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Principles of Leadership in Healthcare

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"Leaders are people who are able to express themselves fully…they know who they are, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how to fully deploy their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. They also know what they want, why they want it, and how to communicate what they want to others in order to gain their cooperation and support. Finally they know how to achieve their goals" (Ingram, 2004). Leadership is a difficult task, by which a person impacts others to accomplish an objective. While this is a challenging situation in any field, it is of extreme significance in the healthcare setting, where quality of service, trust, and ultimately people's lives are dependant. In addition, leadership-- whether it be positive or …show more content…

The impaired practitioner should not go unnoticed and it is our obligation to ensure that this doesn't occur. Our responsibility as physician assistants is to protect patients and the public by identifying and assisting impaired colleagues who are unable to practice with reasonable skill and safety to patients. This could include physical or mental illness, due to loss of motor skill, the aging process as well as excessive use or abuse of drugs, including alcohol (American Academy of Physician Assistants, 2000). The impaired colleague also includes one with an infectious disease, such as hepatitis, a physical disability or even inappropriate sexual behavior. In order for physician assistants or any healthcare practitioner to be able to provide quality care to their patients and to maintain a stable working environment with colleagues, one must be able to identify the "red flags" of ineffective leadership. Some examples which are cause to be reported for professional misconduct include practicing fraudulently, practicing with gross incompetence or gross negligence; practicing while impaired by alcohol, drugs, physical disability or mental disability; being convicted of a crime; filing a false report; guaranteeing that treatment will result in a cure; refusing to provide services because of race, creed, color or ethnicity; performing services not authorized by the

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