AHP_6_011 Leadership for Allied Health Professionals
At the opening ceremony of the Singapore Healthcare Management Congress 2013, Singapore Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said that strong management capabilities and leadership quality in the healthcare sector are extremely crucial to lead the growing healthcare needs of an ageing population, constant threat of global pandemics and rising non-communicable diseases. There is a need to constantly innovate and find ways to keep the population healthy and deliver the healthcare services more effectively (Gan, 2013). Technology in Health Care Leadership Essay
“One of the things that a leader needs to learn is that the traditional models of leading change are not very effective.” (Kent, 2014). The context for healthcare is changing due to changing expectations, changing disease profile and greater emphasis on ‘predict and prevent’ (Hartley, et al., 2008).
Definition of Leadership
Leadership in healthcare can be viewed in many different ways. Clinical leadership can come from hands-on care, from maintaining clinical expertise and may sometimes be separated from management with the goal of leading staff through transformational change to develop better services for the local community (Bishop, 2009). In the recent years, leadership is seen as something to be used by all but at different levels (National Leadership Council (NLC) Clinical Leadership workstream, 2011). It can be described to be a team effort (The King’s Fund, 2012) or also known as “sharedness” of leadership processes (Wang, et al., 2013) in an organisation. Shared leadership is displayed in terms of mutual influence, shared responsibility among the staff and leading each other towards the goal achievements. Shared leadership expands the extent of leader prototypicality (Wang, et al., 2013) as team members are given a chance to take on decision-making process and leadership role. Technology in Health Care Leadership Essay
“Gone is the heroic individual with a monopoly on the vision; it is replaced by a commitment to building shared visions with a range of stakeholders.” (The King’s Fund, 2012).
Wang, et al., (2013) divided shared leadership into 3 categories which are shared traditional leadership, shared new-genre leadership and cumulative, overall shared leadership. The subgroups on the types of leadership under each category such as
transactional, visionary and transformational leadership can be seen in Appendix A. Technology in Health Care Leadership Essay
Shared traditional leadership is where the leader uses methods such as contingent rewards towards staff to achieve team goals and satisfy staff’s needs (Wang, et al., 2013). Shared new-genre leadership emphasizes transformational, visionary and charismatic leadership which empowers the staff towards development and change (Wang, et al., 2013). Cumulative, overall shared leadership is displayed within the team level, in which each individual team member demonstrate a degree of leadership. Technology in Health Care Leadership Essay
Importance of leadership
Leadership is important as it can determine the functionality of a basic team unit as it strongly influences key team processes. It can determine and clarify the objectives of the team, giving the team a clear view on the goals and the pathways to take to achieve the goals (Hartley, et al., 2008) such as improving patient experience and outcome (NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, 2011). Having leadership can encourage participation from the staff, allowing the staff to contribute and pool great ideas, supporting innovation in the team. It also enhances the commitment to quality, as having a leader ensures primary quality objectives are met in the day to day workings within the staff (Hartley, et al., 2008). Technology in Health Care Leadership Essay
Guidance to the changes in the healthcare in many aspects
There are many aspects of healthcare that are constantly changing such as new techniques and technologies in healthcare. As such, there is a constant need to find new ways of working within and across teams, and with patients (Hartley, et al., 2008). Therefore, strong leadership that support a vision for change with a clear articulation of what needs to be achieved, by whom and with what, would likely to succeed in healthcare organisations (Gifford, et al., 2013). Technology in Health Care Leadership Essay
Leadership is also crucial when it comes to finding new approaches to continuous improvement which rely a lot on ‘people management’ (Hartley, et al., 2008). Bishop, (2009, p. 83) stated that leadership in Allied Health is no longer just about ‘managing’ the service and being a ‘therapy lead’, it is about leading the staff and the service to a new posi
Quality Work
Unlimited Revisions
Affordable Pricing
24/7 Support
Fast Delivery