. Effectiveness in leadership now includes financial targets and there are exchanges that are meant to help firms to meet obstacles.
The health practitioner was a passive observer but with the changes in the interaction between practitioner and the financial affairs of a facility, it is important to teach learners some important things relating to ensuring financial interests are met legitimately. There is the need for ethical training and leadership processes to concern itself with the core and fundamental needs of health professionals and ensure that they are able to add up to the business and management leadership of the company and work to promote the optimization of resources and achieve the highest and best results for operations and other activities.
Evidence show that where there is an imbalance in the ethical training of medical and healthcare professional, there is a maldistribution of certain key competencies throughout nations. And this has caused many healthcare professionals to lack behind and fail to understand important pointers necessary for attaining competitive advantage and financial and economic gains. This makes them less productive and counteract the financial model and the business process by obstructing money making ventures and processes that are meant to make a healthcare facility more productive and enhance liquidity.
Therefore, in today’s terms, ethics in financial responsibility and proper activities to promote financial ends should be part of ethical training of healthcare professionals. This includes the identification of money and financial and accounting matters that are of essence and are vital. This will help to provide better qualities of services and enhance the results that healthcare entities are going to achieve through the responsible and ethical utilization and application of firm resources.
Analysis and Synthesis
Conceptual Model
This literature review has identified that there is the need for some new benchmarks and features to be integrated into leadership in the healthcare industry to reflect the relevant pointers and elements of healthcare ethics education in the 21st Century. This include the preparation of a facility to promote cooperation and coordination in all situations and affairs. This is fundamental and vital because in the 21st Century, there are more specialized units and more complicated work environments. Therefore, the ethics and codes of professionalism in coordinating and communicating in the healthcare industry must be encouraged and internalized amongst practitioners.
Also, two novel areas that are not generally observed – patient autonomy and financial ethics must be a fundamental part of teaching leadership amongst healthcare professionals. In an era of civil liberties for all and relative abundance in the world, there is an emphasis on the quality of life as opposed to quantity of life or urgent treatments. Therefore, it is necessary for practitioners to seek patient satisfaction as opposed to applying technical pointers just to ease pain and stress. Patient autonomy and individualism must be identified and used as a means to provide consumer satisfaction.
Furthermore, financial ethics are necessary to ensure that healthcare professionals understand the essence of financial decisions and work to achieve the best of results. Thus, the proposed research will have to find ways of ensuring that the economic and financial literacy and abilities of healthcare professionals are enhanced. This will include the analysis of information and coordination and cooperation in such facilities to achieve the highest and best forms of results in practice.
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