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Professional Development

Urgent care centers are my first priority, health information centers are my second priority and medical devices/equipment companies are my third priority according to my interests as a future health care manager. Urgent care centers provide assistance that saves human life and working there is extremely eventful and dynamic. Hospice care is the most challenging organizational setting for employees. To work there means to possess a huge patience and emotional stability. In addition, it is a significant step forward as a healthcare professional. Modern medical equipment increases treatment efficiency. Consequently, working with it is interesting because it is related to the new technologies.

Generally, I try to be a leader in my environment. Nevertheless, sometimes I succeed in it and sometimes I do not. However, I remember a situation where I was highly effective as a leader. It was at high school; the teacher divided us into groups randomly. My other team members were not my best friends. In spite of a random division, we had to work effectively together on the project for two weeks as a team. According to the leadership concepts, my leadership style was behavioral. I tried to react to the behavioral changes of my teammates and choose an appropriate approach for everyone. Sometimes I had to be strict, sometimes I had to motivate someone, and sometimes I had to criticize. Flexibility and focus on the ultimate goal played a major role for me and my effectiveness as a leader and, as a result, for the whole team.

Besides, I have a leadership experience that was ineffective. Few years ago I was playing volleyball. I tried to be leader in my team. However, I was just a child and did not realize how the true leader should look like. That is why I tried to be an autocratic leader. I assumed that autocratic leadership is the most effective way to lead a team, but I was mistaken. I was the oldest in the team, so I consider myself as the most experienced. I believed that my teammates should agree with me in everything due to my experience. I supposed that it would be better for our team, albeit such approach is not effective. The leader should lead and motivate people, but not prescribe what to do. Thus, it was my ineffective leadership experience.

A number of personal traits may characterize the leader. Every person should strive for self-development. I think I should improve my time-management skills, public speaking skills, and psychology knowledge to become a leader. Improving time management skills will help me to be more effective and control everything. The leader should be the role model for other people; consequently, time management skills are important. I would start with planning. I have never planned my day; now I will start to write down my daily tasks and to-do lists in the diary. Moreover, the leader should be able to persuade and motivate people. That is why I plan to attend courses of public speaking to improve these skills. Leader should understand other people, their strong and weak sides. I will read psychology books in order to improve these skills, as well.

Different people are motivated by different factors. Motivation also depends on the type of task or goal. However, in general I can identify striving for achievements as a main motivational factor for me. According to the McClelland's Theory of Needs, this factor is called as a need for achievements. Moreover, I am very ambitious; I prefer to strive for the excellence and always set new goals. I am satisfied only when I achieve them. In addition, the commendation and positive feedback about my work motivate and encourage me to continue working and improving. Thus, the achievements motivate me the most.

Lack of recognition of my achievements, their neglecting and excessive criticism, on the contrary, demotivates me. I am happy when my friends, classmates and other people notice my achievements and are proud of me, while too much criticism saddens and demotivates me. Since the need for achievements is the main motivational factor for me, according to the McClelland's Theory of Needs, unnoticed achievements act as the greatest demotivating factor for me. On the other hand, work overload demotivates me too. Many tasks, plans and deadlines create stress and psychological burden. I like being busy, but the violation of work-life balance negatively affects me. In cases of overloading I become tired quickly and cannot cope with all the tasks. I understand that acting like that I do not justify the expectations of others and it has a significant demotivating effect. To summarize, work overloading and non-recognition of my achievements demotivate me.

I, as a future health care manager, will increase the employee engagement and motivation using the coaching system and non-formal interaction with employees. Coaching system has proven itself as an extremely effective system used by international organizations. Coach usually acts like a mentor and is chosen among more experienced employees within the health care organization. Every employee should have a coach. It is especially important for the newcomers; however, the coach plays a significant role in the professional life of everyone during whole career way. The hallmark of coach is that he does not tell an employee what to do but encourages the adoption of independent decisions. In other words, he supports and motivates employee. Non-formal interaction with employees may include teambuilding, namely volunteering together. I believe it is the best way to increase employee engagement compared to just working together. Without doubt, volunteering together is not compulsory, but I believe that most workers will support this initiative. All employees can volunteer in health care organization or conduct the informational campaigns telling about the ways to prevent various diseases. This type of teambuilding would be useful for psychological climate in the health care organization and for the community in general.

Cognition, i.e. thinking or reasoning has a positive impact on promoting the organizational change. Cognition contributes to effective communication, understanding the sense of organizational changes, reasons for internal and external processes. An emphasis on cognitive thinking is aimed at increasing communication and deep understanding of the situation. Every individual has his own thinking and perception. Cognition helps create the common ground between the organizational members. The organizational behavior is usually analyzed in terms of reasons, thought and assumptions. Cognition helps promote the organizational changes through common change perception and interpretation of facts. I, as a manager in the healthcare organization, will use cognition for improving communication and teamwork by implementing trainings on the cognitive thinking. Employees should work as a team and that is why I will implement trainings to improve the rapport. Workers should have the common perception of organizational changes and other processes. In addition, I will check whether the employees have the detailed, complete and accurate information on the situation.

Strategic planning is interesting for me because it helps me remain involved in the creating of long-term goals. During the process of strategic planning, I can become more involved in the organizational ambitions. It is important to remember about the mission and vision when developing the organizational goals. I clearly realize that mission determines why the organization exists and its operations should be carried out in accordance with the mission. In addition, I know that Key Performance Indicators should be determined. Key Performance Indicators help compare the current state of organization with the desired one. I do not have practical experience in strategic planning in a real organization, but I had a class about the role of strategic planning in organizational development.

