Advancement in the knowledge in the health sector is an important focus today. The continued need for leadership in the field of medicine has been the focus of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) which aims at enhancing the performance of all the medical practitioners in their efforts to enhance improved health services. The IOM have provided various platforms in for enhancing innovative leadership as the core competencies in enhancing the leadership capacity of individuals (Calhoun et al., 2008). I aspire to be a leader in the field of medicine with the objectives of developing the performance of the medical practitioners and hence better health services. I am mainly interested in the development if the interdisciplinary coordination and management of the teams with the aim of ensuring shared expertise in promoting the wellbeing of the patients in the hospital (O'Neill et al., 2006). My mission in this is to enhance cooperation, collaboration, sharing, and communication among other medical teams to ensure continuous interaction of practitioners during the treatment of the patients. In this paper, I will focus on defining the various elements of my SMART leadership goal towards enhancing the success of the interdisciplinary teams in the medical field. I will expound on how the interdisciplinary actions will be increased through the Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound metrics. This will hence give a clear definition of what my SMART leadership will be established in the future. Later I will establish the various action plans and time frames which will be used for the growth of the leadership career.
Specific
The specific interdisciplinary leadership goal is dependent on the information available for the planning, organizing, controlling, monitoring and communicating in the medical sector (O'Neill et al., 2006). The specificity of the goal must be established through the detailed study of the objectives, visions, missions, values and the expected results of the interdisciplinary approach (O'Neill et al., 2006). This will entails the study and analysis of the performance of health care projects which involves some aspects of interdisciplinary teams with those which do not. I will mainly improve the collaboration, cooperation of the health practitioners and department to enhance high-quality health service in the health centers. I will concentrate on discouraging any forms of individualized treatment by the physicians in the health facilities since patients need attention from various experts at any one time (Calhoun et al., 2008). I will put across that lack of coordination and cooperation among the health practitioners may lead to sub-standard treatment which in most cases threatens the life of the patients. In my view, lack of interdisciplinary teamwork in the health centers and hospitals has been responsible for the poor patient care. In my leadership, therefore, I will see to it that all the stakeholders in the provision of health services take part in the treatment of the patient. I will set clear links and role definition which will enhance the participation of all the practitioners in the treatment of a particular patient. This will be possible through coordination and communication between medical doctors, laboratory personnel, dieticians, educators, pharmacists, podiatrists, psychologists, human resource personnel and customer service employees among other stakeholders (Calhoun et al., 2008). Interdisciplinary teams will be established through the setting of duties and clear definition of the roles to be carried out for the welfare of the patient.
Measurable
My leadership goal on the interdisciplinary core competence in the health sector will involve several measures to show its visibility and sustainability. I will, therefore, set various measurement metrics which will be used to determine whether employees at different levels can interact and if they can interact, the results of positive interdisciplinary interaction will be measured. In my SMART leadership goal, the measurement will be done in phases to assess the periodical performance during the leadership regime. Some of the metrics to be used will be customer satisfaction, patients’ ability to access the necessary services, the time is taken by the patient to get better and the number of interdisciplinary disagreements (O'Neill et al., 2006). These among many others will give adequate information on the level of interdisciplinary teamwork in the health facility.
In the measurement of the leadership goal attainment, I will put some accessible suggestion boxes in which the patients can leave their comments, employees and customers face-to-face interviews, use of questionnaires, observation of the employees behavior during treatment and more so the readiness to seek assistance from other disciplines. In measuring the performance, it will be important to ask questions on how the patients interacted with the various professionals and how the interaction may have influenced their healing. Comparison of the hospital performance before and after the introduction of this philosophy will also be used as a measure of the performance (Calhoun et al., 2008). More so, the comparison between my organization performance and the performance of other hospitals and medical facilities using individualized approaches may also be a performance measure. Some of the questions to be asked in the questionnaire should include:
How does it feel to work as a team in the organization?
How can you rate the patient service in the current organization structure?
Do you think that any department can work in isolation in the medical organization?
How can you rate the simplicity of services provided through teamwork?
Attainable
Proper coordination of resources (money, materials, machinery, man, and methods) will give the end to end visibility of the interdisciplinary teams. I will ensure that different departments such as the laboratory department are provided with the necessary personnel and machines which can be used to scan the patients efficiently. To enhance the productivity of the individuals, the human resource department and the finance department will provide the necessary tools for motivation (O'Neill et al., 2006). Team building and social activities will also be important in enhancing attainability of the leadership goal. Through the utilization of human cooperation and my learned ability in team-building, I will be able to bring people from various departments and professions together. More importantly, training will be essential to enhance the productivity. It will be used to ensure that individuals are trained on how to involve other practitioners in the treatment process (Calhoun et al., 2008). I will use the experienced unit managers who will assist in the introduction of an organizational change and designing a system which will ensure some form of departmental dependence while still using the HR department for team building. Personally, I will attend more forums which give more information on how various can work together to enhance productivity. I will also provide seminars for all the managers and employees to enhance their ability to interact in getting the necessary information. Training will mainly focus on collaboration, communication, and coordination skills which enhance interdisciplinary cooperation.
Realistic
My leadership goal presents a very realistic concept in the hospitals given its ability to use the available resources only in a more efficient manner. Firstly, with the much-learned leadership skills, I will be sure to be able to coordinate the people and the resources towards enhancing quality health care. The interdisciplinary teams are easy to develop and maintain as it only requires the creation of the relationship between the medical practitioners and other employees. The leadership goal is also realistic given the fact that IOM has been able continuously to provide training on the interdisciplinary as the core competence provision of the health care services (Calhoun et al., 2008). Given the intellectual resources of the employees and the managers in an organization, it will be possible for me to get access to advising and scrutiny of the new policies to set them according to the need of the organization. Additionally, in implementing my goals, I will be able to use organization finances and budget in the creation of the interdisciplinary culture in the organization. My SMART leadership goal on the interdisciplinary as the core competence will only be accomplished through the continued assistance and cooperation of the senior managers and all the employees.
Time bound
The accomplishment of my leadership goals which incorporates the core competence of inter-disciplinary team building will take a span of four weeks to ensure full implementation. The timelines will be as divided as follows:
The Action Plan
Having followed the above personal SMART Goal, I believe that the implementation process will be quite easier due to the preparations for the leadership goal and the skills learned throughout the course.
References
Calhoun, J. G., Ramiah, K., Weist, E. M., & Shortell, S. M. (2008). Development of a core competency model for the master of public health degree. American Journal of Public Health, 98(9), 1598-1607.
O'Neill, J., Conzemius, A., Commodore, C., &Pulsfus, C. (2006). The Power of SMART Goals: Using Goals to improve student learning. Bloomington, Ind: Solution Tree Press.
