The critical task of healthcare administrators is to manage hospitals or healthcare organizations. To become a qualified specialist, an administrator should possess a wide range of knowledge in healthcare and management. Therefore, this profession is rather complex and multidimensional. A significant role in the development of healthcare manager skills is played by mentors and work experience. The current essay discusses these two elements of healthcare administrators career development and analyzes the growth of healthcare managers in various areas of the public health system.
Mentors play a crucial role in developing professionals in any field because these are the people who communicate their extensive knowledge and rich experience to their wards. Besides, mentorship per se is essential for a novice specialist because it gives a chance to become a member of a vast professional network and acquire valuable acquaintanceships. The recent study conducted by Henry-Noel et al. (2019) reveals that the assistance of an effective mentor is an indispensable part of a young specialists career success. At this point, it is essential to mention that not every reputable expert in healthcare could become a decent mentor. According to Henry-Noel et al. (2019), the effectiveness of a coach depends on his or her type of personality, ability to be a good listener, and “understanding the mentees’ body language and messages that are not explicitly communicated” (p. 631). In addition to that, a good mentor should be “available and approachable” (Henry-Noel et al., 2019, p. 631). An effective mentor should be a highly qualified specialist in the sphere of healthcare who possesses good communication skills and is willing to help the mentees.
Without a doubt, if a beginner is lucky enough to become a mentee of a mentor who fits the description provided above, this would have a strong positive effect on his or her professional development and, hence, her overall career success. More precisely, the already mentioned study of Henry-Noel et al. (2019) shows that mentoring has a positive correlation with an increased mentees “career satisfaction and a higher rate of promotion” (p. 632). Furthermore, mentors guide the professional activities of their mentees and, hence, could warn them against mistakes. Finally, mentors are a source of psychological assistance for medical students because the former could teach young people how to cope with stress and avoid professional burnout (Henry-Noel et al., 2019). From the written above, it could be inferred that mentorship is an essential instrument that could provide medical students with invaluable assistance in becoming skilled professionals and achieving career success. To some extent, a mentor should be a role model that motivates and inspires to work hard and not give up in the face of adversities.
Educational Preparation, and Prior Work Experiences
Even though mentorship is essential, it does not demolish the significance of education and work experience. What is more, it seems right to say that education and experience are more important than the assistance of a mentor. The sphere of healthcare is not “a field for mile-wide, inch-deep managers” (Guttry, 2012, para. 14). This quotation means that a person who wants to become a healthcare administrator should profoundly understand not only theories of leadership, management, and entrepreneurship but also be familiar with medical technologies, peculiarities of diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. Therefore, this proves that it is impossible to become a decent healthcare manager without comprehensive educational preparation. Besides, it is necessary to note that no matter how fundamental the academic background is, a healthcare manager should never stop developing the already acquired skills and knowledge. It is vitally important to be aware of the latest breakthroughs in the sphere of hospital administration and the entire sphere of healthcare in modern times.
Talking about the role of prior working experience in the career development of healthcare administrators, Lantz (2008) discovers that the salary of administrators usually depends on their working experience. Such a dependence is a fair one because a more experienced worker has more practical knowledge based on real-life situations. However, the prior working experience will be useful only in case when it was retrieved either in the field of nursing or in the field of management. Still, to become a hospital manager, both experienced nurses and experienced administrators should get the proper education. That is because, in the field of healthcare management, medical competency is unapplicable without managerial knowledge and vice versa.
To summarize the part of the essay dedicated to the role of educational preparation and prior working experience, it is necessary to say that these two elements mutually complement one another. It would be challenging for a student with a rich educational background but little working experience to manage a hospital. The same is true for a person with extensive experience in management but little understanding of the issue of treatment and diagnoses. For such a person, the administration of a hospital will be an ordeal because it is impossible to know how to improve medical specialists performance if an administrator is unaware of how they work and what they do.
In recent times, the number of healthcare managers in the area of Consulting and Performance Improvement is growing, and the demand for the services provided by healthcare management consulting companies is gradually increasing. These consulting firms help hospitals and healthcare organizations improve the quality of provided medical care and maximize efficiency. From one point of view, the growth of healthcare managers has a positive impact on the health system because, for hospitals, it became easier to hire a qualified specialist who could help to improve their performance. The study of Lega, Prenestini and Spurgeon (2013) demonstrates the correlation between the health care systems performance and the application of management and leadership practices. From another perspective, the increase in the number of healthcare managers and the growing demand for their services make the healthcare system more expensive. This, in turn, means that the government should allocate a more significant part of the budget to public healthcare, and the patients should pay more for medical services.
To conclude, healthcare administrators are important for improving the quality of treatment provided to patients. At the same time, the growth of healthcare managers implies higher costs for the healthcare system. To become an effective healthcare manager, a medical student should possess a comprehensive educational background as well as working experience. Great assistance for medical students who want to become healthcare administrators could be rendered by mentors who are well-established professionals with suitable personal traits and a willingness to help the young generation of specialists.
References
Guttry, P. (2012). What Health Care Managers Need to Know–and How to Teach Them.Harvard Business School, Working Knowledge. Web.
Henry-Noel, N., Bishop, M., Gwede, C. K., Petkova, E., & Szumacher, E. (2019). Mentorship in medicine and other health professions.Journal of Cancer Education, 34(4), 629-637. Web.
Lantz, P. M. (2008). Gender and leadership in healthcare administration: 21st century progress and challenges. Journal of Healthcare Management, 53(5), 291-301.
Lega, F., Prenestini, A., & Spurgeon, P. (2013). Is management essential to improving the performance and sustainability of health care systems and organizations? A systematic review and a roadmap for future studies.Value in Health, 16(1), S46-S51. Web.