The qualities of a healthcare leader according to the Australian Health Leadership Framework

Discuss about the Australian Health Leadership Framework.

According to the Australian Health Leadership Framework, it advocates for a leadership style for a people that is focused on the effective health system which is equitable, sustainable and effective (Wright et al. 2000). The framework outlines the qualities of a healthcare leader which include; shapes the systems, engages others, leads self, achieves outcomes and drives innovation. In this assignment, I will evaluate the scenario that is provided by Helen who is a 35-year-old general practitioner. She portrays various leadership qualities according to the Australian Health Leadership Framework.

From the scenario that is provided by Helen, she possesses the following qualities according to the Australian Heath Leadership Framework; shapes the systems, engages others, leads self, achieves outcomes and drives innovation.

The healthcare system is a very complex and evolving system that requires all the involved departments and parties including funding and legislation (Brownson,  Baker, Deshpande & Gillespie, 2017). A change in one section has great effects and implications for the whole. Leaders such as Helen who understands the patterns of the interdependence are able to determine trends and help in facilitating strategies to get maximum benefits hence helping reduce unintended harm as well as negative consequences. Based on the Australian Health Leadership Framework, A good leader shapes systems. Such a leader shapes the organizational strategies which include effectiveness and execution.

Helen shapes the systems in her actions. She devolved the system care as she focused primarily on the care of an individual rather than the whole country town when she moved from the city of Melbourne. We are informed that she was applauded by the board for the role she played in influencing the change in healthcare that helped in increasing child immunization rates. This shows that Helen comprehends and institutes systems thinking as she had the issue of immunization of children in mind and heart. She also communicated system awareness to the board and negotiated within and across the health teams and other stakeholders to achieve better health outcomes in her community. Helen was able to promote understanding of health systems to the local community and got trust and respect of the board hence she was appointed as the new health officer due to her vision of promoting a healthy community.

The Australian Health Leadership Framework states that an excellent leader in the health sector should be able to engage others and systems through explanations that make sense and have benefits to the community. The leader inspires a well as enables other people in sharing information and ideas. Helen has all the qualities discussed above as she takes the opportunity to grow the health sector and lead and has sourced collaborations for higher performances. Helen engaged the local community and the local health sector in raising awareness on the cancer screening programs hence the number of people presenting themselves for cancer screening increased greatly. She recognized first the people of her town and then ensured that all other persons including patients and her fellow medical practitioners were treated well with dignity as well as respect in all the healthcare settings.

Evaluation of the scenario of Helen

She presented great ideas to the committee hence she has been provided with seeding capital to start some of her initiatives. Helen has been encouraging the close-knit community through empowering the community to take complete control of their immediate environments while being involved in the process of policymaking. She believes in the engagement of everyone in the betterment of the health sector regardless of diversity and ethnic differences. This has made her be popular among the city dwellers. She exhibits the ability to be able to engage others in the leadership in the health sector as she has made efforts to engage the community through advocacy for equitable access to all the services and health promotion.

The Framework states that a leader is individuals who work tirelessly to ensure that they make a difference in everything that they do. These kinds of leaders usually set a direction which inspires and motivates others as well as enabling energy and efforts to make sure that they succeed while keeping the eye on the set goals (Smith et al. 2015). Helen has always been working with compassion so as she can influence the quality of the healthcare and the sustainability of the healthcare system. She has collaborated with all other stakeholders and colleagues in the health sector through the identification of opportunities and sets goals that achieve the vision. She has been able to have tremendous successes in almost all her undertakings.

Helen has been able to have great achievements in the health sector through the promotion of healthy societies, her focus on the population instead of focusing keenly on the care of individuals. She has been involved in a number of successful initiatives such as immunization, sanitation, housing as well as infection control programs. Her achievements have also come about as a result of disease prevention, managing the environment as well as the provision of sustainable food sources.

Health is a dynamic entity that requires constant inventions and innovations. Therefore, innovation is important since it leads to fundamental changes to the models of the health care system so as to achieve a people-centered quality service (Cope & Murray, 2017).  For innovation to be successful, the leadership should be passionate so a to challenge the status quo. Helen has been very innovative in the health sector as she has led to the introduction of various new ideas for instance; her proposal of teleconsultations as well as telesurgery with the support of her colleagues in the health sector. These services were aimed at making the healthcare services delivery easy and available to all people and especially the senior citizens in the region. She has also sourced funds to start some of her new projects to better the delivery of healthcare to the local community.

