Reviewer: Melanie M Tidman, DHSc, MA, OTR/L(A. T. Still University)
Description: In this book, the authors discuss the complexities of organizational cultures that often dictate how our patients are cared for and how our students, residents, and fellows are trained, which, in turn, exert a profound influence on patient care, successful research, and appropriate training. The book offers unique definitions of leadership, collaboration, and self-reflection in healthcare and demonstrates practical applications of the concepts through narrative scenarios.
Purpose: The authors describe their purpose as an attempt to foster a culture of compassion, self- awareness, collaboration in teamwork, embracing complexity, applying knowledge to action, and refocusing on the greater good. The authors also state their practical definition of wisdom in leadership, which applies the understanding of the deeper meaning of things while acknowledging the limitations of knowledge, tolerating ambiguity, and engaging in ongoing self-reflection, while consistently showing a capacity for compassion for others.
Audience: This book is appropriate for entry level healthcare professionals as well as seasoned managers and administrators. It is a refreshing reminder of who we are and why we do what we do. Patient-centered in scope, it is practical for students entering today's healthcare environment. The authors are recognized as experts in the field of leadership in healthcare.
Features: The authors discuss the lack of vulnerability and transparency in healthcare decision-making and a lack of learning in the attempt to foster a culture of safety in healthcare. The book supports inquiry rather than judgment, openness in team communication rather than secrecy, engagement of all members of the healthcare team, and a greater awareness of deficient knowledge and potential errors. The authors use actual scenarios that may be applied in a narrative format that not only illustrate the concepts, but reach to the very heart of healthcare. The sections on disclosure and professionalism in leadership, transparency, and mutual compassion are unique and inspiring. Relational leadership is another unique concept presented in driving teamwork through mutual goal setting and achievement and through a "web of mutual responsibility." The authors advocate nurturing positivity in quality improvement and taking the focus off the negative aspects of the environment. Chapter titles reflect not only a definition of wisdom in healthcare decision-making and care delivery, but a step-by-step methodology of promoting capacity among healthcare professionals for cultivating wisdom in patient-centered care. The authors' ultimate definition of leadership clearly delineates aspects of achieving organizational goals with problem definition and solution, team building, communication effectiveness, resource development, and managing performance with an eye to personal awareness, integrity, commitment, and authenticity in wisdom leadership.
Assessment: This book focuses on methods for fostering the deepest meaning in the provision of health-related services which deepen our professional commitment and attention to the needs and concerns, values and fears of the patients we serve. It uniquely reviews the essence of patient-centered care in the context of the demands of the EMR and the systems in which health professionals find themselves. Chapters on self-reflection and support within an environment of teamwork and mutual values through peer models of mentorship and accountability place this book above others of its kind in terms of practicality. The unique principle of leadership involving a method of "humble inquiry" fosters self-reflection and support for mistakes and errors. Leadership in Health Care, 2nd edition, Barr and Dowding (Sage, 2012), simply reviews the theories of leadership in supporting the educational needs of followers, lists the characteristics of a good leader in terms of organizational demands, and views the leader as a manager of resources. The Barr book goes further in defining the qualities of all aspects of needed change within healthcare environments, from leaders to each member of the team, but they are reviewed as a recipe for quality, whereas this book reaches to the core of quality, which is the essence of human connection. Leadership for Health Professionals: Theory, Skills, and Applications, 2nd edition, Ledlow and Coppola (Jones & Bartlett, 2014), takes the perspective of how to develop one's own leadership style by reviewing common leadership theory and self assessment. However, this book looks at the core of all human experience and works from an inside-out approach. Other books work from the outside (leadership theory) in (how to make changes to fit oneself to these theories).