Key Challenges Faced By Leaders And Managers In The Health Care Sector

Leadership and Management in the Health Care Sector

Leadership can be defined as the art of inspiring the team members for accomplishing an objective while management in health care systems can be defined as the procedure providing leadership and directions to the companies catering to the health service sector. The management in the health care sector requires leadership as well as supervision and coordination of the team members to accomplish the goals of the organization (Sfantou et al., 2017).

In the context of wellbeing and social care practices, leaders have to work with the people as equal partners  in assisting them to accomplish what they aspire to gain from life.  This forms the basis of their core objective of care and support in the domain of healthcare practices (The National Skills Academy Social Care, 2013). Also, the leaders play an important role in conflict management and communication in the case of transitions in the company.

In this report various aspects related of leadership in the health care sector will be analyzed.  The responses to the challenges faced by the leaders while confronting the issues related to the leadership policies will be projected in an action plan.

According to Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (2015) the duty of the leaders is to assure management, arrangement and obligation within the teams and organizations. Competent leaders in health services assure that safe and high quality care is the highest priority to serve the patients. It is their duty to assure that the patients are heard at every level. Their experiences regarding the treatment, concerns, necessities and feedbacks are attended to at every stage.

The health care mangers are employed at high positions where they can develop the organization by taking vital assessments. Such assessments are related to employment and growth of staff, acquiring skills, apportionment and expenditure of fiscal resources. The mangers guide the leaders of various teams in the decision making processes which can help their team members to accomplish the goals of the organization (Salmond and Echevarria, 2017).

As per Storey and Holti (2013) National Health Service (NHS), the provider of public health services in United Kingdom, Scotland, Wales and Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland has inculcated the following elements for a leadership model in its policy documents:

1. The leaders should focus on the necessities and experiences of the patients.  Moreover, they should emphasize on the visions and mission of the organization and encourage the work force to implement these in its service quality.  
2. The leaders must encourage the workforce to accomplish the objectives and aims of the organization as laid down in its policy framework and systems of accountability.
3. The leaders must define the clear and challenging goals to their teams.
4. The leaders must build team commitments and a positive and emotional climate within the organization. It will help in valuing the patients and the staff wellbeing.
5. Effective leaders must encourage high staff involvement to focus on the needs of the patients(Dye and Lee, 2016).

There are certain differences between leadership and management. Management is a science where series of logical steps can be followed to accomplish a particular goal while leadership is an art where the leaders formulate the action plan for their team members. They   design better methods for doing the things (Dauvrin and Lorant, 2015).

Importance of Leaders in Wellbeing and Social Care Practices

Managers focus on issues and the methods of performing the tasks while leaders are more inclined towards relationship building within their teams. They encourage the people who work for them and assist them to progress. Managers do things right while leaders do right things (Parand et al., 2014).  

In management the goals are formulated by the managers and executed by their subordinates. The managers perform to get the work done without taking risk while the leaders evolve innovative approaches to problems existing within the organization (ILM, 2012).

So, an individual can be a leader without being on an authoritarian status while for being a manger, one has to take the leading position (Daly et al., 2014).

There are certain challenges faced by the leaders and the managers in the health care sector which are illustrated below:

1. The major challenge faced by the leaders and management is the absence of systems or poorly    designed systems and their lack of integration within the organization. Such systems can harm the service users or fail to fulfill their needs.
2. The staff is unable to apply the knowledge about the human resources in the system designs and they fail to assimilate the safety principles into health care (Fitzgerald and Dermott, 2017).  
3. Attention is not paid on issues of quality assessment of different levels of care such as hospitals, home care, skilled nursing facilities etc.
4. Little or no coordination exits between the health professionals working together. It includes difference in the values and perceptions among them, role competition and lack of common language among them.
5. Lack of coordination regarding care, miscommunication, wasteful processes resulting in excessive costs have led to suffering of the patients. When the patients are transferred to one care center to another, it results in overlapping and conflicting treatment which is costly and confusing for the patients and their care takers (Anderson   and Garman, 2014).

There are different types of theories in leadership which are illustrated below:

1. Lewin’s Leadershp model: It was Kurt Lewin and his colleagues who categorized leadership according to the culture of autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire in 1939. Thus, the different types of leadership cultures are defined below:

• Autocratic or authoritarian leaders: In this style, the decision making resides with the leaders. This style can be beneficial in short duration projects which are complicated or those which have a hard deadline by which they should be completed (Goleman, 2017).

However, as the communication is only one way, this can create frustration among the workers. Also, there is fear and resentment among the employees as there is criticism more than praise.

• Democratic or Participative leaders: In this style the decision making is executed by a group rather than an individual. It is applicable in companies which practice continuous process improvements. It is helpful in companies which support the creative ideas of their employees.

However, the    decision making process is slow and time consuming. If the leader is uncertain about his decision, he can easily hide this by permitting his team members to participate in the decision making process.

• Laissez-Faire or Free Rein leaders: In this style the leader does not lead directly rather allow his team members to direct themselves. It is appropriate for a team of highly efficient professionals with the background of delivering excellent work. It gives the employees the freedom to direct themselves.

However, it can create high stress levels among the employees if they are insecure about their ability to take decisions.  In this style of leadership, there is lack of ownership as none of the employees is accountable  for taking the blames or credit in case of success and failure (Belasen, Eisenberg and Huppertz, 2015).

1. Transformational Leadership: It states that team members work more efficiently if they are directed towards a mission.  The leader is required to convey the purpose which is logical and exciting (Sawai, 2013).

However, it is not applicable in situations where the work force does not possess the       necessary skills      to accomplish the task or are not motivated to perform it (Waltson, 2016).

