The Impact of Effective Teamwork on Patient Care

Question:

Write a report on the Leadership in Healthcare.
 

An effective team should be complex and varied. In health care sector, a team may be drawn from single professional group, but a team should be multidisciplinary from the patient’s perspective. In this, sector patients get their treatment in various environments, like large teaching hospitals, small hospitals, clinics and home. In these places, the effectiveness of treatment and care will depend upon the communication between team members with each other and with patients. The team members including patients will come to know about the work through this (Rowitz, 2013). In health care delivery, an effective team can have a positive and immediate impact on patient’s safety. This effective team wok can be controlled through the leadership principles of the team leader. Team member is needed to reduce the increased co-morbidities and incidence of specialization and complexity of care. An effective team member also helps in reducing the incidences of choric diseases and global workface shortages. Team member also takes initiatives to provide safe working hours to the other team members (Barbara, 2012).

It is very necessary for a team leader to have values, attitudes, skills and knowledge towards the team to work efficiently. These characteristics of a team leader are described below (Ghaye & Lillyman, 2014):

A successful team leader in healthcare knows to push the previous resistance. They are knowledgeable enough to utilize their realization into advancement of their vision. Good team members are active rather than passive. They are determined to advocate both their organization and vision. The leaders should know about the effect of their influences in sustaining determination, passion and collective intensity to reach the goals in the organization (Mitchell et al., 2012). An effective leader cannot work without the help of supportive team. The supportive team should be highly qualifies to achieve the desired goals and to take the action effectively. To fulfill this, the leader should be knowledgeable to make the team by correct recruiting. In spite of these, the team leader in health care should know everything about the health issues and organization.

According to the six-factor assessment analysis, an effective tam leader must have the following skills (Weaver et al., 2013):

Directing: This skill is associated with collaborative yet assertive with reasoned bluntness and diplomacy

Concrete: This skill helps to take the decision based on practical experiences.

Adventurous: This skill is related to competitive and ambitious. The leader takes risks due to this skill (Browne, 2016).

Methodical: Due to this skill, one leader can achieve the goal in a structured way.

Challenging: The leader should be tolerant and supportive in a logical way.

Engaging: It is not necessary for a leader to be enthusiastic. Instead of that, the leader should be social and verbal (Barrable et al., 2014). 

Any leader in an industry should have a relentless positive attitude towards the future growth. While sharing their vision, the leaders are inexhaustible source of energy. The leader with passion, optimism and determination attitudes fetches the members of the health organization. The leaders should have the firm belief on their acts and passion to carry forward them. The team leaders also experience different frustrated periods in the health organization, like treatment failure (Benson, 2012). But good leader handles it with positive attitude in an energetic atmosphere. Sometimes in the health organization, the leader is bound to sacrifice his/her relationships for results and vice versa. In tensed period, a team leader put all the difficulties on him/her to maintain the balance between staffs and organization regardless his/her preferences and natural strengths. 

Characteristics of a Successful Team Leader in Healthcare

Leaders should be aware of their values.  They should know the importance of ethical behavior. The beast team leader should express their ethics and values in their actions and leadership styles in healthcare organizations. The values of the leader will be evaluated, as the team leader will apply those values in his /her daily life. The leader may face different problems in the organization. Therefore, it is necessary for the leader to identify the values and share those values (Norman & Ryrie, 2013). The leader should live his/her values daily in the organization. It will keep the transparency between leader and the staffs. Certain values are flexibility, stewardship, dependability, teamwork, optimism, persistency, accountability generosity, empowerment, discipline, quality, friendliness, excellence, compassion, improvement, learning, ambition, influence, collaboration, challenge, individuality, security, service, independence, integrity, wisdom, responsibility, courage, credibility, accomplishment, competency, empathy, dedication, dignity, accuracy, efficiency, enjoyment, innovativeness, respect, honesty, diversity, loyalty, equality etc. (Bowen, 2016). Living these values in the daily life will help the leader to deal with the differences in the organization and influence the other members. 

