PhD Personal Statement: Improving Healthcare in Military Hospitals

This personal statement outlines the author's passion for healthcare, their diverse experiences in nursing, healthcare administration, and leadership roles, and their goal to pursue a PhD to improve healthcare services in military hospitals. The statement highlights the author's interest in addressing issues with information systems, particularly the implementation of Electronic Medical Records (EMR), and their future career goals of contributing to the progress of effective EMR implementation in military hospitals. The author also includes a review of four articles related to EMR implementation, barriers to adoption, physician attitudes, and the current status of EMR in Saudi Arabia, demonstrating their understanding of the challenges and opportunities in this field. The statement concludes by outlining the objectives of the management research, including assessing and comparing EMR in military and civilian hospitals, identifying barriers faced by physicians, assessing physician readiness, and evaluating the current status of EMR.

Running head: PERSONAL STATEMENT
Personal statement
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1PERSONAL STATEMENT
Personal statement
I have been passionate about diversifying my learning zones right from my early age. I
have competed my B.sc in nursing and Msc in healthcare administration. My future goal is to
pursue the doctoral study. My passion and love for caring people in my surroundings and
developing relationships with them evoked the interest to pursue nursing. It is because I can
reassure people, understand their needs and take initiative to address the same. As Petroleum
Supply Specialist, I have received the opportunity to collaborate with other officers, conduct
monthly inspections, train new team members and participate in operational tasks. I have also
leaded the group of four civilian contractors. Undertaking these responsibilities have helped me
develop my communication skills, managerial skills, and gave me the leadership experience. I
have gained the experience of supervisor by undertaking the role of diplomatic security. I have
gained valuable insights into security operations as I worked in close collaboration with the lead
supervisor. In this role, I had to maintain the absolute confidentiality in all matters related to
professional security system for clients. I have also participated in the planning, designing and
execution of professional security system. I have been also working French Language and
African Cultural Consultant responsibility to educate people on French language. I had also
worked for two years as translators/interpreter, where my role was to facilitate communication
between French and English people, transportation for gussets in Hilton Hotel Cameroon. I have
also performed accounting functions and supervised the work of ten front desk employees at
work. as Document review specialist I am responsible for maintaing the database of all field
documents and determine the integrity of the documentation system. With this experience I have
cultivated the analytical skills, problem solving skills, interpersonal leadership skills, project

2PERSONAL STATEMENT
management and organisation. I am competent in self management, written and communications
skills, which are essential for PhD student (Platow, 2012).
Area of management interests
My specific area of management interest for P.hD is in military hospital. My career
objective is to improve health care service in military hospitals using transformative leadership
skills. I will get to apply my knowledge of health care administration. I consider myself
responsible for keeping the healthcare facility and the hospital efficient, on budget and
organised. I have pursued nursing and health care administration so as to be able to make
changes to life of people. By engaging in this research I can improve the lives of hundreds of
people. For me it is the most rewarding part of job. Therefore, in this area of management my
specific goal is to address the issues with information system. Research in this area will help me
fulfil my career objective as I have strong knowledge of the health care industry, issues
associated with the health care system and design. I have also developed valuable insights from
the past work experience on differ health care system. This experience assisted in development
of knowledge reacted to community and population health, functions of different health care
sectors. Researching on the public health care information system like electronic medical records
will allow me to contribute to the information management department of the hospital. This area
has received great prominence (Kuperman, Gardner & Pryor, 2013). A significant movement in
this area has been noted since last decade. There is need of further improvement in this area as
there are many hospitals struggling to successfully implement the health information system
(Abdelhak et al., 2014). For cost reductions and improvement in the work quality of the health
care, there is need of effective health information system. Thus, the research in this area will
help me achieve my career objective of high quality health care service.

3PERSONAL STATEMENT
Future career goals
On completion of this program, my goal is to work towards the progress of effective
implementation of the Electronic medical records in various military hospitals in remote areas as
well as in places was implementation had failed. My goal is to contribute to the ra pidly growing
electronic interconnectedness of the health care world.
EMR will play an important role in accessing the health care data and lower the medical
errors. It will foster the easier participation in the meaningful use and patient centered care
(Alzobaidi & Alghamdi, 2016). Therefore, I will work towards eliminating the barriers in
implementation of the Electronic medical records. I will conduct research in this area for
fulfilling my duties as health care administrators.
I can contribute to the operations management based on my past experience as well as
present technological. I would like to contribute towards technological updates such as
softwares, lab reporting other than the electronic system.
I would also like to contribute to the financial management of military hospitals that are
struggling with the departmental budgets issues. I have never associated myself with the legal
responsibilities. Therefore, my goal is to uptake health care associated legal responsibilities such
as health insurance regulations. Also I have never participated in the internal communication
and community relations. There are several liaisons between medical staff, boards of trustees and
business staff. I would like to contribute towards the open line communication for system to
function swiftly. It will help bolster the community relations.

4PERSONAL STATEMENT
The chosen area for the management research is based on the implementation of the
electronic medical records in the military hospitals. The objectives of the management research
are based on the following objectives:
 The assessment and comparison of the electronic medical records in the military
and the civilian hospital.
 Assess the barriers that are faced by the physicians towards the implementation of
the electronic medical records.
 Assessment of the readiness of the physicians for the implementation of the
electronic medical records.
 Assess the current status and the availability of the electronic medical records.
Considering my inclination towards the field of military, I have chosen the electronic
medical records for the purpose of assessing its present condition and how it is implemented in
the military hospitals, how the physicians face the hurdles and the status of the electronic
medical records world over.

