Monday, January 7, 2013

Leadership in the Medical Field: How Is It Demonstrated?

Part 2 of Series on WiseWolfTalking

The concept of leadership in the medical field is critically important ability for healthcare providers to demonstrate. The strong and unmistakable correlation between effective leadership in the medical field and the subsequent quality of patient care and satisfactory outcomes was established. That aspect of quality leadership’s immediate impact on patient care was used to justify educating all levels of healthcare personnel, from students in a medical assistant program to those in their first year of their internship. The diagrammatic tool developed above by the NHS Institute for Innovation & Improvement and the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges (ARMC) was introduced as a tool to help professionals self-evaluate their leadership skills and identify any areas of weakness that might require attention. This visual tool, deemed The Medical Leadership Competency Framework, was described in brief detail. In Part 2 of this series, I turn attention to a single wedge of the pie, “Demonstrating Personal Qualities” necessary to be an effective and capable medical leader.

Personal Qualities for Medical Leadership

According to the NHS and ARMC’s Medical Leadership Competency Framework tool, there are four fundamental character aspects necessary for healthcare workers to demonstrate in order to be considered effective leaders. These aspects are:
  • Developing self-awareness.
  • Managing yourself effectively.
  • Continuing personal development.
  • Acting with integrity.
The four identified characteristics correspond very closely to the second of three key skill sets for an effective healthcare manager, as identified by Dr. Len Sperry’s textbook “Becoming An Effective Health Care Manager: The Essential Skills of Leadership.” We can thus dismiss any objections that the Medical Leadership Competency Framework is applicable only to the U.K.’s socialized medicine standard as opposed to the U.S. model.

Read the full article on WiseWolfTalking

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