NURS 6053 Interprofessional Organizational and Systems Leadership

NURS 6053 Interprofessional Organizational and Systems Leadership

Course Introduction

The healthcare field seems to advance in complexity each day. Regulation, changing population demographics, rising healthcare costs, and other environmental factors have all helped contribute to a change of focus toward health system transformation.

Because of this, a high-performing, interprofessional healthcare team is a modern necessity to ensure patient care outcomes. The need to build interprofessional teams and foster strong relationships is more important than ever. Change is difficult, and the ability to lead others through change is a skill that grows in importance with each new regulation or innovation. Healthcare teams and their leadership must also grapple with issues of accountability and ethics. These leadership challenges may not be unique to nursing and healthcare, but they are certainly magnified by the unique challenges and pace of change the field faces.

Interprofessional Organizational and Systems Leadership examines these challenges and the impact that effective leadership can have on organizations confronted by them. In this course, you examine the current healthcare environment and the role that effective leadership can have on managing change and behaviors in that environment. You reflect on your own leadership philosophies and approaches, and you consider communication strategies and relationship-building approaches designed to strengthen your own leadership skill set. You also explore the importance of effectively leading through change.

Welcome to Interprofessional Organizational and Systems Leadership!

Course Description

Students in this course will develop leadership skills to transform nursing and adapt organizations in response to the turbulent healthcare environment. They will develop and apply theory-based leadership competencies to create the organizational cultures needed to achieve quality patient outcomes. Students will also explore evidence-based strategies to create healthy work environments that empower nurses and build collaborative interprofessional teams.

Course Learning Outcomes

By the conclusion of this course, you should be able to:

• Explain how national healthcare issues impact healthcare organizations.
• Evaluate the promotion of ethical practice within organizational policies and practices.
• Analyze the effectiveness and impact of leadership skills on organizational practice.
• Assess leadership traits and behaviors in the development of personal leadership philosophies.
• Analyze evidence-based theories for promoting organizational health, collaboration, and effective teams.
• Apply strategies to lead organizational, policy, and practice changes.

Course Summary:

Welcome to class. This is actually a very interesting class, and one where you are expected to learn many NEW things. To make it easier for my students I always post helpful hints prior to all assignments. These hints are designed to help you not make the most common student errors I have seen in the past. My goal is to help you earn the highest score possible. But if you do not regularly check and follow the advice I provide, then my posts will not be very useful. 

Remember that APA 7th edition is a course and school requirement. No exceptions, this includes discussion. The things I am most interested in seeing, is that you can correctly format a citation and a reference. In discussion do not try hanging indents, as our system does not know how to do that. Do not cite anything you do not reference, and do not reference anything you do not cite. Finally, never use blogs, magazines, random websites, or newspaper articles as cited sources for discussion or papers. Only use peer reviewed articles found in your library. 

Also check you email frequently as I will send emails, if I see you are having any classroom issues. 

Students are expected to have read the syllabus and handbook and to understand how papers and assignments are graded (rubric). Deadlines are important and you cannot earn points when you do not submit papers or try to submit late. Remember, you must ask for permission to submit late, and this may or may not be approved, depending upon the circumstances.

NURS 6053 Review of Current Healthcare Issues

National Healthcare Issue

                The largest national healthcare issues and/or stressors that have one of the greatest effects on society is healthcare cost and access to healthcare and evaluation/treatment.  This is greatly impacted by region and Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) in every community in which healthcare is provided.  Access to healthcare has been a long-standing issue with many Americans over many years, has become a larger issue since healthcare coverage and medical costs have risen, and greatly effects our community members particularly those living in rural areas of the United States (U.S.).  Many community members currently have no health insurance or coverage, and the lack of this benefit prevents individuals from seeking care when they are ill or even preventative care.  Most of those affected are low-income individuals, elderly living on Social Security benefits (which are very low) and working individuals who may not be offered coverage plans at their place of employment (or simply cannot afford the cost of premiums for the offered coverage) (Health.gov, 2020).  Many are suffering from either known or unknown and untreated high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney disease, heart disease and more.

Social Determinants of Health

                The social determinants of health that affect access to healthcare the greatest are: 1) Income.  Income is a large factor in people affording healthcare coverage, as some work low-income, live on small social security pensions, or do not fall into the public DHHR Medicaid coverage categories.  2) Transportation.  Most American’s own transportation but nearly 8.8% of households reported on the recent census that they do not have personal transportation, rely on public transit living in cities that offer it, and rural areas that do not offer any public transportation.  Transportation issues lead to patients not being able to attend much needed medical appointments and/or testing and result in poor health or untreated serious health conditions and worsening chronic disease processes (Syed et al., 2013).

Health Facility Responses

                I work for a large rural health entity, and we gather SDOH on each patient’s arrival at our facilities.  We have knowledge of what patient(s) may need social services assistance for many different reasons and address these while they are present within the clinic real-time.  Our clinic tries to keep costs for our patients very minimal by only ordering necessary testing when necessary.  We have patients that call and advise they cannot get a ride from family, friends, or neighbors, and those with Medicaid services have issues with transportation buses showing up to take them (or are on time limitations to and from appointments based on driver availability), therefore, our facility has cab vouchers available for those within the eleven mile facilities ranges, bus passes for our chronic disease patients without transportation (which they participate in research projects each month for a small stipend in addition to paid transportation), as well as a contract with a local private owned transit company for rural areas, and uber services within 10 miles of their primary care facilities location.  These are covered by grants secured by our research teams on an annual basis.  Our healthcare group also has grants that provide monthly food boxes for patients with chronic health conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease, and high blood pressure.  We also have a Medical Outreach team that is staffed by physicians, nurses, Residents, and Medical Students that take our medical bus out into the community once monthly and offer free health evaluations and treatment.  We offer 340B plans for medication coverage to all who qualify, and our social workers intervene with other options/ways to secure much needed medications when the 340B Pharmacy plan does not cover a needed medication.  These changes have made a large impact in our community and have greatly increased patient healthcare participation by almost 42% in the past two years.

