Read the Week 3 Assignment Scenario Use the Letter Templat

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Assignment Scenario Use the following scenario as a basis to complete your assignment.

Imagine that you work in a health care facility and your boss has just stopped by your office and says the following:

Hi, I just have a couple of minutes – please forgive me for stopping in without advanced notice. One of the results of a recent employee survey at Lakeland Clinic indicates we have some issues to address. The data show 75% of the employees have concerns about at least one of the following: diversity issues, workplace incivility, and poor work-life balance.

Senior leadership has asked me how I plan to respond, and my first inclination is to put you in charge of assembling a team to address one of the issues. You have demonstrated effective organizational and communication on other projects and I think you will be a great asset as we moved forward.

I have to run right now, but I’ll send you an email with more information before I leave today. See you later!

Subsequent Email:

Thanks for talking with me this morning. I just want you to know that this is really a great opportunity for you. I know you have been interested in taking steps to becoming a leader in this organization, and now it’s time to realize your potential.

As you know, we opened the Lakeland Medical Clinic to serve area residents who were unable or unwilling to use the services offered at the main hospital. The first two months of operation saw strong patient volume. Since then, the numbers have dropped off dramatically. This prompted leadership to start asking some questions which lead to the internal survey that I mentioned yesterday.

I just met with leadership, and they determined that the priority right now is the diversity issue because we have the opportunity to improve outcomes for both employees and the community.

This is part of an email I got from the clinic director last week:

"…after careful examination of all aspects of the organization and talking with some neighborhood leaders, we have concluded that residents in the community do not feel comfortable coming to the clinic. It seems the staff are lacking the ability to develop a trusting relationship with the residents primarily because they do not understand the cultural values and norms. The neighborhood residents, which you know are predominantly Haitian, often feel their beliefs, values, and health practices are not understood.

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When staff members were hired, we only considered their past work experiences, education, and potential. We may have failed to fully consider their ability to work with diverse populations."

Hopefully the information gives you a better understanding of the issues to be addressed. Time to get started as things need to move quickly.

I want you to assemble a committee to clearly define the problem and ultimately provide guidance on solutions. Before introducing you to the clinic director and executive team, I want to review your approach specific to leadership style and collaboration.

I want two things from you in a written document. The first part is just for me, but the second part I intend to share with the clinic director.

First, identify and describe a leader you would choose to lead a project like this and explain why. It can be anyone who is qualified, even someone famous. Your choice will tell me a lot about your leadership approach and priorities. Next, select one of the characteristics that make them successful and compare it against your leadership skills.

The second item is related to leading and fostering teamwork and collaboration among a group of interdisciplinary professionals. We are looking for 4-6 members to serve on a committee that will be considering the diversity issue and ultimately making a recommendation on how to address it.

I want you to: • Describe your role and approach to leading the group. How will you lead and

communicate? Will you be an authoritative, collaborative, democratic, servant, or transformational type of leader? Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your approach in the context of this project.

• Describe how you would facilitate collaboration to maximize team effectiveness. You might consider:

o Communication technologies. o Practices (accountability, decision making, delegating). o Techniques for sharing information and ideas. o Any others ideas you might have.

Remember this information will be shared with the clinic director, so keep it clear, focused, and professional. Creativity is important; however, we want to be sure that your ideas and approaches align with current health care organization trends and practices, so include references from current academic or professional resources to support you points.

I have confidence in you!

– Lynnette

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Leadership and Group Collaboration

Learner’s Name

Capella University

NHS5004: Collaboration, Communication, and Case Analysis for Master's Learners

Instructor Name

December 1, 2019

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December 28, 2019

Lynnette

Lakeland Medical Clinic

Hello, Lynnette! I am thankful and excited to take on the proposed project. I strongly

believe effective leadership in health care is a critical component in the success of an

organization. This project is a great opportunity to enhance my skills in solving

organizational issues such as the diversity issue at Lakeland Medical Clinic. I understand

from your e-mail the primary issue we must focus on is the staff’s lack of cultural

competence. Culture affects the way we comprehend our reality, how we communicate, and

how we perceive our surroundings (Center for Community Health and Development, 2019).

As our population becomes more culturally diverse, it is important for health care centers to

be culturally competent. For an organization to be culturally competent, it is important for

employees to communicate effectively and appreciate the diversity of cultures (White et al.,

2019).

To handle the diversity issue effectively, a health care leader must possess skills such

as excellent communication, strategic thinking, interpersonal skills, and the ability to plan

efficiently. A leader should communicate to the staff the vision and the goal of the diversity

project in a manner that creates a sense of unity and purpose among the staff members. A

leader must plan strategically to change the system by anticipating problems the staff might

face while implementing new processes. A leader should encourage staff members from

interdisciplinary teams to actively voice their opinions to validate the processes that have

been implemented and suggest changes that could enhance the efficiency of the staff's

involvement in these processes.

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An individual I would choose to lead a project such as this would be Dr. Lisa E.

Harris, medical director and chief executive officer of Eskenazi Health, Indianapolis. For 30

years, Dr. Harris has practiced medicine and has been committed to improving medical

services for minorities. She is constantly engaged in research, teaching, and patient care.

Today, the Eskenazi Health campus is one of the largest health care campuses to achieve a

gold certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (Eskenazi Health, n.d.).

