Military Health System Health Care Organisation

Question: Discuss about the Military Health System for Health Care Organisation. Answer: Introduction Leadership is a key to address the many challenges that a complex health care system faces. Leadership in a health care organisation is an effort to enhance the safety and quality of patient care (Gholami et al., 2013). The prime focus of this report is leadership role in military health care services. A leader requires enterprise knowledge, leadership experience, management and expertise among other competencies. The leaders should be able to implement a range of best practice strategies (Weberg, 2012). The purpose of this report is to conduct an interview of a person working in a leadership role in a military healthcare service and provide the information provided in a comprehensive manner. The report aims to identify the leadership traits and characteristics of the person interviewed and to gain some insight as to how they may have been developed or shaped in their career. The report contains a methodology section which includes the detail of leadership role, military healthcare s ervices, how interview was carried out, and reference to the questions used. In the result section the report presents the main outcomes from the interview. In the discussion section, the report discusses the outcomes from the interview and its relationship to the literature. The main outcomes from the interview are summarised as conclusion. Methodology A qualitative research design is used to conduct a semi-structured interview. This method is justified because this method allows defining the areas to be explored. It helps the interviewer and the respondents to diverge for pursuing an idea or responding in more detail (Doody Noonan, 2013). This method offers flexibility to discover or elaborate information necessary to the interviewee which was previously not thought of as pertinent by the interviewer. Since the purpose of the report is to explore the respondents leadership views, experience, motivations, beliefs, this qualitative method is appropriate. The interviewee is the head of medical strategy and policy at Headquarters Surgeon General, Defence Medical Services Singapore. Due to ethical consideration, the name of the interviewee is withheld. The respondent is a trained general practioners and occupational physician. Presently he supports the trainees and the medical students through his work with the faculty of medical management and leadership. The interview questions are designed in an open ended format, to meet the following objectives To know the leadership trait and characteristics of the respondent To know what attributes do a leader of military health care needs To understand how a military health care leader develop their traits and characteristics To know what factors have affected the leader to develop these traits To identify in what way do military clinicians influence the health care decisions of leaders The interview question format is designed in a simple and understandable format such that it meets the aim and objectives of the interview. The interview is designed to last for 1 hour. Prior to conducting the interview, the respondent is informed about the study details, consent is taken and is assured of the ethical principles such as confidentiality and anonymity of the collected information (Bryman, 2015). The information provided by the respondent is tape-recorded. What has stimulated your leadership interest? The respondents leadership interest was developed since school days. As a child he was always encouraged to feel part of a wider family with shared values. The respondent said, I have always taken part in community service and other activities that promoted initiative and teamwork. This probably laid a good foundation for the leadership skills developed during his career. He has received several opportunities during initial years of university which has stimulated his leadership interest. What are the attributes do a leader of military health care needs? The respondent believes that one should have capability to manage and human and financial resources as well as have strong enterprise knowledge. How did you develop your own leadership skills? Prior to the medical school the interviewee has spent a year as a junior officer in the infantry. During this period, the respondent has learned that the role as a team leader has to be earned and that in most part of the life delivering results is about teamwork. Further, the respondent told that in an army the culture and ethos are build and maintained by laying emphasis on the significance of team. In an army team all the members are treated as a family which again refers to the shared values. According to the respondent, there are many ways to develop leadership skills at undergraduate level. After conducting the raising and giving week in his university did the interviewee become the Students Union president. The interviewee said, this opportunity has exposed me to curriculum development and other issues. His leadership skills were developed when he was in charge of an infantry platoon in initial years of university. He has received training as general practitioner during which he has drawn military experience where he had to contribute to the management of the practice. This helped him develop the managerial and leadership skills. Further, the system of rewards, incentives and provision of leader development programs helped him develop both management and leadership skills. What is your preferred leadership style? The interviewee prefers and practices transformational leadership style. What traits and characteristics you have in your leadership style? The respondent informed about certain traits that have helped him in his leadership activities. This includes willingness to take responsibility of his decisions, effective communication skills, mental stability, a sense of purpose, friendliness, and adaptability to any situation, technical mastery, affection, ambition, faith in self and God, ability to influence others, strategic planning and persistence. He told that he had developed some of these traits before entering into medical school while he has developed other traits as he came across different situations in professional life. What factors (personality, situational, learned) influenced, affected and emerged these leadership traits and characteristics? The respondent said that for a general practioner there is a definitive need of leadership when practicing as GP. His leadership traits emerged as he kept on receiving new opportunities during his medical school, when placed as a lead for medical support in South Afghanistan and when coordinated support to all the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty organization) operations. The later also includes the operations for countrys mission, counter piracy operations and intervention in Libya. In what way did the military clinicians influence