Role And Hiring Organisation: Townsville Hospital And Health Service Assessment Answer

Answer :

Director of Nursing/ Facility Manager

In

Townsville Hospital and Health Service (HHS)

1. Application Plan

A detailed background research about the role and hiring organisation was done to demonstrate the interest in the job role. It was also necessary to know about the background of Townsville Hospital and Health Service (HHS) to better understand the values and mission of the organisation and the context in which they operate. Apart from the research on company background, the application plan also includes a comparative discussion of the job selection criteria with various leadership theories and strategic management skills (Pain et al. 2015). Literature review on the best nursing practices has been provided as well to demonstrate the ability of a successful applicant. Additionally, a career pathway map has also been provided for developing the skills, knowledge and experience for the job role of director of nursing/ facility manager.

a) Background Overview of Townsville Hospital and Health Service (HHS)

The Townsville Hospital and Health Service (HHS) is one of the public hospitals under the Queensland Health, the state’s public health system. It is one of the 16 hospitals operating under the Queensland Health Department with many branches of its own to take care of people across multiple areas. The Townsville HHS has a wide network of public hospitals and other health services that support more than 670,000 people across Queensland. The base of the health service is in Townsville, although the tertiary referral services stretch from Mackay to the Torres Strait. Currently, the Townsville HHS is looking for eligible candidates for the job role of Director of Nursing/ Facility Manager, which is a permanent full-time job in their Eventide Residential Aged Care Facility and the Rural Hospitals Service Group (Office of the Information Commissioner Queensland 2019). There are several duties, responsibilities and accountabilities associated with the job position, which would be later discussed in the application plan. The brief research on the company overview helps to demonstrate the interest of the applicant for the desired job role and how much they are aware of the values of the organisation. The mission, values and context of the operation of Townsville HHS have been described below. 

The mission of the Organization: The Townsville HHS is committed to creating a healthier North Queensland through their wide range of health services. Being the largest employer in the region, Townsville HHS strives to be a proud part of the community that they serve. 

Values of the Organization: Although the people working for Townsville are separated across Queensland, they are united in terms of working and this motivates them for providing quality frontline healthcare services and plans to strengthen the overall public health system in Queensland (Office of the Information Commissioner Queensland 2019). The partners and staff members of Townsville HHS are proud and passionate about making a difference in society and work collaboratively towards providing exceptional service by considering them personal. The quality that sets apart Townsville HHS from other healthcare services is their collaborative effort in creating a healthier North Queensland. 

Context of Operation: Townsville HHS is able to meet the needs of the people in northern Queensland Community through their experienced staff members and well-equipped facilities. The health organisation faces several unique challenges due to its cultural diversity. However, they strive towards an innovative culture capable of attracting world-class talents by working together against the challenges to create better opportunities for the people of Townsville.  

b) Comparison of Selection Criteria with Leadership Theory, Strategic Management and Formal Health Leadership Frameworks

In this section of the application plan, leadership theories, strategic management and formal health leadership frameworks will be discussed and compared with the selection criteria of the job role. This comparative study is necessary to determine whether the job applicant is suitable for the job role or not.

Leadership Theory

The job position of Director of Nursing or Facility Manager requires a great deal of leadership traits from the eligible candidate in order to handle and manage the clinical, financial and human resource duties and responsibilities (Lunden et al. 2017). There are several leadership theories that are applicable in such a clinical scenario and should be implemented by the candidate for doing justice to the specified job role (Appendix). One such leadership approach is the creative nursing leadership style which can be effective in managing and organising the subordinates working under the director. The success of a health organisation is often largely dependant on leadership factors. It is necessary to use the knowledge and problem-solving skills to find creative solutions in certain healthcare situations (Scully 2015). The creative leadership style involves imitating the healthcare system already in effect while also inventing and using new solutions to certain clinical challenges with the help of skill and imagination and application of appropriate concepts and theories. The creative nursing leadership style consists of multiple forms and theories of leadership, which can be applied based on the situational need. The need for creative leadership in nursing is because of the environmental trends and as nursing situations get complicated, so does the process of being a leader. Moreover, there are multiple healthcare trends that a creative nursing leader should be aware of like focus on quality, advances in information technology, growth in service-based organisations and globalisation. In real-life scenarios, leadership and management roles are often intertwined; however, it is necessary to assess the leadership theories appropriate for the desired job role. One of the essential leadership theories is the trait theory of leadership that states that some people are born with inherited traits that suit their leadership qualities. People who are right for a specific leadership role often have the right combination of such traits (Fitzpatrick & McCarthy 2014). Staying calm under pressure or owning up to errors of judgement are some these traits. On the contrary to this leadership theory, is the behavioural theory that assumes that leaders can be made and not gained from birth. This theory focuses more on actions leaders instead of looking for their inborn traits. This opens up the possibility for anyone who wants to be a leader by following the actions that result in becoming a great leader. Another similar leadership theory is the role theory that states that a leader should define the roles for themselves as well as others and encourage them to act upon those set roles (Dickson et al. 2014). The behaviour and expectations of these defined roles are based on formal and informal information about leadership values like modelling, training and culture. The applicant for the job role should try to adopt one or a combination of these leadership roles to demonstrate his eligibility for the job role. 