The Team leader can lead the health organization with good leadership principles. Poor leadership gives rise to various consequences, which are described below:

In a meeting, after having clear options also the Team Leader is not able to take the decision due to poor leadership. The leader delays to take the decision due to more analysis (Yoder-Wise, 2014).

In a meeting after having clear options also, the decision is not taken. There are disagreements between the members. In that situation, there is no need of more data. Still, the team leader is not able to take decision (Thomas & Galla, 2013). The meeting is going on as the team leader is waiting for consensus.

The leader is ignoring the inconsistent behavior of the associates (Ellis & Abbott, 2014). 

Aimless agendas:

In a meeting the leader is not able to decide the agendas. The discussion in a meeting get wrapped up with many issues. So, the agendas are missing (Henson, 2016). 

The silent elephant:

The leader knows the big issue of the organization, like, “the elephant in the room”. But due to poor leadership qualities the leader does not want to discuss it (Lévesque et al., 2013). 

Unsatisfied customer response:

The response of the organization towards customer especially patient is poor. After knowing the fact that the customer is ill-treated, the team leader is not looking into the situation due to poor quality (McDonagh et al., 2014).

 No Appraisal:

The leader is not praising the associates, after knowing those associates have done great job. There are no recognition or no appraisal (MacPhee et al., 2013).

Performance Ambush:

The leader brings up the poor qualities of the associates in their performance review without rectifying them at that point (Colla et al., 2012).

Too much detailing:

Sometimes the poor leader concerns about too much details in the meeting that the original points are kept missing from the meeting. It wastes both time and work values (Crowell, 2015).  

• Indecisiveness whenthe staffs are not able to take decisions.
• Due to misbehavior of the staffs and violated cultural expectations, the required action is not taken properly.
• The well-known, large issues are not taken directly and openly.
• The patients and the members don’t get the proper feedback in the time.
• The patient’s issues are ignored or taken for granted.
• The patient’s issues are not framed with the priorities.

The impact that poor leadership by the Team Leader has on staff, patients/clients and the organization

The Skillset of an Effective Team Leader

Finally due to these poor leadership qualities, the staffs in the health organization got influenced in following ways:

The members of the health organization are not able to take the final decision. They spend more time in discussing. In the name of analysis, the main points are kept missing in those meetings (Trapence et al., 2012). For example, in patient’s sudden emergency, instead of taking quick decision, the associates spend more time in discussion. Due to that reason, the actual target or patients’ care is not found. 

In violated cultural expectations, the associates are not able to take proper action. This is an impact of poor leadership in the organization (Pizzo & Poplack, 2015). 

Due to failure in leadership, the major issues of the organization are not addressed. For example, in a health organization, if there is an issue like instrumental failure in the operation theatre, then the team leader’s duty is to provide with the solution. But in poor leadership, the issue is not addressed. Instead of that they start blaming with each other (Swanson et al., 2012).

Failure to provide feedback:

The associates do not get proper feedback due to poor leadership qualities. Their learning experiences are not evaluated. So, the associates do not value the patients (Ghaye & Lillyman, 2014).

The health issues of the patients are not addressed properly due to some problem. So, it results into the poor reputation of that health organization. This is also a failure of leadership principles (Mitchell et al., 2012).

The issues are not framed with the priorities in the meeting. So, the associates are not able to look into the larger factors in the future. For example, in a health organization, if a patients died due to clinical failure then, the original reason of patients’ death is not identified under poor leadership (Weaver et al., 2013). Instead of that, the leader wraps up this issue with other issues. So, the priorities keep missing. In future, they fail to prioritize and delegate.  