Dr. Harris is an excellent example of a leader who practices the transformational style of

leadership. Dr. Harris’s success can be attributed to her ability to take risks to achieve her

goals. She has actively worked toward developing the quality of health care services in local

communities. She ran a successful campaign to seek voter approval for the construction of a

new hospital that could solve existing health care issues, revolutionize health care, and

provide affordable health care. There are certain similarities and differences between Dr.

Harris’s and my leadership style. The similarities include leading by example, being

approachable, demonstrating strong work ethics, being willing to train and motivate

subordinates to achieve their goals, and working to fix issues in the system.

For the proposed project, I would implement a process flow that provides enough

room for innovation. Dr. Harris implemented a complex workflow that could reduce the

bandwidth for innovation within the organization. This approach might not be ideal for a

clinic setting, especially when tackling sensitive issues such as diversity. Consequently, my

approach would differ from Dr. Harris’s; I would encourage a diverse and inclusive

workplace that also promotes interprofessional collaboration. This, in turn, encourages the

sharing of experiences and expertise among staff members and opens avenues for innovation.

Steps to Address the Diversity Issue

When leading the project at Lakeland Medical Clinic, I will utilize key qualities of

both transformational and collaborative types of leadership to effectively address the

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diversity issue. One approach is to set up a multicultural collaboration between the staff at the

clinic and the residents. This can be achieved by forming an interdisciplinary committee that

consists of staff members from different disciplines as well as members from the community.

Collaborations between physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals promote

knowledge sharing and can make the processes that have been set up to achieve staff and

patient satisfaction more efficient.

Mutual respect, trust, and collaboration are some characteristics of an effective team.

Collaboration in a health care setting involves professionals taking on complementary roles

and work together, sharing responsibility to solve problems, and formulating effective plans

for patient care. An important aspect of collaboration is open and effective communication,

which builds respect and fosters trust. The roles and responsibilities of team members must

be clearly communicated to prevent conflicts of interest. Another approach would be to

analyze the strengths and weaknesses of team members through an internal assessment and

delegate work based on their capabilities. Training sessions should be set up for team

members who lack certain skills. It is important to motivate and encourage team members by

identifying and valuing their contributions. My approach would be to mandate shared

decision-making within the team to encourage negotiation, openness, and trust. Shared-

decision making can make way for various innovative strategies for handling the clinic’s

diversity issue (Morley & Cashell, 2017).

Diversity issues can arise from practical problems such as language barriers and

cultural practices or from deeper systemic issues such as staff prejudices and racism. To

address diversity issues stemming from practical problems, we will initiate training programs

for staff to sensitize them to Haitian culture and values. Diversity coaches can be hired to

train staff members. Diversity training provides information about dietary needs and

restrictions, language barriers, and psychological triggers (Cooper-Gamson, 2017). Staff

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members who actively participate in improving their cultural competency should be

recognized and rewarded to motivate and encourage other staff members to do so. To address

systemic issues, we will require an organization-wide assessment of employees and their

cultural biases and provide mandatory antiracism and diversity training (Shepherd et al.,

2019).

Another approach would be to tweak existing hiring policies. We should assess the

cultural competency of candidates, rather than just their academic qualifications and previous

work experience, before recruiting them. A more diverse workforce can help improve an

organization’s cultural competency (Rahman, 2019). We can provide employment

opportunities to individuals from the local community by setting up training camps that can

equip them with the required skills to work at the clinic, thereby improving cultural diversity

in the workforce.

In this e-mail, I have presented multiple strategies to address the diversity issue such

as initiating staff training and hiring diversity coaches along with suggestions to change

existing hiring policies. Implementing these strategies can increase the organization’s cultural

competency and workforce diversity. Improving an organization’s cultural competency

assures improved efficiency of clinical staff as well as patient satisfaction (White et al.,

2019).

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References

Center for Community Health and Development. (2019). Section 8. Multicultural

collaboration. Community Tool Box. https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-

contents/culture/cultural-competence/multicultural-collaboration/main

Cooper-Gamson, L. (2017). Are we bridging the gap? A review of cultural diversity within

stoma care. British Journal of Nursing, 26(17), S24–S28.

https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2017.26.17.S24

Eskenazi Health. (n.d.). Lisa E. Harris, MD. https://fsph.iupui.edu/doc/news-events/Lisa-

Harris-Bio.pdf

Morley, L., & Cashell, A. (2017). Collaboration in Health care. Journal of Medical Imaging

and Radiation Sciences, 48, 207–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmir.2017.02.071

Rahman, U. H. F. B. (2019). Diversity management and role of leader. Open Economics,

2(1), 30–39. https://doi.org/10.1515/openec-2019-0003

Shepherd, S. M., Willis-Esquesa, C., Newton, D., Sivasubramaniam, D., & Paradies, Y.

(2019). The challenge of cultural competence in the workplace: Perspectives of

healthcare providers. BMC Health Services Research, 19.

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-3959-7

White, J., Plompen, T., Tao, L., Micallef, E., & Haines, T. (2019). What is needed in

culturally competent healthcare systems? A qualitative exploration of culturally

diverse patients and professional interpreters in an Australian healthcare setting. BMC

Public Health 19, 1096. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7378-9