Leading Critical Care in Hospitals: A Visionary Approach

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Any given organization or group will flounder without directions if there is no strong leadership to guide it. At times, even if there are formal leaders in the organization, if such a person does not display good leadership skills, he is merely leader in name but not in truth. Leadership requires the person at the helm to know the directions that he wants the organization to take. Without such a vision, the organization will merely fulfill the basic necessities for it to survive.

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In the area of Intensive Care Unit, especially in Critical Care, providing strong leadership is even more important so that the efforts of the people within the department are coordinated. If this coordination is ensured, then members of the team can avoid the attack of panic and they will be able to work more smoothly to address the problems of clients and patients that troop to the hospital. The intensive care unit of the hospital is very crucial because this is where emergencies occur most of the time.

As such, even late at night or in the wee hours of the morning, people with various types of injuries are brought to the ICU.

Critical care, particularly, is important in the hospital because this is literally where people’s lives are at stake and a single mistake made by any of the staff may prove to be deadly. There should also be careful and deliberate follow-up in the area of critical care because the conditions of the patients may be unstable and an oversight can also cause fatality.

This paper seeks to look at the importance of leadership in the critical care department of the Intensive Care Unit as well as some initiatives in improving the delivery of service in this particular department.

The conceptualization stage of any innovation is crucial if it were to be implemented thoroughly. This way, the problem areas will be addressed effectively. Leadership Initiative in the ICU-Critical Care Although individual leadership is important and the actions of an individual leader are important, it is equally important to look into the notion of distributed leadership. This way, there is more flexibility in the system and there will be several decision makers in the system instead of relying on only one person making the decisions (Gronn, 2002).

In the case of a hospital’s intensive care unit, the process of decision making is very important especially in the event of people going to the ICU all at the same and all of them demanding immediate medical attention. This may happen in the ICU because there are all sorts of dangers and accidents occurring all over the world. The focus of my leadership initiative therefore is the implementation of a more effective coordination among the personnel of ICU-Critical Care so that patients can receive treatment more efficiently and effectively while at the same time monitoring the performance of each member of the team more effectively.

This initiative will rely on several leadership strategies and coordination among the members of the team. But the concept of distributed and shared leadership will also be used to maximize efficiency and effectiveness in the Critical Care section of the ICU. This will also rely on large part upon the participation of the members of the team and their perception in regards to the importance of this endeavor. The leader’s role therefore is crucial to this team. According to Outhwaite (2003), it is important for the team to move together as an integrated team before embarking on a project that aims to change established ways of doing things.

Moreover, the leader has to have the transformational skills in order to help the team achieve its purposes and goals. After all collaborative working is more effective than too much individualism. In implementing the process, everyone involved should have knowledge of the broader picture as well as the detailed and specific role that they will perform. Otherwise, the process will seem like an uncoordinated one. This initiative therefore will take several stages. The first one, of course, concerns the internal audit of the current coordination system in place, together with the tasking and the functions of each member of the team.

Secondly, the new coordination process for the Critical Care-ICU will be conceptualized together with several members of the team. Once this process is ready for being rolled out, there will be a consultation with the team members to get their ideas and brainstorm on how to improve the process and roll it out. Once the consultation is done, then the handouts and the materials for the new process will be given to the team and these will also be posted in key areas in the hospital for easy reference. There is also a technical aspect of this initiative. Coordination is essentially communication.

As such, the ICU also needs several new ways to communicate with each other. Moreover, the patients in need of the services of the ICU will also avail of new means of communication. Especially because the ambulance of the hospital is also under the ICU, quick contact needs to be done. The Stakeholders First among the stakeholders in this initiative are the patients who receive the services of the critical care-ICU since they are the beneficiaries of this kind of activities. With a better coordination process in place, they will not have to endure longer time of waiting, or inconsistent and inconvenient information being given out to them.

With the new coordination process, it will also be clear who they need to approach whenever they need anything. More than just, they will also get faster means of communicating with the people in the ICU so that even before they arrive at the hospital, some of the things that they need shall have been prepared for them. The owners and the senior management of the hospital are also stakeholders because if the initiative succeeds, it will greatly increase the efficiency of service-delivery and this will have positive long-term consequences for the hospital.

In addition to this, should the initiative require any funds, the management will disbursed the funds as needed. The personnel under the Critical Care-ICU are also stakeholders because they are the ones who will implement and roll out the project to its completion. Any change is difficult to deal with and manage. However, given time and effective communication with these personnel, the process can be rolled out and they will also get to save efforts and energy in performing their jobs. As the leader, I am also a stakeholder. I have taken it upon myself to implement this initiative.

Hence, the responsibility of ensuring the smoothness of the project is on me. If I am not able to deal with it, my leadership skills and my own team will be berated. As a result, the confidence of management in me might be lessened and the trust and respect of team members may also be negatively affected. Towards a Shared Vision Without the team, a leader cannot do his task effectively. He is called a leader because he has followers. As a popular adage states, “he who thinks he is a leader but has no followers is merely taking a walk.

” In order for followers to follow, I can rely on my authority to make them, even compel them, to follow. However, the result I will get will also be forced and haphazard. What is needed therefore is for these people to grasp what I want to do and ensure that they have captured this vision for themselves. This way, they will not be daunted by the task even if they meet difficulties along the way. It is difficult to make everyone catch the vision. Yet, what I can do is not only appeal to formal relationships. Rather, I can start talking with the personnel and asking relevant questions regarding the initiative at hand.

This way, they will not feel compelled. Instead, they will also feel that their opinions and views matter to the Unit, or at least to the department that we serve. I can then start talking about some of the plans and their part in these plans. Sufficient care, however, should be undertaken, lest the personnel may feel threatened about the process. Regular meetings should also be conducted to assess the strength of the current system in place. This way, the people will realize what the current system of coordination lacks and how they can help in improving the process.

The points of view generated from these meetings can also help in helping the personnel realize the strengths and the weaknesses of the organization and how they can help in making it better. Regular meetings may be boring but an effective leader makes use of such meetings in order to build momentum in shaping a shared vision among the members of the unit. Formal networks in the organization, as well as the interpersonal relationships of the leader with the rest of the team are important in a collaborative work (San Martin-Rodriguez, et. al. , 2005). Without both, the organization rests on sinking sand and it might not last very long.

A shared vision is very important in ensuring that the changes in the organization will be implemented well. In some organizations that have been shaped largely by traditional roles and procedures, the very notion of implementing change may be met with opposition from senior leaders of the organization. However, in a world in which change is becoming very popular, organizations have to change and adapt, otherwise, they will remain as they are and become irrelevant and insignificant. Conclusion The process of establishing an effective and efficient coordination and communication process within an organization under the ICU may be difficult.

Yet, there are obvious advantages to it for the different stakeholders connected to it. The patients who are receiving the services of the ICU may be thankful because of quicker service and quicker follow-up. In addition to that, the hospital’s reputation and the society’s esteem of it may become higher if they knew that the hospital is taking care of its patients very well. Patients will also have means of communicating so that the hospital can prepare tools and equipment related to the patient and use these accordingly upon the arrival of the patient.

Reference Outhwaite, S. (2003). The importance of leadership in the development of an integrated team. Journal of Nursing Management, 11 (6), 371-376. San Martin-Rodriguez, L. , Beaulieu, M. D. D’Amour, D. & Ferrada-Videla, M. (2005). The determinants of successful collaboration: A review of theoretical and empirical studies. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 19 (S1), 132-147. Gronn, P. (2002). Distributed leadership as a unit of analysis. The Leadership Quarterly, 13 (4), 423-451.