Recent orders
management functions and roles
Introduction
Health care institutions are some of the most important in the framework of any country. Though they have a simplified façade on the outside, you would acknowledge that their administrative structures bear an element of complexity. There are various aspects of leadership that hold these institutions together ensuring their smooth running as well as enhancing the efficient allocation of the available resources.
Significance of leadership in healthcare institutions
The importance of leadership as far the smooth running of the healthcare institutions is concerned cannot be gainsaid. Though the role played by this particular aspect in the healthcare facilities remains unexplored on the larger part, you would appreciate its particular function.
To start with, leadership has everything to do with setting the goals of the organization. There has always been a conflict of interest in healthcare organizations as to whether the main focus should be profit making or enhancing the quality of the services provided. Setting the goals of the organizations determines the allocation of the available resources. This is because; leadership entails commanding resources, whether human, physical or financial towards the achievement of a common goal.
In this endeavor, the leadership allows for prioritization, or making choices amongst conflicting alternatives in the healthcare facility. Top on the agenda is the cultivation of respectful relationship within the organization’s staff as well as coming up with ground rules which provide a basis for decisions that set the priority, provide the context, choice as well as information necessary for making appropriate decisions on the running of the organizations.
Current activities and the skills neededLeadership pertains to the act of influencing resources whether human, physical or economic towards a common goal. One of the activities relating to leadership would be fostering the vision they have. In this case, the vision would mobilize all the stakeholders into a united direction, set the boundaries as well as the limitations on the realistic goals and set goals. In addition, it would set agendas for consolidations and efficiencies and form a basis on which shared values are built.
In this endeavor, prioritization and management skills would be necessary in order to set the time frames within which the vision will be attained and therefore align the stakeholders to the goals set.
Key challenges to leadership
Leadership in any organization is faced with numerous challenges. Healthcare facilities are definitely not left behind. As indicated, leadership entails uniting all factors necessary towards attainment of a common goal. In health care facilities, it is definitely very challenging to motivate as well as retain workers. Motivation has a definite bearing on the productiveness of the healthcare facility workers.
In addition, you will note that retention of workers in the healthcare organization has a bearing on the productivity as well as profitability of the organization. With a high turnover, the health facility would have to spend even more resources in the recruitment and training. This definitely underlines the importance of the ability of leadership to enhance team-building in order to motivate the workers.
Leadership styles would also play a part in enhancing team building. Workers would definitely be motivated when they feel that their opinion is put into consideration. In this case, allowing for participatory leadership would make them feel part of the decision making and therefore they will own the process and be more connected to it.
Strategies in combating the challenges
Challenges pertaining to motivation of workers have everything to do with the leadership style that the leader inculcates. It would be important that the leaders in the health care facilities focus their energies on ensuring cohesion through more team building. This would definitely improve the productivity of the team. In this endeavor, it would be imperative that the leaders reach out to their staff and help them find solutions to their problems by empowerment.
Delegation of tasks is always an important strategy as it allows the staff to come up with solutions pertaining to the problems. The delegation should help them figure out the impediments to their success and therefore come up with solutions in their own accord. The leader should only step in, in cases where they are needed.
Conclusion
Leadership in health facilities is a very contentious issue. It has a bearing on the smooth running of the health facility. Understanding the challenges and the ways to tackle them would be imperative in order to enhance the efficiency and productivity in these organizations.
http://www.utoronto.ca/cpsrn/html/documents/PSleadershipHEALTHPOLICY.pdfLeadership and priority setting:
The perspective of hospital CEOs
David Reeleder a,∗, Vivek Goel a, Peter A. Singer b, Douglas K. Martin c
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-most-common-leadership-challenges.htmhttp://www.leadership-expert.co.uk/leadership-challenges/http://www.wisegeek.com/topics/leadership-challenge.htmhttp://www.leadership-expert.co.uk/leadership-styles/
student and nurse
Introduction
Every status or level in the society comes with duties, responsibilities and roles for the individuals concerned. Right from one’s childhood to adulthood, duties and responsibilities take on dynamism in line with the demands of that particular level. While students are basically taken to be children, they have a role to play both in the society and in the institutions in which they are. However, higher education comes with relatively more roles and responsibilities for the students since they are basically considered as adults.
