Leadership and Effecting Change in Public Health

This article discusses the qualities of a healthcare leader according to the Australian Health Leadership Framework and evaluates the scenario of Helen, a general practitioner. It also includes a self-assessment tool for leadership skills and abilities.

Running Head: LEADERSHIP AND EFFECTING CHANGE IN PUBLIC HEALTH 1
Leadership And Effecting Change In Public Health
Author’s Name
Institution
Date

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PART 1
Introduction
According to the Australian Health Leadership Framework, it advocates for a leadership
style for a people that is focused on the effective health system which is equitable, sustainable
and effective (Wright et al. 2000). The framework outlines the qualities of a healthcare leader
which include; shapes the systems, engages others, leads self, achieves outcomes and drives
innovation. In this assignment, I will evaluate the scenario that is provided by Helen who is a 35-
year-old general practitioner. She portrays various leadership qualities according to the
Australian Health Leadership Framework.
Discussion (Body)
From the scenario that is provided by Helen, she possesses the following qualities
according to the Australian Heath Leadership Framework; shapes the systems, engages others,
leads self, achieves outcomes and drives innovation.
Shapes The Systems
The healthcare system is a very complex and evolving system that requires all the
involved departments and parties including funding and legislation (Brownson, Baker,
Deshpande & Gillespie, 2017). A change in one section has great effects and implications for the
whole. Leaders such as Helen who understands the patterns of the interdependence are able to
determine trends and help in facilitating strategies to get maximum benefits hence helping reduce
unintended harm as well as negative consequences. Based on the Australian Health Leadership
Framework, A good leader shapes systems. Such a leader shapes the organizational strategies
which include effectiveness and execution.

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Helen shapes the systems in her actions. She devolved the system care as she focused
primarily on the care of an individual rather than the whole country town when she moved from
the city of Melbourne. We are informed that she was applauded by the board for the role she
played in influencing the change in healthcare that helped in increasing child immunization rates.
This shows that Helen comprehends and institutes systems thinking as she had the issue of
immunization of children in mind and heart. She also communicated system awareness to the
board and negotiated within and across the health teams and other stakeholders to achieve better
health outcomes in her community. Helen was able to promote understanding of health systems
to the local community and got trust and respect of the board hence she was appointed as the new
health officer due to her vision of promoting a healthy community.
Engages Others
The Australian Health Leadership Framework states that an excellent leader in the health
sector should be able to engage others and systems through explanations that make sense and
have benefits to the community. The leader inspires a well as enables other people in sharing
information and ideas. Helen has all the qualities discussed above as she takes the opportunity to
grow the health sector and lead and has sourced collaborations for higher performances. Helen
engaged the local community and the local health sector in raising awareness on the cancer
screening programs hence the number of people presenting themselves for cancer screening
increased greatly. She recognized first the people of her town and then ensured that all other
persons including patients and her fellow medical practitioners were treated well with dignity as
well as respect in all the healthcare settings.
She presented great ideas to the committee hence she has been provided with seeding
capital to start some of her initiatives. Helen has been encouraging the close-knit community

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through empowering the community to take complete control of their immediate environments
while being involved in the process of policymaking. She believes in the engagement of
everyone in the betterment of the health sector regardless of diversity and ethnic differences.
This has made her be popular among the city dwellers. She exhibits the ability to be able to
engage others in the leadership in the health sector as she has made efforts to engage the
community through advocacy for equitable access to all the services and health promotion.
Achieves Outcomes
The Framework states that a leader is individuals who work tirelessly to ensure that they
make a difference in everything that they do. These kinds of leaders usually set a direction which
inspires and motivates others as well as enabling energy and efforts to make sure that they
succeed while keeping the eye on the set goals (Smith et al. 2015). Helen has always been
working with compassion so as she can influence the quality of the healthcare and the
sustainability of the healthcare system. She has collaborated with all other stakeholders and
colleagues in the health sector through the identification of opportunities and sets goals that
achieve the vision. She has been able to have tremendous successes in almost all her
undertakings.
Helen has been able to have great achievements in the health sector through the
promotion of healthy societies, her focus on the population instead of focusing keenly on the care
of individuals. She has been involved in a number of successful initiatives such as immunization,
sanitation, housing as well as infection control programs. Her achievements have also come
about as a result of disease prevention, managing the environment as well as the provision of
sustainable food sources.