In an organization, leaders can be provided with the power by the outsider or by the group. They can earn responsibility and authority or assume authority. Leadership should be rotated or shared in between two or more people (Patel et al., 2015). Sometimes, in a health organization, some other members outside of the organization may participate. But under good leadership, the group should share the same ideas and value them. Under good leadership principles, a team leader should have following qualities (Benson, 2012):

• The leader should work independently after staying in group, like without the support, sanction, and power of management hierarchy (Silver, 2013).
• The leader should have the quality of effective collaboration. The leader will be competing in such a way that it will not destroy co-operation. Instead of it will enhance the competitors (Rice, 2016).
• Based on ethical standards, the team leader will establish high trust relationships between everybody in the organization.
• The leader will be tempered with humility and should have enough self-confidence.
• The leader should respect the work values or the change process in the work with all the content (Rosenman et al., 2013).
• The leader should be ambidextrous and multi-faceted. The leader can work with the members beyond health organization.

The leadership analytics tool is the process where the leader is evaluated with a set of questionnaire (Norman & Ryrie, 2013). Each question has marked. The added rubrics of those questions will analyze the leadership qualities in a person. Under this tool, the leadership qualities are described below:

In the tool, the initial question will be set up based on self-confidence. Self-confidence is established by mastering situations and significant skills. Under this quality, the leader can add real value into the work. The members also can analyze more confidently (Yoder-Wise, 2014). For example, if any emergency situation comes, then sometimes under good leadership and self-confidence, the associates take proper decision in absence of their leader. 

Values and Ethics of a Successful Team Leader

Positive Outlook and Attitude:

In this tool, later questions are based upon positive outlook and attitude. In positive attitude one person can handle any situation. In health organization, it is very necessary to have positive attitude. The patients completely depend upon the staffs in the hospital (Thomas & Galla, 2013). So, this positive attitudes influence them. Even, health organization should take positive qualities from other organizations instead of competing. It will upgrade their quality.

There are certain questions in the tools, which analyze emotional intelligence. This is the soft skill in a good leader. There are many situations, when the associates cannot open themselves properly. This hinders the situation and turn it into more complexity. A good leader with emotional intelligence can support those associates through communication or other skills to make them comfortable (Gopee & Galloway, 2013). The staffs also with this skill can treat the patients with more care. Many times, the patients hide their issues. Under this quality, the staffs can identify the health issues in the patients.

In the analyzing tool, some questions are based upon this quality. This quality will make compelling vision and robust towards future. In the future under this quality, the leader can inspire others. It will also develop many other skills in both leader and staffs. These qualities are persuasion power, decision making strategies and prioritization skills (Burgess & Radnor, 2013). For example, in health organization, a leader can experience both positive and negative situations. With the help of this vision, the team leader cam build these skills and guide the staffs with these skills. This vision will help both the leader and staffs to handle the situations in future with more experience (Swanson, 2015). 

This quality is very much needed in the health organization. So, the analyzing tool is composed of some questions based upon this quality. Under this quality, the power of motivation is analyzed. In health organization, the leader or staffs have to basically deal with the patients and their health issues (Hoge et al., 2013). The trained staffs motivate them. Even in tough situation, a good leader motivate the staffs for their future progress. 

The analysis tool analyses good personality nature in the leader and staffs. Above all, it is very necessary to be a good personality. This nature influences others. The staffs can deliver their work more efficiently under a leader with good personality (Nancarrow et al., 2013). The patients also give good feedback due to this nature of the staffs and leader.

In the analyzing tool, the quality of managing performance is analyzed through the questions. Under this quality, the leader and staffs can manage a situation with efficiency (Jamieson et al., 2012). This performance is very needed in health organization. Many tensed situations can come in the organization. But under this skill, both the staffs and leader can manage it.

This skill is also analyzed in that tool. The staffs and leader learn about support. In health organization, basically the patients need support in their care. Even to handle the tough time, the staffs also need the supports from their leader (Lee & Cosgrove, 2014). It will motivate the whole atmosphere. A good support system can also build enough confidence in the member. So, they can deal the situation more efficiently in the future or even in the absence of the leader.

Consequences of Poor Team Leadership

In the conclusion, it can be said that a leader is such a personality who can make or destroy the whole situation. So, to create a good atmosphere, a leader with good leadership principles is needed. Specially, in health organization, it is necessary to have good leader. It will not only make the qualities in the staffs or others, it will also build the good reputation of the organization.  

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