Formal Health Leadership Frameworks

The Australian formal health leadership framework provides a leadership style that is equitable, sustainable and effective in a people-focused health system. This framework consists of 5 essential leadership factors that determine its success. Each of these factors has discussed briefly below. 

Leads Self: Under this factor, the health leaders are self-aware and knows their own strengths and limitations. They also commit to self-reflection for future improvement. Leaders in this framework seek and use opportunities for personal development and have a strong sense of character (Fitzpatrick & McCarthy 2014). They also display traits like social skills, empathy and motivation, which are necessary for nursing. 

Engage Others: This factor of the health leader framework allows leaders to make sense of complex situations and help other people to engage in their goals and visions through explanations (Fitzpatrick & McCarthy 2014). They are capable of modelling cultural responsiveness and values diversity above all. They also communicate with others with respect and honesty and strengthens their colleagues and customers.

Achieve Outcomes: This framework factor helps health leaders influence others and communicate a specific direction to them (Fitzpatrick & McCarthy 2014). They are highly focused and goal-oriented and often inspires and motivate others with effort and energy. It also allows them to be accountable for results and is capable of evaluating progress.

Drives Innovation: This framework factor allows health leader to support the need for improvement and innovation. The leader prefers changes for improved quality of service. Most leaders under this framework factor contribute to the job positively and help spread innovative practices in the workplace. 

Shapes System: As health is a complex evolving system, the funding, legislation and services are all interconnected. For this reason, leaders operating under this framework understand the need for systems thinking and successfully apply them (Daly et al., 2015). It is also in their nature to engage and partner with the communities and customers to determine better health policy training and education for nursing staff. They also focus strongly on building alliances between different groups and professions so that an effective and collaborative effort can be made that enhance connectivity.

This formal health leadership framework is useful to determine the traits and actions that a leader should pursue to stand out as a capable leader which is necessary for the job role. The applicant of the job role should be well versed in this framework and incorporate in their professional field to do justice to the job role.

Strategic Management

Strategic management is necessary for an organisation for several reasons which help them to maintain a competitive advantage over other organisation. The purpose of strategic management includes establishing goals, environmental scan, setting a target, knowing the market competition, development of action plan and evaluation of success. All these factors together contribute to a competitive advantage over other similar enterprises. In the health care industry, issues like value-based purchasing programs and consumer assessment make strategic management such an essential part for the success of the organisation (Ginter et al. 2018). The two basic aspects of strategic management are strategic planning and its implementation. The purposes served by strategic planning are developing a blueprint for operating the business, ensuring customer satisfaction, establishing a competitive position and achieving the set goals and objectives of the organisation. However, strategic management is confined to the macro level of the organisation, which is the executive level in case of the health care industry. In return, the micro-level is also benefitted from it like the various departments and units and nursing division. In simpler terms, strategic management helps to prepare the nurses with health care environment and thus is essential for achieving their goals and objectives in the workplace. 

Comparison with Selection Criteria

Now that the strategic management, leadership theories and health leadership framework has been discussed, it is necessary to make a comparative study of these with the selection criteria for the role of Director of Nursing or Facility Manager. This job position will be responsible and accountable for the management and leadership of the Eventide Residential Aged Care Facility under Townsville HHS. It is the duty of the Director of Nursing to ensure the provision of quality and contemporary residential care in the chosen unit. Other duties include service development, leadership, decision-making, innovation and excellence in the provision of service delivery and care to the residents of the Aged Care Facility. The daily clinical, financial and human resource management needs would be the responsibility of the job position. The director of nursing is also accountable for providing effective strategic leadership, coordination and operational management in the Aged Care Facility. Furthermore, the implementation of clinical governance and corporate frameworks and strategies should be performed by the desired job position (Tuan 2015). These tasks ensure safe, culturally competent, effective and high-quality services in the healthcare facility.  From an operational point of view, the job position reports to the service group director of the Rural Hospitals Service Group. However, from a professional point of view, this position should report directly to the executive director of nursing and midwifery services. The organisational chart provides the responsibilities and accountabilities of the designated position, and as per the Townsville HHS delegations manual, the financial and human resource delegation is also assigned to this position. Hence, by comparing the selection criteria and leadership theories and strategic management, it can be determined if the applicant of the job role is eligible for the position or not.

