As a community volunteer in childcare, I understand the importance of leadership. A competent leader should understand the industry clearly, the skills and the right attitude to the work at hand. A leadership role takes into account the responsibilities of guiding employees to completion of a task. I volunteer in my local community to help collect food and distribute to various groups in need, such as children orphanages, street families, and care homes. I am an assistant supervisor for this group, and I have had the chance to mentor others and lead them for two years. I can lead a team and see the completion of a task. This has allowed me to prepare for future positions in my work career.
My leadership role has been made possible by leadership courses that I have done in the past. I am a member of the American Medical Student Association at the University. The association provides leadership and mentorship programs dedicated to helping students outside their classrooms. The programs, as they have helped improve my understanding of finance, improve communication, and mastering delegation techniques. I have been able to put this to good use at my volunteer exercise as well as work experiences.
In healthcare, an effective leader who will initiate changes at all levels is required. Leadership exists in all levels of management and into the staff. Healthcare is often scrutinized for any mistakes and s often judged harsher than other industries. It is for this reason that a leader who will remain stable in the face of adversity is needed. A good leader should, therefore, be in the know on the current healthcare situations and any changes made. They should have excellent people skills necessary to influence people and management skills to run the facility. Finally, they should have the right attitude to their work.
I have attached an assignment on the role of leadership in management. This work details the roles of leaders in a work environment, which includes delegating, organizing teams, and ensuring work is done on time.
Communication & relation management
Communication in an organization is important in ensuring the proper running of fundamental issues. It is essential at all levels as it is how information gets to the lower level worker from the head management. Communication is how changes are effected in a facility. The management communicates its goals and how the staff’s role in facilitating its achievement. I consider myself to be good at communicating both verbally and nonverbally. I am also a good listener, and I always try to understand the customer’s concerns and anticipate problems from interactions and deal with them as needed. I also understand the different channels of communication and select the right ones depending on the person I interact with. In healthcare, the service provided is patient care, and thus, most of the communication done is with reference to medical terms. One should have proper communication and relations management to work in this area since it handles people mostly.
It is also important that management to ensure proper relations are maintained in the facility as an environment that fosters good relations will encourage better productivity among the workers. In the past two years, I managed to work as an insurance verification representative. During my stay, I was given different assignments. I would often choose to be on the customer service end of the job and performing various tasks such as resolving their issues and helping them navigate the problems of insurance. This experience helped me understand the healthcare environment and the interactions within. This required me to interact and communicate with the patients to discuss the different financial options for their budgets. The interaction with different kinds of people sharpened my skills further as I am now able to deal with erratic people and poor communicators. I have included a case study on communications and relations management. It demonstrates the importance of having proper communications relations skills when handling the staff as well as patients.
Professionalism
A professional person should understand the professional roles, be able to work well with others, manage their time, and contribute to the field. I am a well-rounded student engaging in extracurricular activities. My experiences while engaging with others in the classroom, in my community work, and student organizations have all played a role in helping me understand different work environments. I know how to act around different people and maintain professional work ethics when needed. In my role as an insurance verification representative, I maintained the professional norms such as proper dressing and worked well with the other members of the team.
A professional person should maintain integrity at all times. They should take responsibility and be accountable for their actions. They should also have effective work habits such as planning for activities, prioritizing, and keeping time. I pride myself in maintaining punctuality for any event scheduled and ensuring that I stick to my plans to complete set objectives or assignment on time. I every group work, volunteer exercise, and work experience, I have interacted well with others, built and maintained the networks. I have also taken part in coding courses, healthcare financial courses, and leadership courses during my studies. This has improved my understanding of hospital management, insurance, and significant aspects of Medicare and Medicaid. These courses have improved my outlook on management and are vital in helping me in my personal, professional growth.
Attached is a presentation that demonstrates professionalism competency. I chose this presentation because it highlights what is expected of a professional, as I have discussed, cooperation, commitment, and ethics.
Knowledge and healthcare Environment
My studies and work experiences have played a significant role in my understanding of the healthcare environment. Healthcare managers have four areas they need to take care of; the staff, customers, the systems, and the community. The healthcare environment is dynamic. New policies, drugs, techniques, and technologies come about often. Understanding this, therefore, requires one to be open-minded and accept and accommodate changes that come along.
Engaging with the customers, systems, and the staff as an insurance verification representative helped in understanding the healthcare environment further. Through the experience, I was able to understand the current issues facing the community, such as the cost of insurances and the patient’s perspective on such. Interacting with the workers shed light on some of the challenges they faced, such as long working hours and shortage in staff. I was also able to interact with the administrative environment and understand the relationship among the systems, from resource allocation, cost, and quality controls, to the community.
A presentation on Understanding the Importance of Business Environment is used to highlight the competencies. It discusses how knowledge of the environment is important in enabling one to identify opportunities and access them.
Business skills and knowledge
Healthcare, just like any other industry, is business-oriented. It provides services with the exchange of money. Although some facilities may be non-profit, they still have resources that need to be protected and used wisely. It is for this reason that healthcare facilities are run like any other business organization with different levels of management and different department, all to serve their customers, and to ensure the welfare of their employees.
I have a working knowledge of the business end of the healthcare sector. I am familiar with the roles of the different departments in a facility, such as human resources, marketing, finance, administration, and legal. All these departments have to work together to ensure the facility runs efficiently. I also understand the roles of different staff within the facility. Working with patients helped me understand further their rights and the laws relative to those rights, such as HIPAA.
My studies and field experience has helped me understand the roles of management and different dynamics. In my leadership capacity, I ensure day-to-day operations and bring together other volunteers to work together towards a common goal. This is the same thing a manager would do. The management has the role of ensuring the facility gives quality services. They have to be knowledgeable about the industry, the new techniques and equipment available, and the potential competitors in the industry.
Research on the importance of managerial skills and knowledge in management for small entrepreneurs helps highlight this competency. I chose this because it highlights the changes in the current economy and the need for managerial skills and knowledge.