GHMB925 Effective Leadership In Health

Question: Helen is a 35-year-old General practitioner, who has been practicing in Warnambool in the State of Victoria (Australia) for 5 years. As a general practitioner, she has focused on primary care of individuals in the country town after moving from Melbourne. In January 2018, she was accoladed by the council in Warnambool, for her services in helping increase child immunization rates and increasing awareness on cancer screening programs. In the same meeting, the board recognized that there is a need for a new public health officer in the area, and Helen was nominated. Helen’s mandate included promoting healthy communities, focusing on the health of the population rather than focusing only on primary care of individuals. The new mandate includes a range of services from sanitation, housing, infection control and immunization programs. She was confronted with the fact that there is a need to engage the close-knit community, empowering them to take control of their own environments and involve themselves in policy making. She is aware that this is a diverse, multi-ethnic, ageing community, where traditionally town planners, architects and policy makers have driven the agenda for public health initiatives. In addition, the community is not open to younger female leaders, although she is a popular GP. At this juncture, Helen has to become an influential public health leader, engaging the community, advocating for equitable access to services, health promotion, environmental health issues, disease prevention, finding sustainable food sources (Community gardens), accessible exercise (running tracks) etc – to name a few. The remote area lacks specialist services, for which patients are often sent to the nearest city that is 300 kilometers away from the town. As a GP, Helen has been deeply concerned about this issue as there has been many deaths that occurred due to lack of specialist care. She had been exploring the options of teleconsultations and telesurgery, with her colleagues. As a GP, she wanted to initiate these services for better care of the majority of senior citizenry in the area. However, with a small GP practice, and as a young single woman, her leadership is viewed with skepticism by policy makers, senior government stakeholders, senior citizens in the community, and town planners. Whilst Helen is a trusted GP, the stakeholders in the community are uncertain of her new senior leadership role as Public Health Officer representing the community. Helen is a kind, optimistic and qualified medical practitioner, but also introverted and never worked with many stakeholders nor managed many subordinates. In her new role, the town planning office has also provided her with an office and 10 staff reporting directly to her, chosen from different areas including, environment officers, nurses, bio-statisticians, IT support, and administrators. Helen has to report on significant changes by end of the year and has also been provided with seeding funds to kickstart some initiatives. Answer: According to DeSalvo et al. (2016), in the recent years the health care sector is focused on expanding their scope and addressing factors that promote and improve the health and well-being of the public. This could be achieved by setting up of strong and responsible leadership in the health sector. Public health leadership is the ability of an individual to motivate, influence and enable other people actively participate in the success and effectiveness of the health of their society. Leaders are the vision bearers in every organization and they inspire people to craft attain the organization’s goals and vision. According to the Canadian Public Health Organization (2007), a good leader should coach, mentor empower, encourage, allow and other leaders to emerge. Health Workforce Australia (2013) claims that effective management and leadership are the cornerstone in attaining successful and quality health outcomes. As a leader, vested with the responsibility to oversee any health firm, I would demonstrate personal qualities, work hand in hand with my staff, set direction, vision and deliver strategies to achieve this vision. I would also focus in effectively managing services and improving the services in the facility. Personal qualities such as being a role model and an inspirer are important. I would lead by example support people and also demonstrate a high degree of integrity. I would concentrate on improving the public health other that an individual’s health. Focusing on health inequalities existing in the health sector would improve delivery of health care services and also the access to these facilities. According to Sadana and Blas (2013), health inequalities are as a result of dynamic and reflect multiple factors which must be dealt with. Working with the society is important in achieving success in public health leadership. A good leader should empower the community so that they have control over their environment. In making policies affecting any specific community or locality, I would involve their leaders and the community at large. This ensures that the needs of every person, age group are met. This also safeguards the traditions and cultures of the community as they should not bleached whatsoever (Katz, 2018). Placing responsible people to oversee the health matters in the society. This would improve delivery of standard services too. A good leader should listen to others and work to gain the trust of the public. I would attain this by creating forums where I would involve the public and any other stakeholders in discussing health matters. Improving the delivery of health care services would be my core focus as a leader. I would like to make a difference in the health sector by improving the existing health care standards and setting a high standards for health delivery in my locality. According to Mitchell (2008), for every community to attain quality health care, they must consider patient safety. Patient safety emphasizes on prevention of errors, learning from previous errors and together with health care practitioners crafting a culture of patient safety. Patient safety would also involve ensuring equitable access of health services especially in the rural areas and maintaining a healthy environment. With sufficient support from the relevant bodies I would improve the health care technology. This includes equipping our laboratories, hospitals and research rooms with competent and recent machinery. Despite any challenges I might face, I would work hard to overcome them and maintain a health nation. References Canadian Public Health Association. (2007). Leadership in Public Health Practice. Retrieved from: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&edata-src=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjOh9zF1rfeAhUCTo8KHal4ARoQFjABegQIChAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cpha.ca%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fuploads%2Fwebinars%2F2016-09-14-vollman_public-health-leadership.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2xyFlXuq4VgoVq6fZyBQ17 DeSalvo, K. B., O’Carroll, P. W., Koo, D., Auerbach, J. M. and Monroe, J. A. (2016). Public Health 3.0: time for an upgrade. Am J Public Health; 106(4):621–622 Health Workforce Australia. (2013). Health LEADS Australia: The Australian health leadership framework. Adelaide: Health Workforce Australia. Mitchell, P. H. (2008). Patient safety and quality: Defining patient safety and quality care. Rockville: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US). Katz, D. L. (2018). How can we improve public health? Retrieved from: https://www.sharecare.com/health/health-society/how-improve-public-health Sadana, R., & Blas, E. (2013). What can public health programs do to improve health equity? Public health reports (Washington, D.C.: 1974), 128 Suppl 3(Suppl 3), 12-20.

GHMB925 Effective Leadership In Health

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