c) Responses for Selection criteria

The director of nursing is a responsible position of the Eventide Residential Aged Care Facility. The responsibility of the director is to maintain order and smoothness in the organisational framework efficiently. However, the outlines of the responsibilities cannot be specifically determined due to the variation of the nature of the work. The primary duties include a deep understanding of the clinical procedures and set up of the industry. This would enable the director to operate and manage the aged care home properly. When a director understands the roles and contributions of various employees associated with the work, the decisions which are taken by the director of the care facility would be more contextual and effective (Barnard, Hou & Lukin 2016). The responsibilities of the employees would also be better-distributed aa an innate understanding of the mechanism would offer insights into the skills required to complete the task in time. The best practice can be utilised by the director of the old-age care facility to efficiently manage and use the framework which has been formulated after a comprehensive analysis of the requirements by the government of the country. The best practice for aged care includes Quality of Care Amendment Principles of 2018, which has been divisive in providing the best possible care to the old age people (Agedcare 2019). There are eight standards which have been included in the principle to augment the care facility. The need for consideration is one of the biggest responsibility of the director of the Eventide Residential Aged Care Facility. However, the responsibilities are not limited by the framework, and diverse abilities and skills are required by the director in order to function properly.  

The best practice of the director can be divided into several parts such as administration, financial services, employee management and many other which can offer the possibility of effectively carrying out the duties of the office. The administrative duties of the director include the daily maintenance of the tasks to be performed by the facility in order to provide the best services to the old age people. It includes proper medication procedure, helping old people in their homes, clinical procedures and many more. The director of the facility would be responsible for attesting to the proven and standard practice procedures being applied while dealing with older people. Hence the director must maintain a tight oversight of the practices being employed by the employees of the facility. Since the knowledge of best practice can only be gained through proper experience, the director must be well versed in the clinical terminologies and procedures to understand any deviance from the best practice by the employees (Brown & Crookes 2016) The financial resources of the facility must also be managed effectively by the director so that the resources are allocated to the people who are in need and also benefit optimisation of the structural framework. It comes under the responsibility of the director to make difficult financial decisions regarding the growth and sustainability of the facility to continue providing services. The director must have a vision for the facility and would work to achieve the aims and objectives which has been set by the facility through proper management of the employees as well. Although the employees of the facility are experienced in the clinical and medical procedures, the driver of the director would serve as a beacon to follow and achieve the required targets. The leadership abilities of the manager come into play in this regard as the director must be able to lead a considerable collection of employees towards a common goal by instruction or through motivation. The recruitment of the employees are also subjected to the vision of the future, and hence proper recruitment guidance should be provided to the human resource department of the facility to recruit employees who are able to contribute for the growth of the facility while it is impossible for the director to personally vet every employee, proper instruction from the director cancer as a guide to follow. Aside from them, the employee engagement it is a huge responsibility as the director of the facility needs to continuously motivate and co-ordinate with the employees to know of their problems and difficulties while disposing of the duties. This method of getting to know the problems through feedback ok or correspondence would effectively formulate a professional relationship which can be leveraged to motivate the employees to perform better. The feedback mechanism employed by the director and analysed for improving the organisational work behaviour. The attitude and behaviour of the director also often influences the work culture, and so the character of the director must be justified to induce proper ethics in the work environment. 

It can be definitely said that the duties and responsibilities of the office for being a director is not limited by the outlined responsibilities but can take personal initiatives to improve the overall dispensing of the duties. The justified judgement of the director would be relied on in tricky situations where the strategies are driven by logic and nursing experience. Although a framework serves as a basic reminder and crosses referencing for the responsibilities to be carried out as the director of the facility, it is not absolute and should be used in conjunction with personal judgement for an efficient system which can help the facility to grow. The minimum required qualification of being a bachelor in nursing would provide the knowledge required for performing the duties while nuances of operational efficiency should be picked up along the way (Parker & Hill 2017). It is absolutely expected of a director of the facility to be fear and free from any bias in the treatment of the employees while discerning abilities and skills required must always be exhibited through exemplary actions for the employees to emulate. The particulars being decided to factor in the circumstances and the present situation at work. As a Director, the communication skills in addition to the medical expertise is also required to delegate the work and conversation with the employees of the facility. The first and foremost duty of the director, however, is to offer best possible healthcare services to the old age people through optimally managing the resources and taking strategic decisions in order to propel the facility into recognition. 

d) Mapping Out Career Pathway for This Job Role

Career mapping or pathing is a way companies develop their employees to achieve future organisational goals while benefitting the company along the way. This provides a clear criterion for the advancement of the employee by putting forward the personality profiles, formal education requirements and leadership capabilities and qualities. For the job position of Director of Nursing/ Facility Manager, there are some mandatory qualifications, professional registration and leadership requirements that should be fulfilled by the applicant for the job before he can be hired for the position (Chan et al. 2014). From the applicant’s perspective, the career pathway mapping has been provided below that would make him eligible for the designated job position.

