Leadership Styles to Implement an Initiative of Teaching Children Healthy Eating and Cookery Skills - Article Example

Leadership in the NHS and Leadership styles to implement an initiative of teaching children healthy eating and cookery skills School: Background findings and recommendations Recent studies have pointed out that NHS leaders support the pace-setting styles that are centred on delivering targets, as compared to those aimed at engaging staffs and patients, among other target audience. Addressing the challenge of childhood obesity and poor dietary patterns requires the incorporation of a highly articulated style, where the leaders of NHS offer more priority to the engagement of staffs, patients and other target groups, in this case children. Towards realizing this target, the involvement of nurses and doctors, among other medical personnel at leadership capacity and in leading throughout the organization and the target society is very critical. The case for engagement and leadership is highly attractive, as organizations with higher levels of staff engagement offer better patient services, lower practitioner errors, stronger financial management, higher motivation and moral levels and less stress and absenteeism. Patient engagement and education can improve care outcomes and improve the appropriateness of care The evidence gathered through medical research shows that there is a link between medical engagement and organizational performance: these studies have been done by different organizations and systems, including the NHS. The contribution of medical personnel in service improvement and leadership should be recognised and valued The increasing significance of integrated care and the change in structures calls for leaders to increase their cross-system effectiveness, including the engagement of staffs outside NHS. To realize integrated care, leadership initiatives should congregate leaders from a variety of organizations and professions, from healthcare settings and outside sectors. The role of the leaders of teams in community and hospital settings is crucial in creating a climate that increases the wellbeing of staffs and the improvement of the quality of care. The Leadership Academy and the NHS commissioning board are highly significant in advancing support and modelling the increment of engagement and leadership. Background of the initiative Engagement has grown into a topic of major interest, but is also a field of major influence and significance in fields of practice, including the delivery of care services. In simpler terms, the medical institutions that register higher levels of staff and clinician engagement realize better experiences and outcomes for the patients being served, as well as the target audience of leadership initiatives (Cunningham et al., 2002). The successful realization of the three main challenge areas for the NHS, including improving the quality of care, making billions through gains in productivity and actualizing the reforms set by the government is dependent on the staffs of the NHS. The success of quality improvement initiatives depends on whether NHS staffs adopt the responsibility of designing and managing systems effectively, at their clinics, wards or practices, and whether they have the empowerment to do so (Cornwell, 2012). Towards guaranteeing the success of the child education program on healthy eating and cookery skills, the staffs involved in the program, the NHS and the pilot study hospital will need to rethink the ways in which responsibility and power operate within organizations and teams, as well as throughout the care delivery system (Curtis & O’Connell, 2011). The engagement of staffs and patients, in the current case children, is not an optional extra during the implementation of the initiative, but a vital ingredient in improving the outreach of children. The program will lead to improvements and changes in their health outcomes and lifestyles. Through the engagement of the children visiting the pilot study hospital, their experiences during care delivery will be improved (McMullen & Adobor, 2011). The engagement of the children during the delivery of care will yield outcomes in the improvement of the care delivered and increase the appropriateness of care. The importance of engagement in the delivery of healthy eating and cookery skills classes For medical staffs and patients, engagement enhances the experiences of the different groups, by making them feel empowered, cared for, listened to and respected, which will encourages them to participate in the initiative for the improvement of care delivery. This position is supported by MacLeod & Clarke (2009), who maintained that the improvement in the performance of the two companies that they reviewed, Sainsbury and O2, could be attributed to the transformation of engagement approaches. In the delivery of care, and during the implementation of the program, the lack of engagement for hospital staffs causes burnout, which triggers the development of depression, exhaustion and cynicism. On the other hand, the engagement of staffs leads to improvements in performance levels. West and Dawson (2012) supports this position, by discussing that a study carried out among 2000 Dutch medical staffs found that higher levels of engagement discouraged the commission of mistakes during the delivery of care. In a similar way, Laschinger and Leiter (2006) reported that a study done among 8,000 nursing staffs showed that increased engagement led to an increase in the quality of patient care. The benefits showcased in the improvement of the experience of staffs and the target audience shows that engagement can be highly effective in reaching out to children. Towards encouraging engagement among the medical staffs and the children targeted by the study, West & Dawson (2012) and Mauno & Colleagues (2007) suggests that hospital managers should allow their staffs more autonomy; allow them the flexibility to use different approaches and skills and check the satisfaction levels of employment. This will be realised through offering the staffs support, encouragement and recognition, which is vital in nurturing self-belief, resilience and optimism among hospital staffs (Coulter, 2012). The change initiative will adopt a culture change approach, mainly because the problem of unhealthy eating and lack of dietary control, which increase the vulnerability of children to obesity are socialized by parents, society and learning institutions, among other agents. As such, it will take a culture change model to trigger long-term change. This approach adopts the thinking discussed by Scott et al. (2003), referred as the structural dimension of culture change. This dimension holds that a culture change program is successful, only in the case that it takes account of the nature of the culture to be replaced with another or changed for the better. Public Health England (2014), through the study of more than one million children annually, reported that 2012/13 figures showed that 18.9 percent of the children aged between 10 and 11 years suffered from obesity; an extra 14.4 percent of the children covered by the study were overweight. Among the children between ages 4 and 5, 13 percent were found to be overweight, and an extra 9.3 percent suffered from obesity (Public Health England, 2014). These statistics show that about 33.3 percent of the children between the ages of 10 and 11, and 20 percent of those between the ages of 4 and 5 years were either overweight