While there is no uniformity as to the roles of students in particular institutions, there are roles that students in higher education would be under an obligation to play not only in their respective institutions but also in the society. These include but are not limited to the following.
Dedicating all their efforts to furthering and attaining the highest levels of excellence for the better of the institution and the society at large. As much as students in every other institution are expected to play this role, the responsibility is more pronounced for students in higher education. This is because they have more freedom which definitely comes with more responsibility as to their affairs. In this case, furthering their knowledge and academic excellence in particular fields is their ultimate responsibility all in an effort to make the institution and the society better.
Orienting other or new coming students to the system in the particular higher education institution they are in- more often than not, there will be new students or at least some individuals who are not conversant with the system of the institutions. While it would be possible for such individuals to be oriented to these systems with time, the students play a critical role in fastening the orientation process. This has the effect of stabilizing the institution and ensuring that all processes run smoothly. This also ensures quick implementation of the policies and other fundamental frameworks that exist to guide the smooth running of the institution.
Contributing to improving the systems and structures of the institution in order to enhance efficiency- in many institutions, students play a very minute role in determining the systems within which they will be operating. However, this would be a bit farfetched as far as students in higher institutions are concerned. They are expected to come up with ideas on how the structures and policies guiding the operations of that institution should be made in order to ensure high levels of efficiency in delivery of services. In fact, this is recognized as the only way in which the students would feel part of the system or as if they own the system and therefore contribute to ensure it runs smoothly.
Observing the rules and regulations of the institution in an order to safeguard peaceful coexistence in the system both with the administration and the other students. As much as the students may not have contributed in the making of the existing rules and regulations, they are charged with the responsibility of observing them in order to safeguard peace in the institution and the society at large. This however, does not limit or undermine their duty to make the policies better or offer ideas on how these policies could be structured to make them better and align them with the current times.
Conclusion
While the role of students may not really be recognized in many education systems, it is important to acknowledge that they play a very crucial part in enhancing the excellence of the education system not only today but also in the future.
Roles of nurses
Introduction
Quality is one of the major areas of focus in healthcare facilities more so as pertaining to patient safety, quality improvement, quality assurance and regulatory quality. For all these aspects, the importance of nurses cannot be gainsaid as far as enhancing the smooth running of a particular institution is concerned. Right from the very first day, they assume a very responsible role in the healthcare system. This underlines the importance of knowing their roles and responsibilities in order to attain the highest level of integrity both for him/her and for the institution. While these roles change vary with the particular area of practice, there are some shared roles which crosscut every aspect of the career. These include the following
Care provider or caregiver- this is the most essential and traditional role of the nurse irrespective of the particular setting they operate in. They are charged with the responsibility of nurturing and provision of direct care in an effort to promote the comfort of the client. These roles involve knowledge as well as sensitivity to the things that matter and of importance to the clients. In this case therefore the nurse should be concerned with the welfare of the client and accept the patient as an individual.
Teaching- nurses are charged with the responsibility of providing information and assisting the clients to learn and acquire technical skills and knowledge pertaining which would help them in the healing process. In essence, they should encourage the patients to comply with the prescribed therapy and advise them on how to promote a healthy lifestyle. Interpreting information pertaining to the illness and therapy to the patients is also their responsibility.
Advocate of the patient- the nurse should show concern for and act on behalf of the patient in order to bring about any modification. In this case, the nurse should be promoting the clients’ best interests and ensuring that the needs of the clients are met while safeguarding their rights. On the same note, the nurse should be able to offer explanations in the language of the patient or client and support their decisions in line with their welfare. In essence, the nurse should be a change agent where he or she should initiate changes and assist the patients to make changes in themselves as well as the healthcare systems.
Researching- nurses play a role in the identification of considerable researchable problems. Basically, he or she participates in the necessary scientific investigation and is required to use incorporate the research findings in the practice. He or she should be aware of the research language and processes and be sensitive to the issues pertaining to safeguarding the rights of the human subjects.
