GHMB902: Reflective Management Journal: Healthcare Challenges

This reflective journal explores the student's experiences and reflections on healthcare management, using the Gibbs Reflective Cycle model to analyze challenges related to teamwork and leadership within a healthcare setting. The journal entries, spanning from May to June 2018, detail specific incidents, personal feelings, and observations, particularly focusing on interdisciplinary team dynamics and the challenges of integrating various healthcare professionals. The student reflects on their leadership approach, initially struggling with team integration and then implementing strategies like departmental meetings, team reorganization, and the establishment of continuous reporting to improve collaboration and patient outcomes. The journal also highlights the importance of proactive leadership, prioritization, and the adoption of a win-win approach, referencing the 'Seven Habits of Highly Effective People' by Covey. The student incorporates research and personal learning to develop action plans, emphasizing the need for education on interprofessional healthcare collaborations to enhance management skills and improve team performance. The journal demonstrates the student's growth in understanding the complexities of healthcare management and their commitment to implementing effective leadership strategies.

Running head: REFLECTIVE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL 1
Reflective Journal: Effective Management in Healthcare
Student’s Name
Institution

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Reflective Journal: Effective Management in Healthcare
Introduction
Critical reflection is one of the most effective learning tools, specifically in healthcare
(Husebø, O'Regan & Nestel, 2015). To this effect, several models if reflection has been
developed and are commonly used in healthcare. However, for this essay, I have decided to
employ Gibbs Reflective cycles based on its effectiveness in helping learners. The model is
composed of six various stages, which feel are crucial in personal development and learning
(Husebø et al. 2015). Moreover, through the Gibbs Model, I will be able to come up with action
plans which support and enhances health management capabilities among healthcare providers.
This journal will, therefore, begin with simple diary entries, which I am making based on
observation as well as personal thoughts and feelings regarding teamwork as a management issue
in health management. Over the past years, there have been cases regarding weak collaborations
and teamwork among healthcare providers, and on most occasions, this has resulted in conditions
such as patient falls, among other complications (Costello et al. 2017). Notably, this was a
greater challenge where I was working last year and it us a point of focus for me as a healthcare
provider. I made journal entries during the time I was working, and through the current studies in
relation to management as well as personal research, I have been able to update the entries at
various intervals within the semester. For this reason, the original entries, in this case, will
represent thoughts, feelings, and descriptions of events as they occurred when I was working.
For this reason, I believe this fits into the Gibbs reflective cycle models, which require a
description of events, feelings and thoughts, and the evaluation stages. On the other hand, all the
revisits, updates, and analysis take that part of the analysis, conclusive remarks as well as action
plan stages of the Gibbs Reflective Cycle model (Gibbs, 2015). The management cases within

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the journal show my progress in the health management area, and I believe this reflection will
show what I have been going through, expand my knowledge as well equip me with better
approaches and mechanisms to apply while faced with the same situations.
15th May 2018
After this semester's workshop, which happened three days ago, I have been able to
reflect on various issues that happened during the workplace on the 15th of May. Previously
when I joined the healthcare center, I was confident and understood what teamwork is and how it
facilitates the achievement of quick and effective results in a medical setting. This was due to
previous experience while in school during the semester before going out for the practical
application of my knowledge. I was in a group composed of five individuals who were very
cooperative, which made me think that everything would be the same. However, the practical
world behaves differently compared to the theoretical world of academics (Bainbridge, Nasmith,
Orchard, & Wood, 2010). When working at the health facility, most people with significant
experience had moved, and there was a serious personal change at that time. And there was a
problem of team integration within the facility where the administration integrated health
providers from different disciplines to work together with a sing team, I was made a leader of
one team and allowed each and every member the space to work and relate with one another
while handling various task obligations. As the team leader, I did not work much harder to
control them, as I believed that they would work together based on their interdisciplinary
experiences and strengths. I also knew that buy given them space; they will have the
opportunity to identify each other's weaknesses and support each other by helping them perfect
such areas. However, this was not effective as individuals from stronger disciplines dominated
other team members, which were a greater challenge also in most occasions from the team

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members would often rely on themselves, ignoring the support of the team members from the
other discipline.
On the day I realized this, I became so frustrated knowing that I have failed to obligate
my leadership responsibilities in relation to the facility requirements. Being given leadership
opportunity was a step in my career development, but with me, not being able to deliver
according to my set goals and objectives was quite frustrating. This was a big deal for me for
several months at work. To this effect, id decided that it would be appropriate and interesting for
me to use the seven habits of good leaders and effective people to advance my management
skills (Covey, 2017).
The habits that I would employ to improve my leadership and management skills are,
therefore, as below:
Being proactive (Covey, 2017): with the personal reflection on what happened that day,
I was able to realize that I missed proactivity as a value. As a leading is should lead and cat as
an example to all the team members. However, I lacked this while handling the team. I believed
that by giving every team member personal space to learn from each other, I would have
achieved the organization's goals with effectiveness, but that was not the case. Through personal
evaluation, I have a clear picture of what occurred and where I missed it all as a leader and a
manager. Thus, by being proactive in every action, I am taking, I will be able to overcome such
challenges.
Have an end in mind (Covey, 2017): having an end I mind is another important habit
that I would need to be able to overcome the leadership challenge I faced. While beginning the
work, I was given the leadership role. This made me think that I had everything right that I
would have everything done as I perceived it to be done. The end results challenged me to

