Visions of Leadership in Healthcare, Essay Example

There can be no doubt among anyone in healthcare today that leadership in this complex and changing profession is more important than ever, and that good leadership can often make the difference between a hospital or clinic that is well-run and efficient and one that is not. Russell Taichman, editor of the Journal of Healthcare Leadership, states, “The delivery of healthcare today depends on a growing group of professionals coming together as a multi-disciplinary team.  At the same time, there are many forces shaping the delivery of healthcare….it is only through dynamic leadership that the professions themselves will be in a position to guide these transformations” (Taichman, 2014, p. 1).  Since leadership is to critical to healthcare today, having a good idea of what characteristics make a good leader – and how those characteristics might shift depending on the particular leadership role – is very important.

Leadership Characteristics

Depending on the particular leadership role, different characteristics might come into play to make an effective leader.  For a role like Chief Financial Officer, for instance, apart from a strong knowledge of applied economics/budgeting, it would also be important to have a very detail-oriented approach and to be able to communicate financial knowledge effectively to other members of the staff.  A Chief Nursing Officer would not only need strong clinical skills, but also need to be good at personnel management and motivating people to work and to comply with protocols/policies.  Healthcare administrators and clinical managers would also need to be detail-oriented and have good interpersonal skills and be efficient and organized because of the complexity of their jobs.  A charge nurse would also need to have excellent clinical and organizational skills and the staff nurse would need to have excellent clinical skills and be able to work well with other people on her shift.

Similar Characteristics in Leadership

There are certain characteristics of leadership that would apply to any of the positions just discussed.  Perhaps the most important of these would arguably be the ability to communicate effectively with people work with you or under you in order to get the job at hand done.  Also, interpersonal skills and the ability to motivate and even inspire people in the organization would be important for all these roles.  And it could also be argued that, even for the higher-up positions of leadership, that compassion for patients should be considered important in leadership, because healthcare is not a business in the same way as a supermarket or clothing store: there are real, human lives at stake in health care, and the results of poor leadership or poorly delivered healthcare have real, human costs.

Conclusion

Because of its complexity and because of the real human cost associated with poorly delivered care, leadership in healthcare is incredibly important. While some attributes of good leadership will differ depending on the specific leadership role, though, good communication, good interpersonal skills and compassion are all important to ensuring efficient and good-quality health care.

References

Taichman, Russell.  (2014). Healthcare Leadership.  Journal of Healthcare Leadership website. Retrieved from www.dovepress.com/journal-of-healthcare-leadership