Managing the affairs of the healthcare institution he or she is operating in- nurses are supposed to make decisions pertaining to the diverse issues that may crop up, coordinate the activities of other people, allocate resources and evaluate the personnel and the care provided to the clients. They are supposed to incorporate proper planning, direct the personnel under them, develop staff and monitor the particular operations taking place. They should also fairly reward their staff and represent the staff as well as the administration as required.
Conclusion
The roles of nurses are diverse depending on their areas of practice and levels of education. Some will be specialists, practitioners, midwives, anesthetists, educators, entrepreneurs and even administrators. Either way, they have a very important role to play in ensuring the quality of services in healthcare facilities.
References
Seymour, Daniel T. (1993), On Q: Causing Quality in Higher Education, Phoenix, AZ: Orxy Press, 42.
Gerdes, Hilary and Brent Mallinckrodt (1994), “Emotional, Social, and Academic Adjustment of College Students: A Longitudinal Study of Retention,” Journal of Counseling and Development, 72, January/February, 281-288.
Evans, N.J., Forney, D.S., & Guido-DiBrito, F. (1998). Student development in
college: Theory, research, and practice. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Astin, A. W. (1984). Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher
education. Journal of College Student Personnel, 25, 297-308.
Schroer, K. 1991). Case management: clinical nurse specialist and nurse practitioner, converging roles. Clinical nurse specialist, 5, 189-194.
Siegel, E., & Bryson, S.C (1963). Redefinition of the role of the public health nurse in child health supervision. American journal of public health, 53, 1015-1024
Rose, S. B., All, A. C., & Gresham, D. (2003). Role preservation of the clinical nurse specialist and the nurse practitioner. The internet journal of advanced nursing practice, 5, 1-11.
social security and medicare programs
Introduction
At the center of social welfare programs is a need to reduce poverty. Actually, every key industrialized country has put in place some programs meant to transfer part of the country’s GDP to the populace in an effort to uplift the well being of individuals on the lower side of income distribution.
While these programs were meant to reduce the poverty levels, the contrary has actually happened. There are three reasons why this may be happening.
To begin with, while these social welfare programs were meant for the poor, most of it actually end up with the upper and middle classes. For example, over half of tax benefits and transfer payments dispensed in 1991 ended with individuals earning more than $30000.
Secondly, social welfare programs have been known to foster reliance on the benefits rather than encourage the people to work their way out of poverty. The welfare programs pay sufficient amount to keep these people alive but not to get them out of their condition.
Third, if you look at the programs on the broader economic perspective, social welfare programs are known to undermine the country’s economic growth. According to the theory of equality-equity tradeoff, higher progressive taxation rates and increased government benefits lower the incentive to work or invest. This undermines the reason they came to be in the first place.
Recent developments in the social security and Medicare raise doubts about the possibility of the programs being there in the next few years. Rather than use social security income, Cost of living Adjustment based on Chained CPI means eroding the Social Security Income’s buying power which would be detrimental to low income earners. In addition, the proposal to extend the age at which one starts earning raises doubts about the feasibility of the programs in the future. Also, the government’s ability to remit the Social Security and Medicare Benefits has been put to doubt by its inability to raise debt ceiling.
Conclusion
The future seems very bleak for the social security and Medicare programs. Going by the current developments in the government sphere as far as these benefits are concerned, chances are they won’t be there for long.
References
Friedman, Milton, and Rose Friedman. 1979. Free to Choose. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Crook, Clive. 1997. “The Future of the State.” The Economist, 20 September: S1-S48
Castles, Francis G., and Deborah Mitchell. 1993. “Worlds of Welfare and Families of
Nations.” Pp. 93-128 in Families of Nations, edited by Francis G. Castles.Dartmouth.
Proposed Cuts to Social Security and Medicare: What You Need to Know
Read more: http://moneywatch.bnet.com/retirement-planning/blog/money-life/proposed-cuts-to-social-security-and-medicare-what-you-need-to-know/4550/#ixzz1cNC5nyej