Figure 1: Career pathway map

Source: Created by author

Leadership Traits: As the designated position requires excellent leadership qualities to manage the clinical, financial and human resource management in Eventide Residential Aged Care Facility, the applicant should have leadership traits, skills and experience (QuatriniCarvalhoPassosGuimarães et al. 2016). As a registered nurse and well versed in leadership theories, I have gained the knowledge and skills to manage the clinical and financial requirements in the workplace properly. I also plan to apply creative leadership style with a combination of multiple leadership theories to make decisions in a complex situation and provide innovative solutions to health care problems. 

Vaccination Against Preventable Diseases: As a health care worker in Queensland Health, there is a potential risk of exposure to bodily fluids or blood of patients and getting infected in the process. However, I have evidence and proof for my vaccination against diseases like measles, mumps, rubella, varicella and pertussis as per the Queensland Health policy. Hence, I am not susceptible to any such diseases and can apply for the designated job role of Director of Nursing or Facility Manager. 

Nursing: I also have a current practising certificate as a registered nurse and can provide proof of qualification and registration of RN from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). I will be able to provide the necessary certified copies of the required information to the appropriate manager or supervisor during the commencement of clinical duties which make me eligible for the designated job role (Veenema et al. 2017). My qualification includes Bachelor of Nursing and Register Nurse Certification, which is my proof for my educational qualification. Apart from these, I also have an experience certificate from a senior aged care leadership in a management role when I used to work in Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Hospital is South Queensland. I was a nurse supervisor there which has provided me with the necessary skills and experience to manage clinical and human resource requirements. I also have an MSc in Clinical Nursing and Midwifery, which would help me to work in the Aged Care Facility in Townsville. 

Aged Care Pre-Employment Screening: As I would be working in an Aged Care Facility, according to Section 63-1A of the Aged Care Act 1997, I possess a National Police Certificate which is mandatory for the designated job position. This police certificate is necessary for all volunteers and employees of the aged care as it is necessary to be patient when working with elderly people (Webb et al. 2017). For this reason, I have already acquired this certificate to become eligible for the job position.

Travel & Driver License: The job position requires driving of class C motor vehicles and travel to work in other facilities across Townsville HHS. Even travel by plane and ferry might also be necessary for job purposes. I have an active driving license for class C vehicle, and I am also accustomed to traveling by plane and ferry, which make me aware of the job requirements. 

On-Call: Apart from working the Aged Care Facility, I am also willing to participate in an on-call roster as well, which is sometimes needed in this line of work. 

2. Response to ‘Question on Notice': "What do you think will be likely impact of the Royal Commission into aged care quality and safety on this role? How can you prepare for this?" 

The royal commission is the most powerful government inquiry panel used to examine matters of serious public importance. Established in October 2018, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety can have a great impact on this designated job role. Their responsibilities include looking at a wide range of issues in the aged care sector based on the framework of terms of reference (National Seniors Australia 2019). They also ensure if the aged care is receiving high-quality services or not and any shortcomings might affect the accountable or responsible people in charge of health care facilities. As the Director of Nursing is accountable for all provisions of services and management of clinical, financial and human resource management in Townsville HHS, it is necessary to perform the duties and tasks with highest dedication and integrity to make a good reputation of Townsville HHS in the April 2020 report of the Royal Commission.

However, there are ways that I can prepare for this role and use my knowledge and experience to stand out as the ideal applicant for the job role. I have the ability to demonstrate expert and comprehensive knowledge and operative practice of contemporary aged care which I gained from my past experience when working in South Queensland. I am well accustomed to the Aged Care Funding Instrument and Aged Care Standards as well as in quality improvement frameworks and risk management. I also possess the ability to be fiscally accountable for material, financial and human resource management when working in a complex Residential Aged Care Facility environment. With the ability to identify key performance indicators and expert leadership qualities, sustainable change management and service planning, I am well prepared to meet the standards set by the Royal Commission. I can also use clinical information and IT to support my decision-making process to develop efficient and effective nursing practices and systems. All these qualities, skills and experiences would help me to deal with the criteria of the Royal Commission and also prepare for the designated job role.