or suffering from obesity. Further statistics by the “health survey for England” showed that according to the statistics collected in 2012, 28 percent of the children of between 2 and 15 years were either obese or overweight (Public Health England, 2014). Le Billion (2012) gave an account that will be highly informative to the initiative of teaching cookery skills and healthy eating habits, which can address the rising threat of childhood obesity. The emphasis made was that parents are a major contributor to the problem of childhood obesity and part of the solution model that can address the problem (Le Billion, 2012). The causes of childhood obesity in the UK include insufficient physical activity, eating unhealthy foods, poverty, obesogenic chemicals and genetics. The Administration of the initiative The program will be launched at the Queen Elizabeth hospital for children, which is the pilot-phase hospital for the administration of the program. In administrating the initiative, the medical personnel at the hospital will be trained for two weeks, starting from the 7th of April and ending on the 18th of April 2012. After the hospital staffs are trained in the area of child education, paying particular attention to the field of cookery skills, healthy eating and the effects of childhood obesity, the program will begin engaging the target group (children) (Chambers et al., 2011). Throughout the educational phase of the program and also the patient engagement phase of the program, engagement and goal-oriented leadership will be the major areas to be checked by the oversight team. As a doctor and a member of the program oversight team, the initiative will start the child education program by targeting all the children admitted or visiting the hospital, together with their parents (Le Billion, 2012). The children visiting or admitted at the hospital will be educated on the adverse effects of obesity and being overweight, and that will lay the foundation for further education on healthy eating and cookery skills. The adverse effects of obesity to be taught to the children include the psychological problems of discrimination among peers, depression, low self-esteem and anxiety. The physical effects of obesity, to be communicated to the children include higher risks of adult obesity, fatigue and unhealthy sleep. Other effects include increased risk of disability, higher risks of heightened blood pressure, raised metabolic and cholesterol syndrome, risk of type 2 diabetes and premature mortality (Public Health England, 2014a). During the administration of the program, the children, together with their parents, in the cases where they are available, will be offered a one-hour training session on the effects of obesity, cookery skills and healthy eating habits (Le Billion, 2012). The project will use the snowball effect to recruit more children suffering from obesity or overweight, and their parents. Through the snowball recruitment, the project implementers will introduce the program at the neighbouring schools, and where possible offer the classes in other settings, including churches and community halls (Welbourn et al., 2012). After the evaluation of the effectiveness of the pilot stage of the initiative, the project team will review the approach adopted and where necessary reduce or widen the scope of the program. The implications of the engagement initiative Within the scope of the NHS guidance of the implementation of the initiative, engagement will cover the involvement of staffs in the decision-making related to the delivery of care, and encouraging the openness of communication among the different groups. For example, using this outlook, the parents and their children will be engaged in the decision about the best timing of the classes, the scope of the program and the countermeasures to be employed in reducing the present levels of obesity (Salanova and colleagues, 2005). Through the process of engagement, the staffs of the hospital among other stakeholders will be empowered to formulate and communicate ways of delivering safer and better solutions to the problem of obesity. Staff engagement levels will be measured from three dimensions, including involvement, advocacy and psychological engagement. Psychological engagement will be determined from the readiness of the different stakeholders, to participate in the educational initiative (Department of Health, 2011b). Involvement will be measured from the levels, to which the different stakeholders are willing to offer suggestions and improve the work of the team. Advocacy will be measured from the ability of the children and their parents to recommend the program to others (Chambers et al., 2011). The effect of engagement in the delivery of the healthcare initiative West & Dawson (2012) analysed the engagement scores of NHS staffs and discovered that patient experience increased and the quality of care improved after staff engagement levels were increased. The experience of patients is closely related to levels of advocacy, where the groups served at the hospital recommended the institutions for work and treatment. Through the engagement of the children and their parents, the program will be shaped around their preferences and needs, which will empower them with greater choices, influence and control and information (Department of Health 2011). Throughout the administration of the program, the leadership of the initiative will play a vital role in determining the success of the project. The first role is that the leaders will work as the pace-setters to the staffs administering the program (Alimo-Metcalfe & Alban-Metcalfe, 2008). The leadership of the team will be instrumental in the areas of emphasizing collaboration, teamwork, connectedness and eliminating the barriers that become evident, in the way of communication processes (Alimo-Metcalfe, 2012). Through the constant pressure of the leadership team, the status quo will be challenged, innovation will be stimulated and creative entrepreneurialism will be captivated. More importantly, through engagement and the constant communication of the initiative and the approaches adopted, the staffs of the pilot-hospital will be nurtured into program leaders (Lemer, Allwood & Foley, 2012). The leadership recruits will be instrumental during the expansion of the program to cover a wider area of coverage. References Alimo-Metcalfe, B. (2012). Engaging Boards: The relationship between governance and leadership, and improving the quality and safety of patient care. The King’s Fund. Retrieved from: http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/files/kf/engaging-boards-beverly-alimo-metcalfe- leadership-review2012-paper.pdf Alimo-Metcalfe, B., & Alban-Metcalfe, J. (2008). Engaging Leadership: Creating organizations that maximize the potential of their people. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Chambers, N., Pryce, A., Li, Y., & Poljsak, P. (2011). Spot the Difference: A study of boards of high performing organizations in the NHS. 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Retrieved from: http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/files/kf/leadership-whole-systems-welbourn-warwick- carnall-fathers-leadership-review2012-paper.pdf West, M., & Dawson, J. (2012). Employee Engagement and NHS Performance. The King’s Fund. Retrieved from: http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/files/kf/employee-engagement-nhs-performance-west- dawson-leadership-review2012-paper.pdf Read More