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Drives Innovation
Health is a dynamic entity that requires constant inventions and innovations. Therefore,
innovation is important since it leads to fundamental changes to the models of the health care
system so as to achieve a people-centered quality service (Cope & Murray, 2017). For
innovation to be successful, the leadership should be passionate so a to challenge the status quo.
Helen has been very innovative in the health sector as she has led to the introduction of various
new ideas for instance; her proposal of teleconsultations as well as telesurgery with the support
of her colleagues in the health sector. These services were aimed at making the healthcare
services delivery easy and available to all people and especially the senior citizens in the region.
She has also sourced funds to start some of her new projects to better the delivery of healthcare
to the local community.
PART 2
Strengths
Undertaking the self-assessment using the leadership self-assessment tool enabled me to
weigh my leadership skills and the results were favorable as I passed most of the requirements.
The leadership assessment tool is based on the concept that leadership in the field of health, as
well as care services, are aimed at delivering high quality and favorable services to the patients
through the ability to work with each other, managing and improving healthcare services and
favorable personal qualities. The leader is also expected to have the ability to set the direction of
the healthcare organization, create the vision and also deliver the strategy.
According to the assessment tool, I have effective leadership since being able to
demonstrate my personal qualities in terms of my individual values, strengths as well as my

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abilities which helps me to deliver high-quality healthcare services to the patients. I am aware of
my own values and principles which I have learned from experiences. I always manage myself
while taking into account the needs of others. The various healthcare activities that I am involved
in have helped me to continuously develop my skills and experiences through learning and acting
with integrity since my values include openness, honesty, and belief of fairness for all humanity.
I am able to work with others since I usually develop networks through the identification
of opportunities and encourage collaboration with other stakeholders in the health sector so that
to give the best healthcare to the patients. I am able to build and maintain relationships clearly
and effectively communicating with others and usually listens to the needs and feelings of other
people. I usually encourage contributions and views from others and able to manage conflicts of
interests and differences of opinion. My ability to work within teams through volunteering to
lead my group while ensuring complete participation for all team member helps to make safe and
sound decisions.
I have the capabilities of managing services through planning to get feedback from the
users, my colleagues and patients to develop effective plans. I manage resources, people, and
performance through appropriate resource allocation, supporting team members and ensure great
performance in my undertakings. I am able to improve services by ensuring patient safety,
critically evaluating situations, facilitation of transformation and advocating for improvement
and innovation in the field of healthcare.
My great ability to set a direction of my organization has been due to the identification
of the contexts of change, making sound decisions, evaluating the consequences of my actions
and applying both pieces of knowledge as well as evidence (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2015).
According to the self-assessment tool, I am fully able to create the vision of the organization and

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communicating it to the stakeholders and acts according to or towards my vision and mission. I
am able to frame, develop, implement and embed the strategy to ensure that the strategic plans
are sustained and achieved. These abilities ensure that I deliver the strategy effectively by
developing and accepting strategic plans that have the healthcare given to the patients at heart.
This ensures that the plans are made into achievements that improve the service delivery to the
patients.
Weaknesses
Although I have tremendous and numerous strengths according to the self-assessment
tool in the field of healthcare, I have few weaknesses. These weaknesses include the lack of
patience in seeking approval for minor activities. Although consultations are important in
decision making, I have one weakness such that I usually do rush decisions without widely
consulting. The other weakness is that I lack the art of engaging others in the management of the
affairs of the organization which is wrong since collaboration is an important tool for success.
TASK 3
After analyzing the scenario of Helen who has exhibited great leadership qualities
according to the Australian Health Leadership Framework and having assessed my leadership
skills and abilities using the self-assessment tool I will put myself in the shoes of Helen and see
how I fit. Helen has extraordinary leadership skills and qualities that I cannot match but I have
put in great efforts and she can be someone that I look up to. Therefore, I possess leadership
qualities that can enable me to fit into the shoes of Helen. Just like Helen, I have personal values
and principles that would help me rally the community behind me like how she did it. My ability
to engage others in the management and running of affairs will help me get the favor of the

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Board. This would enable me to advocate for child immunization, screening of cancer and ensure
equitable allocation of the available resources.
However, I would not completely fill the shoes of Helen but just try to emulate her. I
would encounter a great problem since I do not like working so many hours continuously like
Helen. The other obstacle and challenge that I would encounter is the ability to create a great
relationship with the local community like Helen since I don’t have such high communication
and negotiation skills. Also, I would not advocate for teleconsultations and telesurgery. This is
because I believe that currently, we do not need complicated health care systems. We need to
simplify the systems even further and ensure that basic equipment and basic healthcare services
are available to all the persons in the local community. Although I have some few shortcomings I
believe that I can be able to handle the tasks handled by Helen but though not become as
successful as her.
Conclusion
The Australian Health Leadership Framework and the Self-assessment tool both
advocates for the change in the vision of the health care among the public health leaders from an
individual approach to a community-wide approach so as to improve the status and the outcomes
of the patient. The framework outlines the qualities of a healthcare leader which include; shapes
the systems, engages others, leads self, achieves outcomes and drives innovation. Helen
represents the public health leader who has almost all the desired qualities. On the other hand,
the self-assessment shows that I am doing fairly well and that I need to just put a little more
efforts so that I can match the standards set by Helen. The Leadership Framework Tool that I
used to take a self-assessment advocate for good personal qualities, ability to work with other,
strategy development and delivery, setting direction and managing as well as improving services.

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