Marketing is aimed at the demand increasing. To increase demand for the health care services, the organization can use various marketing tools, such as pricing, promoting, advertisement, public relations, etc. To be honest, marketing is not very interesting for me. As a result, my marketing knowledge is not very good and I do not have marketing experience.

Health information technology is aimed at improving clients’ health through the modern computerized system. I know that such system helps conduct real-time communication between health care professionals and clients, to save huge data sets, to improve working efficiency, and, finally, to diagnose and analyze the information obtained during investigations. It is a very interesting sphere for me because health information technology is a dynamic direction. I have a minor experience in this sphere as I am acquainted with a part of modern health care software.

Financial management is aimed at profit increasing; health care organizations are not an exception. Financial management helps maximize profit and minimize possible financial risks. I have a practical experience in accounting, however, it is not sufficient. Nevertheless, financial management is interesting for me, especially forecasting of financial risks in the organization.

At the same time, I find human resource management a very interesting sphere. The efficient and motivated staff is the most important capital of any organization. All important processes in the health care organization are executed and controlled by people. I have practical experience in human resource management as I had to manage a small team of four classmates for completing a collective task. However, I try to continuously improve myself in regard to the given field.

Working as an urgent care professional makes people involved in the processes of urgent health care and understand the role of health information technology in the urgent care centers. Practicing psychology is aimed at better understanding employees’ fears, goals and emotions, and further improving of communication and teamwork. Participation in the strategy planning of the hospice care centers will give me a possibility to develop strategic thinking and strategic planning skills. Creating an advertisement strategy of medical devices/equipment companies will allow me to gain valuable experience in the marketing operations. Creating a year budget of the urgent care center will give me a chance to obtain necessary budgeting and financial skills.

The list of jobs I have never had experience of dealing with includes administrator in the blood bank, Director of Surgery, Red Cross first aid Director, Oncology Nurse, Department Secretary. Nevertheless, I would like to try to work a few days as an assistant for administrator in the blood bank. It allows to become more acquainted with the work of administrator and to see the process from the inside. At the same time, the presence at few surgical operations will help me to learn more about the surgery process. In addition, conducting an interview with the Director of Surgery will give me an opportunity to ask the questions that interest me the most and receive professional answers. Spending a week in the office of Red Cross can help me become better acquainted with the specific of work in this charity organization and to understand the working processes controlled by Red Cross first aid Director. In its turn, working in nursing department in the oncological center will help me learn the specifics of nursing in the oncology department and improve nursing skills. Department Secretary position is related to paper work and work with huge data sets. I can spend few days as a Secretary assistant and practice my Health Information Technology and analytical skills. In addition, I will become better acquainted with medical documentation.

My approach to organizing and managing a quality improvement team will be based on the applying motivational theories. Being a healthcare manager, I should not forget that all people are different and they are motivated by different factors. According to the McClelland's Theory of Needs, employees can be motivated by achievements, affiliation or power. I will take into consideration these motivational factors and will build my team in such a way that every employees will have a possibility to achieve more, to have a power and to build a favorable relationships with other team members. Control Charts will be used in the team for tracking the changes in a working process over time. In addition, I will conduct personal interviews with everyone. Such interviews encourage honesty and openness among employees and play a motivational role. Besides, the strategic planning is necessary. Holding a position of a manager, I will use Key Performance Indicators in order to monitor the success of teamwork. Moreover, we will develop a strategic plan and set a quarter, month, week and daily goals. Strategic plan describes the desired state of quality management in the health care organization and shows the way how to achieve it. I will also have to conduct the control of teamwork by means of meetings on a weekly basis. During the meeting we will discuss the current state, the work done for the week and plans for next week, as well as the difficulties that team members faced and their suggestion regarding the improvement of a teamwork.

Health inequity or health disparity should be completely eradicated in Saint Leo. The Saint Leo University core value of community calls for a creating learning communities that are aimed at developing socially responsible environments. This core value can be applied for creating the informational community centers in Saint Leo. Such centers will promote the health equity among the community members. Health equity should be common everywhere, regardless of the country, state, city, race, nationality, sex or occupation. The Saint Leo University puts the good of the community at the first place. That is why, creating the informational community centers in Saint Leo will contribute to the promotion of healthy lifestyle, the importance of health care, inadmissibility of the health inequity or health disparity.

My level of knowledge of key health ethic principles is average. It is not very poor but requires the improvement. My experience with such key principles as respect and confidentiality is the most comprehensive. I have some experience in working in the healthcare organization in terms of summer practice. I improved the understanding of these principles to the greatest extent there. The health care professional should respect every client. It means that health care should be provided regardless of the race, nationality, religion, occupation or political belief. In addition, the information on the client’s health, diagnoses, treatment or other personal information should not be available to everyone in any case. Such information should be kept strictly secret.

Health care manager works with people with various diseases and disorders. Their psyche is extremely sensitive. As a result, health care manager should behave according to the ethical standards in order not to offence his clients. I will learn deeply the Code of Ethics for health care professional. In addition, I will communicate with patients to develop tactical and ethical behavior and observe the ethical attitude of health care professional to the clients.

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