Week 5 Discussion Epidemiology in Health care
Leadership in Healthcare
Leadership in healthcare can be extremely challenging, yet exciting. Leaders must be knowledgeable in many different areas of healthcare, including the clinical side. They must stay up to date on current literature relevant not only to leadership styles and functions but also to illnesses and other conditions that affect their communities.
The characteristics of a true leader have been published over the years. Leadership should not revolve around one individual but should include a team of diversified individuals, including managers and staff members. A successful leader might be described as caring, compassionate, respectful, and honest. Other descriptions might include the ability to effectively communicate, motivate, listen, and trust. Leaders should work to create a culture of excellence and earn loyalty from others. Those in specific leadership roles should empower others while working toward common, clearly defined goals to fulfill a vision. Staff members should have autonomy and have decision-making power with necessary, clear limitations.
As previously discussed this week, leadership in healthcare must embrace (EBMgt) in order to make good decisions to effectively reach common goals. The use of EBMgt helps to increase the likelihood of desired outcomes. The EBMgt process might indicate the need for significant organizational change. Leaders must possess the skills necessary to create change when indicated, regardless of obstacles. Constant training, feedback, and communication during such change are imperative.
Leadership in healthcare organizations should continually conduct internal experiments to find what works in their own organizations. Knowledge gained through experiments and best practices should be shared throughout the organization in a timely manner. This helps ensure that everyone in the organization feels a part of leadership. From the use of published, credible evidence, leaders can implement change that makes sense and earn the trust of their staff members, physicians, and the community.
Additional Materials
From your course textbook, Managerial Epidemiology: Cases and Concepts, read the following chapter:
· Epidemiology and Leadership
From the Internet, read the following:
Center for Evidence-Based Management. (2011). Before you make that big decision. Retrieved from https://www.cebma.org/wp-content/uploads/Kahneman-et-al-2001-Before-you-make-that-big-decision-60781382-1.pdf
Evidence-Based Management
As we learned in Week 1 of the course, in order for managers to make the best decisions using evidence-based management (EBMgt) techniques, they must know how to choose credible information. Knowing how to find credible sources requires critical analysis skills. Analyzing data for credibility requires screening for several types of bias. For example, an author might use only secondary data that supports his or her hypothesis. At the same time, managers must take care not to choose only information and data that support their own agendas. Analyzing the credentials of authors is important, since anyone can publish information on the Internet. Knowing what is being said on social media and in the news is important, but that alone cannot be relied upon. Also, some authors might have something to gain, such as when products are being sold. Managers must ensure that information and the references used by authors are current. Peer-reviewed articles are typically considered credible, but analyzing who conducted the peer review is important, also. And, finally, managers must review several different sources to ensure that information is consistent.
Use of EBMgt might be somewhat foreign to managers in healthcare. Traditionally, decisions have been made based on personal beliefs and from what peers have done in their own organizations. Management decisions have also been made based on what a product salesperson promises to be the best. Although sometimes the best practices of others work, decisions should be based on actual studies that show clear, positive outcomes.
Leaders and managers in healthcare make many organizational decisions on any given day. Just as medical decisions should be made based on credible research data, management decisions should also. Using facts to make decisions can set an organization apart from those that rely on imitating the practices of others. The desire to be better than others should exist, and use of factual data can play a key role in rising to the top. Everyone wants to be a successful leader whom others want to emulate.
Evidence-Based Management Process
As per Harvard Business Review (2006), evidence-based management is the art of making decisions on the basis of facts instead of beliefs and experience alone. Below you will find a list of actions leaders should embrace to ensure their employees and practitioners become evidence-based managers.
Becoming a Company of Evidence-Based Managers
Review the tabs to know more about evidence-based management.