Healthcare Organization Discussion
Health and Healthcare
Having previously considered health as the general wellness of the body, I was surprised to learn that it transcends physical wellbeing to include social, mental, and spiritual wellness (Milani & Lavie, 2015). Deep introspection has revealed that one needs to be balanced and well on all the various fronts of human existence in order to be considered healthy. This concept of an all-around wellness becomes apparent when one considers a mental illness patient. The patient might appear very robust physically, but something is psychologically wrong with him or her that makes him/her not healthy. Of the five forces that determine the health of an individual, a healthcare professional can influence only one while the individual has control over only two of them. The ones that the individuals outside healthcare practice can control are their behaviors and social environment. Genetics cannot be controlled, while the physical environment is mostly dependent on the socioeconomic status of the individual. It is interesting to learn about the continuum of healthcare; that it starts before one is born and stretches to end of life palliative care (Milani & Lavie, 2015). At every stage of life or age, healthcare might be needed to preserve health. Preventative healthcare should be given much prominence and people encouraged to be the primary preservers of their health.
Healthcare Article Comment
An article by Dill and company (2014) claims that the healthcare sector has experienced workforce shortages. This has forced healthcare organizations to partner with educational institutions with the aim of nurturing skills for frontline health workers. This partnership is referred to as the creation of career ladders that reward the workers with skills and knowledge and play a big role in ensuring that the costs associated with turnover are avoided or reduced (Dill, Chuang, & Morgan, 2017). Other benefits associated with this partnership include an improvement in patient care and better preparedness to address the shortages in a workforce that are expected in the healthcare sector (Dill, Chuang, & Morgan, 2017). An examination of the partnerships revealed that they had varying characteristics such as training programs for low-skilled workers, education leadership, frontline management support, community needs, employer leadership, and educational policies (Dill, Chuang, & Morgan, 2017). The different approaches used in the partnerships were determined to contribute to creating satisfaction in the program and the career self-efficacy of the beneficiaries (Dill, Chuang, & Morgan, 2017). On the question of whether the partnerships resulted in the healthcare professionals receiving monetary rewards, it was revealed that a rise in wages primarily depended on the leadership support within the healthcare organization.
Healthcare Management
The management of healthcare is unlike the management of conventional organizations. It requires dedication and planning, with the understanding that failure in the system can lead to the loss of lives on a great scale. In a healthcare setting, management entails overseeing the cooperation of workers to get things done rightfully (Jacobson, Isham & Rutten, 2015). Management in healthcare does not depend on the personal whims of the manager. Rather, scientific management is encouraged. There are guidelines set in place that the management team ought to abide by and they are also bound by duty to the recipients of the services they give. Management entails the input of a lot of people. This means that the people have to be handled well in order to perform their duties effectively. The feelings and behaviors of the employees have to be considered in the healthcare organization. This appeals to them psychologically, thus encouraging teamwork, cooperation, and a general boost in their morale (Jacobson, Isham & Rutten, 2015). The leaders in the management of a healthcare facility need to be conversant with the various management theories and the insights they offer. A healthcare organization is exposed to an extensive external environment consisting of stakeholders that help in the effective delivery of healthcare. The management should be flexible and focused enough to consider and relate well with the external environment.
Management Article Comment
The article by Scott and Timmons (2017) explores the tensions between the management roles in a healthcare organization. There exist perceived differences between the nurses and the health service management teams. This leads to the former undermining the work of the latter, as they feel the management team is not conversant with the medical skills required to care for the patients. The ward leaders in healthcare organizations are not trained in nursing but have administrative skills (Scott & Timmons, 2017). It requires subtle political skills for the nurses and other medical practitioners to get along with the management of the healthcare organizations. The ward leaders, being in direct contact with the nurses and patients, find themselves conflicted regarding the roles they should take up. They also have targets they have to meet. They have to attend to the corporate needs as well as the needs of the patients (Scott & Timmons, 2017). Often, the ward stewards are blamed of attending to the corporate goals as opposed to the medical needs of the patients. It was concluded that the ward leaders felt a disconnection between the values of patient care and responsibility towards the management of the hospital.
References
Dill, J. S., Chuang, E., & Morgan, J. C. (2014). Healthcare organization-education partnerships and career ladder programs for health care workers. Social Science & Medicine, 122, 63. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.10.021
Jacobson, R. M., M.D., Isham, George J,M.D., M.S., & Rutten, Lila J Finney,PhD., M.P.H. (2015). Population health as a means for health care organizations to deliver value. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 90(11), 1465-1470.
Milani, R. V., M.D., & Lavie, C. J., M.D. (2015). Health care 2020: Reengineering health care delivery to combat chronic disease. The American Journal of Medicine, 128(4), 337.
Scott, A., & Timmons, S. (2017). Tensions within management roles in healthcare organisations. Nursing Management (2014+), 24(1), 31. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7748/nm.2017.e1569