the health care related decisions? Clinicians have initiated and implemented enhanced clinical practice which has improved the clinical care of casualties on operations in the military health care service. According to the interviewee this was possible because of exposing the evidence of the efficacy of the improved outcomes. In his opinion, leadership role is significant where it is necessary to influence the clinicians for leadership and making effective changes to patient care. By practicing the influencing skills and developing it through mentoring and coaching it was possible to develop leadership. What is your experience of strategic healthcare leader? The respondent said that he was leader for medical support in South Africa. There he had to coordinate the efforts of combat operations with other staffs of medical and aviation for preventing illness. There he had to evacuate the severely injured people from the field and provide treatment services and evacuate them from the country. He had an experience of the strategic healthcare when he was engaged in the development of the South Afghanistans health sector. He was appointed as allied command operations medical adviser. Here he had to coordinate support to all the operations for countrys mission and counter piracy operations. What benefits did your leadership style bring to medicine? His leadership style including understanding the next level up in the organisation (and indeed the broader aim of the undertaking.) has led to success in the military operations and this leadership approach based on the effect has clear lessons for medicines. The improvement in the quality of the patient care was possible as it eliminated the method of giving orders and imposing unnecessary control. Are there aspects of leadership traits and characteristics you think leading in the health care environment are important? According to the respondent, the real military leadership style involves constant concern for welfare of others in command and achieves a common goal using teamwork considering the ethical principles. This approach is essential and includes delivering health care in all settings. Discussions Based on the above interview and thorough literature review it is evident that the desirable characteristics of military health care leaders involve a combination of good experience and knowledge in enterprise knowledge, leadership and management (Gholami et al., 2012). According to Sollinger, (2011) the health care leaders need to have the ability to manage financial, information and human resources. Soft skills such as communication and interpersonal skills are as important as hard skills. Managing financial resources includes monitoring financial resources, asset management, and budgeting. The trait, or attribute theory has set certain traits necessary to be an effective leader such as intelligence, originality, ambition, integrity, faith, persistence, and affection. However, the drawback of this theory is that it does not differentiate between the traits required to acquire leadership skills and those required to maintain it (Giltinane, 2013). Cooke, (2016) stated that the leader ship skills are important as the managerial skills. The core leadership competencies include ability to willingness to seek innovative approaches, strategic thinking and planning, creativity, adaptability, flexibility, and ability to influence a movement towards envisioned future change. Having enterprise knowledge includes competencies that demonstrate system level thinking. These are the strengthening abilities to work in complex health care settings. As per the interviewee the military health leaders operate under complex environment whereas, the medical leaders have more opportunities to practice leadership. However, the medical leaders have tremendous pressure while performing in clinical specialities. Military health care faces additional pressure during war time. Leadership in business environment is less complicated compared to the military health care as health crisis change time to time (Kumar, 2013). According to Sollinger, (2011) many military health leaders believe that informal system compared to formal assessment is in identifying potential leaders. Based on the views of the interviewee and that of Weberg, (2012) most physicians develop leadership skills later in their career due to which they lack management skills. Organisation also plays a great role in leadership development. Sollinger, (2011) discussed the living competency model. As per early genetic theory it was believed earlier that effective leadership skill s are inherited and cannot be cultivated by those outside the families. In modern century it has lost its ground (Giltinane, 2013). The organisation should be able to provide training and leader development programs, incentives and rewards, feedback and evaluation for health care professionals. This model refers to organisational goals and strategic plan with which an organisation helps it leaders to develop. It includes recruiting exactly the type of leaders wanted and their further training, mentoring, cross functional and development. Transformational leadership style is effective in influencing others and moves towards the shared goals. It helps in developing quality environment. This leadership has extraordinary impact on the nurses, trainees and allows the leaders to achieve uncertain goals and performance targets in complex medical environments (Avolio Yammarino, 2013). This leadership style has been found effective in improving organisational performance. It offers various practical solutions and has led to quality management in public hospitals. As per the literature review and the interview the traits common in effective leaders are good communications skills, intelligence, and sensitivity to group needs may it be any professional environment (Alharbi Yusoff, 2012). Further, being an effective leader is attributed to individuals characteristics and the functional situation. This is also called contingency theory. As per the followers theory, juniors and subordinates follow their leaders if their traits ar e influential, and have functional relationship with the members of the groups (Giltinane, 2013). Conclusion The report identified the leadership traits, attributes and styles effective for military health care based on the interview outcomes as well as literature review. The report hopes that these findings will contribute to the body of knowledge and understanding of the leadership roles complex military health care setting. It also contributes to the understanding of the leadership traits, characteristics and aspects important for leading health care environment and what factors leads to emergence of these characteristics. Overall, it can be concluded that the leadership in military health care is complex when compared to non-military health care setting. References Alharbi, M., Yusoff, R. Z. (2012). 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