1. Collaborative Leadership: It comprises of communicating the information to coworkers, so that they can make their own informed decisions. Such strategies enhance the health care systems by encouraging a dialogue between multiple stakeholders by sharing their expertise and experiences thereby minimizing the level of complexity in the organization.

However, it can lead to conflicts among the members of the team because of their different working styles.

There are various theories of management which are applied in the health care sector. Some of them are explained below:

1. Bureaucratic theory: It is often used in health care sector because it creates consistency and precision. It engages few people for decision making and the low and middle level managers are allocated specific tasks with little authority.
2. However, they discourage creativity and innovation in the organization. Thus the employees are not satisfied with their jobs resulting in high employee turnover rates (Dlugacz, 2017).
3. Patient –Centered Management: In this approach, the top managers adopt the most cost effective method while the health care providers attempt to provide the best patient care possible (McCormack and Cance, 2016).  

However, if the patients are not treated well in this model, they become distressed and confused. If the patients don’t receive the appropriate amount of care, they become dissatisfied and angry.

According to RNAO (2012) there are guidelines to focus on managing and mitigating conflicts in health care teams which are stated below:

1. These guidelines recognize the knowledge, competencies and behaviors of each team in conflict resolution in the context of change in the company.
2. It identifies and implements best practices to address mange and minimize the conflicts.
3. It implements strategies and policies both at the organizational and system levels which identify, prevent, lessen and manage the conflicts occurred due to transformations in the organization.
4. These guidelines believe that leadership is essential at all the levels in the organization to create environment which practice the management and mitigation of conflicts (Dye, 2016).

Certain steps are followed by the organizations in the health sector to communicate the change to their employees:

1. Plan for change: The organizations attempt to reestablish the employee’s capacity to change. Leaders guide the team members regarding the ways and methods as to how to rebuild their skills, relationships and beliefs (Ho and Pinney, 2016).
2. Creating a change messaging strategy: Leaders endeavor to build self-confidence and the required skills necessary to cope up with change.
3. Train the senior employees in the team: The leaders train the senior employees in the team regarding the tracking of market trends and to formulate a connection to the change strategy.
4. Developing the communication skills of the human resources: The leaders should develop the communication skills of the human resources so that they can interact freely and confidently in the new environment (Rouleau, Gagnon and Côté, 2015).
5. Evaluating and monitoring the change: The leaders should compare the transformations introduced with the benchmarks of change. In case of inadequacy of the desired outcomes, they should adjust their tactics accordingly (Scully, 2014).  

Response to Challenges in an Action Plan

Leaders and managers are crucial for health care organizations such as NHS. Thus there are certain methods adopted by such organizations to evaluate and promote their effectiveness (Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management, 2015):

1. Multi source (360 degree) feedback through Questionnaires: This method involves the tem members to fill the questionnaires assessing the behavior and effectiveness of the leaders.
2. Developing of the assessment centers: The assessment centers which are generally spread over two to three days comprise of multi-source feedback, in basket exercises, interviews and intensive reflection processes. They are conducted so that there is a positive impact on the performance of the leaders.
3. Developmental assignments:  The best way to guide and manage is through gaining expertise instead of formal training. So the leaders are given potential challenges so that they can enhance their skills and expertise (West and West, 2015).

Conclusion

Therefore, to conclude, effective leadership is based upon being able to motivate others and prepared to do so. An effective leader inspires and guides other to accomplish the goals of the organization. The leaders and managers   in the social and health care sector consider participation and involvement as their core strategy. They assure that the voice of the work force is heard, motivated and acted upon across the organization.

The leaders should be task oriented which will assist them in planning and monitoring operations. It will also help them in problem solving.  They must be relations and change oriented which will help the organization in encouraging creative ideas to resolve various issues thereby contributing to the progress of the organization and satisfaction of the service users.

Thus the organizations working in the health care sector such as NHS should ensure that the leadership behaviors, strategies and qualities are developed for improving the staff wellbeing and its overall quality of care.

S No.	Key leadership and management challenges in the health sector	Solution to overcome these challenges	Duration
1.	Absence of poorly designed systems and lack of integration among them.	Implementation of technologically advanced systems to care of the service users and training of the staff to manage those systems. The hospitals should integrate risk analysis, association, care planning and medication management in their systems to contribute towards safe patient care.	2 months
2.	Failure to assimilate the safety principles in the health care.	The employees who are involved in the operations   should report any deviations from expected performance. Thus there should be reliability in sensitivity to operations. The patients should be assessed for risk factors during the hospital stay which may restrict their capability to execute essential aspects of health care.	1 month
3.	Issues of quality assessment at different care centers are not addressed to.	Health care professionals should develop activated public health systems which respond to such incidents immediately. To address the issues of accountability breakdowns, the care providers should properly manage the planning and risk assessments. Also, adequate resources and knowledge should be available to the care takers and to the patients upon their discharge.	2 months
4.	Less or no coordination between health professionals working together.	Professional should develop plan of care which should create a personal care program catering the needs of each patient. The team consisting of physicians, nurses, pharmacist, social workers and others as appropriate should communicate, collaborate and coordinate effectively throughout the patient’s hospital stay.	15 days
5.	Lack of coordination   while transferring the patients from one care center to another resulting in conflicting treatments.	The care providers should communicate effectively among themselves about the patient’s history, past and current treatments. Also, adequate time should be provided to the care takers and the patients regarding successful hand –offs. There should be   standardized procedures in executing successful hand-offs. For example the clinicians must ensure that the patients have the easy access to the medications at the next settings. Also, timely follow ups, support and cooperation to the patient must be extended after he leaves the care setting.	15 days
	Total duration		6 months

References 

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