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undertake actions as a leader from a different perspective, and I believe that having the end in
mind is one of the ways to go about leadership duties. In as much as I now understand better how
future teams will operate and the integration of various professionals in a single team, I believe
that by having the end in my mind, I will have the ability to identify values that I am missing as a
leader and elevate them. Therefore, I have realized that is should have a clear vision of the end
before applying the various leadership skills I have acquired through experience and academic
journey.
Prioritization (first thing first): I have realized the team management in healthcare is
quite complex due to a variety of professions under one umbrella. Therefore, healthcare
management needs an extensive overview as often professionals in healthcare facilities such as
the one I was working for are integrated under one team. In this manner, management of such
integrated teams is technical, thus requires an individual leader to prioritize and put first things
first (Covey, 2017). Based on the incidence, I need to revise my leadership techniques and
priorities by becoming more proactive. I also need to resolve the issues by becoming more
strategic as a leader in giving leadership more weight while handling both my academics and
personal activities. Therefore, I need to conduct more research on the interdisciplinary approach
as a teamwork strategy in healthcare management. I believe that prioritizing leadership will
equip me with the knowledge to hand things better when faced with a similar situation.
As a leader, I should learn to think in a win-win situation (Covey, 2017): according
to the available resources, adoption of an interdisciplinary approach in healthcare will increase
patient satisfaction and ensure that customers always get services which they require. Therefore,
I believe that by investing in this area of study, I would be able to be productive in the coming

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time as many healthcare facilities are likely to adopt the strategy and employ individuals with
high skills in managing such diverse teams (Rehman & Nasir, 2015).
However, to achieve these goals, I need to conduct an in-depth evaluation of how an
effective interdisciplinary team can be managed. I also need to assess and conduct research on
how an effective interdisciplinary team manifest and identify the possible measure for personal
leadership quality assessment as well as the performance of the team. For this reason, I need to
conduct extensive research as one of the recommendations given in various scholarly literature is
for leaders to go through extensive learning and education on interprofessional healthcare
collaborations (Petri, 2010). Moreover, the education style should be more practical in nature to
enable learners, such as myself, to acquire skills and experiences involved in inter-profession
team management.
28th May 2018
On this day, I took a step to act according to the knowledge I acquired to manage the
team effectively based on the knowledge gained. In this manner, we conducted a departmental
meeting that was composed of the clinical staff to take a new direction regarding what direction
to be taken within the facility while handling various situations. This was the first formal step
for me to reorganize the team based on the inter-professional collaboration skills acquired in the
college. I had to be opportunistic and reorganize my team after the meeting. Therefore, after the
general meeting was over, I called my team and reorganized it to achieve the goals and
objectives of the organization as well as personal and team each team member’s goals. Based on
the infectivity of the team previously, there was a workload. To effectively complete the work, I
reorganized the team and elaborated on the need to work together as a team.

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This was the first step to employ collaborative skills and not to let anything pass without
critical evaluation and assessment. Therefore, I asked the team to share the pending workload in
order to complete the due work. Also, I told them that we would be meeting every week to
assess the progress of every member of the team. To further achieve affectivity, I, therefore,
decided to create a policy of continuous reporting where each and every member was given
freedom to come and present on the achievements of the team as well as the areas of difficulties.
Moreover, we also came up with goals and objectives which we had to achieve together as a
team, and everyone in the team had to contribute towards their achievement regardless of the
individual discipline.
Theoretically, taking such a step was appropriate, and each of the team members agreed
that making our team perfect was the only way we could attain higher customer demands. Taking
this step was great in changing team behavior and is likely to facilitate collaboration and prefect
the inter-professional approach, which was adopted by the facility (Hu & Asavathiratham, 2015).
We also agreed as team members to actively participate and exploit every education as well as
internal training programs as a mechanism to perfect our team and achieve the set goals. This
day ended well as I was more objective that with new changes we are likely to achieve the
leadership and management objectives
15th June 2018
The day was very busy as clients were so many, several patients were admitted to the
pediatric department of the healthcare facility. The nurses who were assigned in the pediatric
mostly were not in my team, leading to a caseload for each nurse. I was also committed to
working towards the management of my team and working towards the set goals for the team.
Assigning workloads to the team members was demanding, and I was so busy disseminating the