Shaping the healthcare systems through effective leadership

Undertaking the self-assessment using the leadership self-assessment tool enabled me to weigh my leadership skills and the results were favorable as I passed most of the requirements. The leadership assessment tool is based on the concept that leadership in the field of health, as well as care services, are aimed at delivering high quality and favorable services to the patients through the ability to work with each other, managing and improving healthcare services and favorable personal qualities. The leader is also expected to have the ability to set the direction of the healthcare organization, create the vision and also deliver the strategy.

According to the assessment tool, I have effective leadership since being able to demonstrate my personal qualities in terms of my individual values, strengths as well as my abilities which helps me to deliver high-quality healthcare services to the patients. I am aware of my own values and principles which I have learned from experiences. I always manage myself while taking into account the needs of others. The various healthcare activities that I am involved in have helped me to continuously develop my skills and experiences through learning and acting with integrity since my values include openness, honesty, and belief of fairness for all humanity.

I am able to work with others since I usually develop networks through the identification of opportunities and encourage collaboration with other stakeholders in the health sector so that to give the best healthcare to the patients. I am able to build and maintain relationships clearly and effectively communicating with others and usually listens to the needs and feelings of other people. I usually encourage contributions and views from others and able to manage conflicts of interests and differences of opinion. My ability to work within teams through volunteering to lead my group while ensuring complete participation for all team member helps to make safe and sound decisions.

I have the capabilities of managing services through planning to get feedback from the users, my colleagues and patients to develop effective plans. I manage resources, people, and performance through appropriate resource allocation, supporting team members and ensure great performance in my undertakings. I am able to improve services by ensuring patient safety, critically evaluating situations, facilitation of transformation and advocating for improvement and innovation in the field of healthcare.

My great ability to set a direction of my organization has been due to the identification of the contexts of change, making sound decisions, evaluating the consequences of my actions and applying both pieces of knowledge as well as evidence (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2015). According to the self-assessment tool, I am fully able to create the vision of the organization and communicating it to the stakeholders and acts according to or towards my vision and mission. I am able to frame, develop, implement and embed the strategy to ensure that the strategic plans are sustained and achieved. These abilities ensure that I deliver the strategy effectively by developing and accepting strategic plans that have the healthcare given to the patients at heart. This ensures that the plans are made into achievements that improve the service delivery to the patients.

Engaging others in the healthcare sector

Although I have tremendous and numerous strengths according to the self-assessment tool in the field of healthcare, I have few weaknesses. These weaknesses include the lack of patience in seeking approval for minor activities. Although consultations are important in decision making, I have one weakness such that I usually do rush decisions without widely consulting. The other weakness is that I lack the art of engaging others in the management of the affairs of the organization which is wrong since collaboration is an important tool for success.

After analyzing the scenario of Helen who has exhibited great leadership qualities according to the Australian Health Leadership Framework and having assessed my leadership skills and abilities using the self-assessment tool I will put myself in the shoes of Helen and see how I fit. Helen has extraordinary leadership skills and qualities that I cannot match but I have put in great efforts and she can be someone that I look up to. Therefore, I possess leadership qualities that can enable me to fit into the shoes of Helen. Just like Helen, I have personal values and principles that would help me rally the community behind me like how she did it. My ability to engage others in the management and running of affairs will help me get the favor of the Board. This would enable me to advocate for child immunization, screening of cancer and ensure equitable allocation of the available resources.

However, I would not completely fill the shoes of Helen but just try to emulate her. I would encounter a great problem since I do not like working so many hours continuously like Helen. The other obstacle and challenge that I would encounter is the ability to create a great relationship with the local community like Helen since I don’t have such high communication and negotiation skills. Also, I would not advocate for teleconsultations and telesurgery. This is because I believe that currently, we do not need complicated health care systems. We need to simplify the systems even further and ensure that basic equipment and basic healthcare services are available to all the persons in the local community. Although I have some few shortcomings I believe that I can be able to handle the tasks handled by Helen but though not become as successful as her.

Conclusion

The Australian Health Leadership Framework and the Self-assessment tool both advocates for the change in the vision of the health care among the public health leaders from an individual approach to a community-wide approach so as to improve the status and the outcomes of the patient. The framework outlines the qualities of a healthcare leader which include; shapes the systems, engages others, leads self, achieves outcomes and drives innovation. Helen represents the public health leader who has almost all the desired qualities. On the other hand, the self-assessment shows that I am doing fairly well and that I need to just put a little more efforts so that I can match the standards set by Helen. The Leadership Framework Tool that I used to take a self-assessment advocate for good personal qualities, ability to work with other, strategy development and delivery, setting direction and managing as well as improving services.

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