5PERSONAL STATEMENT
First article: “A Multiple Comparison Between Military Hospitals and Civilian Hospitals
with a Look on the Maturity Situation of Hospital Information Systems in Iran”
Different types of the benchmarks are created for the purpose of evaluation of the
hospital information system. Lately there was no such framework for the evaluation of the health
information system. Thus, for this purpose a famous model called the electronic medical records
model is used for the assessment of the health information system and how it is applied in
hospitals. It has been seen that on some of the developing and the developing countries has not
been able to present the system fully. This study was based on the assessment and comparison of
the electronic medical records in the military and the civilian hospital, that aligns with my area of
interest. The methodology involves the analytical study of the 3 private hospitals, 5
governmental hospitals, and 2 military hospitals. The hospital was selected based on the random
sampling method for the military hospitals and for the civilian hospitals; the stratified sampling
method is used. The measurement tools used is called the electronic medical record adoption
model. The methodology is the strength of the study. The findings showed that the military
hospitals had applied the system fully. The civilian hospitals have only reached the 1st stage of
electronic medical records implementation. The 66 percent of the private hospitals, 50 percent of
the governmental and 50 percent of the military hospitals have reached the 2nd stage of health
information system maturity. The maturity showed by the private hospitals is less in comparison
to the military hospitals, constituting the strength of study. While the maturity showed by the
governmental hospital and the military hospital is similar. It has also been fund that the no clear
strategies exist in these hospitals for the implementation of the health information system (Ayat
& Sharifi, 2017). The lack of conclusive data on the difference in the maturity of military and
governmental hospitals is the drawback of the study.

6PERSONAL STATEMENT
Second article: “Barriers of using electronic medical records among Saudi physicians”
The adoption of the electronic medical record is hindered by several barriers and these
changes from one facility to another that depends on the personal demographic data of that
facility. The main aim of the study is to assess the barriers that are faced by the physicians
towards the implementation of the electronic medical records. It will contribute to my future
research on effective implementation of EMR in military hospital. The methodology of the study
consisted of the usefulness of variables, data entry, cost, practical demographic variables,
demographic variables and this is distributed over the 131 physicians. The physicians are
included in the study based on their participation, time of the study that are working in the
military hospital. The results indicate that there are 129 physicians. The 19 percent of the
physicians or 25 of the participants agreed that the electronic medical records are costly, 20
participants agreed that electronic medical record is time consuming and 39 physicians strongly
agreed that it is easy to operate with the electronic medical record. Thus, the main finding from
the study indicates that the military hospital physicians face the issues of time and cost
(Alzobaidi et al., 2016). This methodology could be replicated in my own research. However,
the limitations of the study come from bias in participant selection

7PERSONAL STATEMENT
Third article: “Attitudes toward implementing electronic medical record among Saudi
physicians”
This study has the objective of assessing the readiness of the physicians for the
implementation of the electronic medical records. The methods of the study involve the
questionnaire that consists of the confidentiality variables, security, attitude and belief, practical
demographic variables, personal demographic variables. This study includes the 131 practicing
physicians. The results of the study indicate that there were 129 physicians. Majority of the
physicians depicted an encouraging beliefs and awareness with respect to the electronic medical
records and it also includes the benefits of implementing the electronic medical records. About
two third of the physicians showed the easiness in the usage of the electronic medical records.
About 4 percentages of the physicians expressed their desire for the intensive training, which is a
valuable insight to carry forward my personal research (Alzobaidi et al., 2016). However, the
limitations of the study come from selection bias of participants. It may hamper the reaserch
results.

8PERSONAL STATEMENT
Fourth article: “Implementation of Electronic Medical Records In Saudi Arabia”
This study focuses on assessing the current status and the availability of the electronic
medical records. It will help me understanding the area of improvement in implementing the
same in military hospital. The method of the study involves an extensive search of the online
databases with respect to the usage of electronic medical record. It might not be relevant for me
as I want to conduct the participant’s research. The results of the study indicate that there are
various issues with the implementation of the electronic medical records and it involves the
resource barriers, social barriers and technical barriers. It is also important to note government
intervention is important for the improvement and the implementation of the electronic medical
records in the hospitals (Hasanain, Vallmuur & Clark, 2014). The limitations come from the
inclusion criteria that spanned only a decade. Toward the end of the decade, there was a growth
in number of articles which may affect the reliability of the data.

9PERSONAL STATEMENT
References
Abdelhak, M., Grostick, S., & Hanken, M. A. (2014). Health Information-E-Book: Management
of a Strategic Resource. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Alzobaidi, H., & Alghamdi, A. (2016). Barriers of using electronic medical records among Saudi
physicians. International Journal of Medical Science and Public Health, 5(10), 2178-
2185.
Alzobaidi, H., Zolaly, E., bin Sadeq, B., Alghamdi, A., & Ahmed, E. T. (2016). Attitudes toward
implementing electronic medical record among Saudi physicians. International Journal
of Medical Science and Public Health, 5(6), 1244-1255.
Ayat, M., & Sharifi, M. (2017). A Multiple Comparison Between Military Hospitals and Civilian
Hospitals with a Look on the Maturity Situation of Hospital Information Systems in Iran.
Journal of Archives in Military Medicine, (In Press).
Hasanain, R., Vallmuur, K., & Clark, M. (2014). Progress and challenges in the implementation
of Electronic Medical Records in Saudi Arabia: a systematic review. Health Informatics-
An International Journal, 3(2).
Kuperman, G. J., Gardner, R. M., & Pryor, T. A. (2013). HELP: a dynamic hospital information
system. Springer Science & Business Media.
Platow, M. J. (2012). PhD experience and subsequent outcomes: a look at self-perceptions of
acquired graduate attributes and supervisor support. Studies in Higher Education, 37(1),
103-118.