                Our healthcare entity also created and opened Ebenezer Medical Outreach which is governmentally funded, as well as funded via research grants, and provides medical evaluation to patients in the community and includes medication provided at the time of visits (either in-house pharmacy or provider samples left by drug manufacturers).  This facility seeks resources throughout all of WV to ensure that the patient gets preventative screenings and testing as well.  This includes arranging for Bonnie’s Bus to come throughout the year at different times to provide mammograms to those in need.  Without programs like these working in unison, many patients/community members would go without assessment and treatment (or even prevention) of serious health conditions.

References

Health.gov. (2020). Access to Health Services – Healthy People 2030 | health.gov. Health.gov. https://health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/social-determinants-health/literature-summaries/access-health-services#:~:text=Lack%20of%20health%20insurance%20coverage%20may%20negatively%20affect%20health.&text=Uninsured%20adults%20are%20less%20likely

Syed, S. T., Gerber, B. S., & Sharp, L. K. (2013). Traveling Towards Disease: Transportation Barriers to Health Care Access. Journal of Community Health, 38(5), 976–993. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10900-013-9681-1

NURS 6053 WK 6 Assignment Personal Leadership Philosophies

Personal Leadership Philosophies 

The core values of a leader are what determine the personal leadership philosophy of a leader. I believe that good leaders tend to have a set of unique characteristics that drive the way they act, their decision-making process, and the level of influence that they have on their followers (Laureate Education 2014). Therefore, my personal leadership philosophy is driven by a set of values that determine my underlying beliefs and guide my decision-making process and the actions that ultimately shape my daily routine and my career goals (Cortellazzo et al., 2019). Notably, one of the values that drives my personal leadership philosophy is the elements of empowerment and development. 

I view leadership as a position of power. For this reason, as opposed to keeping the power and control to myself, I strive to ensure that I empower others and motivate them to amplify their own impact as well. Some of the strategies that I use to ensure empowerment include actions such as formal training of employees through mentorship and delegation of responsibilities. Another key value in my personal leadership philosophy is the element of communication. I believe that communication is a powerful tool of a leader and is the foundation for a relationship. In the work setting, centering communication enables communication of contexts to the team and fellow employees (Khan et al., 2020). It aids in ensuring that clear and concise expectations are set for the employees. In addition, it forms the basis for the provision and setting of constructive feedback both within and outside the work setting. 

The mission and vision are the core elements of my leadership values. My personal leadership mission statement defines my purpose and objectives as a leader. It aids in illustrating my role and existence to my followers and to the organization. Similarly, my mission statement defines my purpose as a leader. The vision statement focus on my personal goals and aspirations as a leader (Roupnel et al., 2019). The vision and the mission statements are meant to ensure that my leadership approach remains uplifting and inspiring. My personal vision and mission statement are: 

Vision: To continue working towards becoming the leader that I would wish to work for. I have to lead by being an example and integrating open communication while investing in my employees and followers. I will aid the organization in attaining its goals.  

Mission: To serve as a leader by encouraging the development of innovative ideas and forward-thinking to ensure that my team can bring about technology solutions that will enhance and improve other people’s lives. 

Based on the CliftonStrengths assessment, I tend to employ the qualities of restorative theme due to my ability to develop solutions to problems that arise. I strive to ensure that I refer to information sources and consult materials such as publications in order to overcome the challenges that I encounter both in the work setting and in my personal life. I am constantly in search of ways that would best make me a better person and a better leader. For this reason, I would wish that other people learn from me about the need to investigate a situation at hand. This means that it is in the best interest to learn from the failures and challenges experienced. Also, I tend to be a learner, given that I strive to acquire additional knowledge and skills from the daily experiences and interactions within and out of the work setting. I tend to persevere to the point where I acquire the skills and knowledge needed to attain a goal. I tend to look into the future and the best way to have the best outcome through present actions and decisions on the futuristic theme. The theme of connectedness manifests in the element of generosity that I show to people. I believe that this is the strategy that will aid in motivating and influencing other people to perform good deeds. Lastly, as a relator, I seek to form positive relationships with those that I interact with to get the best out of the interaction. 

Two key behaviors that I intend to strengthen include the qualities of supportive and participative leadership. The two behaviors will best aid in ensuring that I lead by example and that I am able to provide the right guidance to my employees. The strategies that I plan to use to improve on these behaviors are through online tutorials and enrolling in classes that will aid in improving the two aspects. I will enroll in evening classes and attend training sessions in the health facility that I work for to improve on the two aspects of leadership. Upon completion of the classes for three months, I will have a certificate and will be able to exercise the two qualities with ease. Online training will be based on a wide variety of sources and the contributions from accomplished leaders in the health sector (Khan et al., 2020). Being participative as a leader is motivating to the other employees and improves the level of performance in the health organization.  

References 

Cortellazzo, L., Bruni, E., & Zampieri, R. (2019). The Role of Leadership in a Digitalized World: A Review. Frontiers In Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01938 

Khan, H., Rehmat, M., Butt, T., Farooqi, S., & Asim, J. (2020). Impact of transformational leadership on work performance, burnout and social loafing: a mediation model. Future Business Journal, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-020-00043-8 

Roupnel, S., Rinfret, N., & Grenier, J. (2019). Leadership development: three programs that maximize learning over time. Journal Of Leadership Education, 18(2). https://doi.org/10.12806/v18/i2/t1 

Laureate Education (Producer). (2014). Leadership [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.