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duties. Moreover, I was also to learn from every step and activity within the health facility and
ensure that my team members were learning and ensuring that patients achieve optimal treatment
outcomes. So before lunchtime, one of the nurses from the pediatric came from another team
came to me for advice based on the success of my team. However, based on the time factor and
the workload I had, rather than helping her with the concern, I directed her to their team leader,
who was also a specialist in the area similar to his. The nurse, however, did not go to her leader
but went directly to articulate her duties and asses the patient's condition. Allegedly, she was
reported to their leader that she was handling the patient without consultation and proper
feedback. This made her embarrassed, and I blamed myself for the situation. I should have just
helped her with the situation and prevent embarrassment.
According to the requirement of inter-professional education, the definition is when two
or more professions learn with each other to achieve and improve the quality of care (Karlin,
Olson, Robert & Koppi, 2018). Based on this definition, I felt like I did not help the nurse. This
definition really helped me with reflection as I was able to realize anther leadership and inter-
professional collaboration aspect, which was missing in me as a leader. Even though I have
worked hard to manage and improve teamwork within my team at this point, I failed to support a
nurse from another discipline. I came to realize that my reaction was a perfect example of the
professional tension that exists in a healthcare setting. This was passed with time, and I should
work not only to ensure that people within my team are perfect nut as a leader it was for me to be
a role model for every person within the facility. Moreover, other scholars also defined the
process of interdisciplinary approach in healthcare as the collaboration between health
professionals with different skills who work together to achieve the best and appropriate care for
the patient (Wise et al. 2015). Therefore, a leader in such an environment, must acquire and

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possess multiple values such as role awareness, good communication, and relational skills,
supportive and caring for both individuals and organization and finally have the ability to help in
critical situations and take deliberate actions.
As an individual, I lacked some of these elements or values, which made me not to assist
the nurse with her quarry. I was not caring for her and the patient. I did not tell a deliberate
decision as well as lacked limited communication and relational skills. I also noted that
teamwork is made successful through effective and frequent communication and individual
relations. This was lacking the other team which the nurse cane from because she was to her
team leader and to inform him of the difficulty she was facing. Her reaction, as well as the
reaction of her team members, made me think deeper about the needed elements for effective
interdisciplinary teamwork. I also learned that I was still perfect in my leadership, and this
challenged me to conduct more research on interdisciplinary teamwork.
22nd June 2018
According to the goals set, we agreed to have regular meetings where each team of each
member of the team would present results of personal performance as well as the overall
performance of the team as well as areas within the team that they would require for changes to
be made. Moreover, based on personal evaluation in relation to what had with the nurse I failed
to offer support to, there was an increased need for me to seek to understand what if the same
was happening within my team. In the meeting with my team members, some of them expressed
their feelings regarding my failure to assist the nurse. I promised to work on that and improve,
and they should also work to assist others when requested. After the presentation, I realized
communication within the team was nit still effective as consultation from some members was
still quite slow, and they would not share with others before submitting their concerns to me as

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their leader. Some of the team members were also afraid to express their concerns and as well as
report various that they think still need improvement in order for us to achieve optimal patient
treatment outcomes. This was a concern a disappointment to the majority of the team members
who thought that we should improve on communication and interpersonal relationships.
This made me develop that each and every individual w\in the team was beginning to
understand my vision and targets for the future. However, there were a few areas regarding
communication and relationships within the team. This made me start to think critically and to
acquire more about where every individual came from a professional perspective. This is because
as still had a problem, but some of the members would give positive feedback in every
perspective leaving out important aspects that could still have taken the team to the previous
position. For these reasons, I had to conduct further research, and in one of the professional
articles, I came to learn about the theory of professional centrism. According to the author of the
article, individual relations and communication skills can be influenced by various factors, which
as a team leader, I had to look into before reaching my goals for the team. I realized that
professional actions are shaped by training and learning experience. Therefore, for the general
scale up to the required standards, our behaviors had to be shaped through training that focuses
on communication and interpersonal relations, which were the two major factors affecting our
team at that point in time (Cranford & Bates, 2015). This literature proved to be more effective
and I came to a realization that interdisciplinary teamwork could also be shaped by fostering
various elements that changes individual at personal level with the consideration of individuals
professional background and journey the how effective the change contribute to the individual,
the team, the organization, and patients (Henriksen, 2016).
Conclusion

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Management of interdisciplinary teamwork is one of the major challenges that health
professional leaders face in the world today. However, based on the Gibbs reflection cycle, I
have been able to identify various areas of development and how to deal with various situations
that may arise at the workplace in relation to interdisciplinary teamwork. The shortest answer to
various challenges that I faced, as discussed in this journal, is the application of Covey's
roadmap, which requires an individual to be proactive, but first things first, understanding the
end before starting to work on anything as well as having an understanding of the situation. I,
therefore, feel that I was faced with the challenger based on the fact that I lacked Covey's
elements. In this manner, I tend to believe that by working on the identified elements, I will be
able to effectively manage interdisciplinary teams, which is the current trend in healthcare, and
deliver optimal patient treatment outcomes.

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