course materials

1. Assignment: Public Health Leadership project
Assignment: Public Health Leadership project ON Assignment: Public Health Leadership
projectFor this Project Assignment, you complete another part of your Public Health
Leadership Theory based upon your understanding of leadership perspectives you have
reviewed in this course. In addition, you must use a systems thinking approach in the
development of your visual representation of your personal Public Health Leadership
Theory. As you post your visual representation, you may find using a computer scanner
helpful in scanning your image and attaching it to your post.The Assignment (3–4
pages):This week you will provide a visual representation of your public health leadership
theory. It can be a table, schematic diagram, graph, or any other representation you choose.
Please feel free to be creative. However, the focus MUST be on leadership. Be sure to
provide a narrative explanation that shows how the developed theory can close the “gap”
identified in the first part of the project. Additionally explain how it incorporates system
thinking. Remember your theory can be based on those that we have learned about or your
own. There is no wrong theory. What matters is the explanation of how it addresses the gap
and uses system thinking. While this doesn’t have to be addressed now, keep in mind the
last part of the project will involve presenting a methodology that tests the developed
theory empirically. Let’s help one another with the project. Post your questions and
thoughts in the “Contact the Instructor” area. Please feel free to weigh in on your colleagues
comments. Assignment: Public Health Leadership projectapp5tcherry.docUnformatted
Attachment PreviewPUBH 8400: Leadership and System Thinking Tamillia Cherry Summer
Quarter Dr. Susan Nyanzi Walden University July 2, 2017 Introduction Public health is
generally about protecting the health and wellbeing of communities as well as improving
the communities through disease prevention, education, and public policy development
(Ham, 2003). Public health leadership is, therefore, one of the most critical areas in public
health since it helps in fostering community health by promoting practices aimed at
enhancing public health. There are several common trends in public health leadership
today, and healthy public leaders must be well prepared to deal with issues of the public
within any given context. Developing excellent leadership skills is therefore vital in dealing
with some common trends that are affecting public health today (Ham, 2003). Public health
leaders have an important role to play considering the current and future changes in the
field of health care. The changes create opportunities and challenges to public health
leaders and may impact either positively or negatively in the future health of communities.
Some of the common trends that create challenges to public health leaders include aging of

2. the population, the changing healthcare needs of individuals, changing patterns in the racial
composition with varied healthcare needs, changes in healthcare delivery systems, evolving
needs in public health workforce, and an explosion of emerging healthcare technologies
(Ham, 2003). Assignment: Public Health Leadership projectThis literature review will,
therefore, focus on evaluating public health leadership in regards to the changing healthcare
needs of individuals Problem statement The healthcare delivery system has undergone a lot
of changes, and the public health leaders are required to champion the changes by
integrating such changes within the context of public leadership. These changes may not
favor public health leaders since some changes are centered on systems and technology that
public health leaders may not be able to have the required skills and expertise to foster or
adopt within the public health system. The changes in the delivery system are aimed at
taking and meeting the changing healthcare needs of individuals. These evolving needs
similarly create a challenge to the public health leaders as they are required to provide
health services tailored to the varied needs of people. Literature review Lukas et al. (2007)
in their article titled ‘transformational change in healthcare delivery system” argues that
five key elements are critical for successful transformation of patient care within the public
health system. One of the five elements mentioned in the article is leadership commitment
to quality. From their perspective, effective leadership in the public health is the ability of a
public health leader achieves consistency in meeting the changing needs of patients by
aligning the organizational goals with the overall evolving needs of patients. The five
elements mentioned by Lukas et al. (2007) in the article drive change within the public
health system by establishing a leadership culture that reflects the changing needs of
patients and the healthcare delivery system in general. Assignment: Public Health
Leadership projectHealthcare professionals and public health leaders can comprehensively
conceptualize readiness for change in the public health system. Halt et al. (2010) defines
readiness for change within the public health system as the degree of preparation to which
the participants are collectively and individually prepared and motivated to embrace the
change. In this regard, public health leaders must be ready to deal with the challenges of the
changing needs of patients within the public health system. Halt et al. (2010) states that
leaders in health care delivery systems are faced with the challenge of implementing the
various changes in health care practice and delivery system. The argument raised by these
researchers is that public health leaders should embrace a readiness to implement the
various changes within the healthcare system that created both opportunities and
challenges to them. Hartley & Benington, (2011) evaluates the recent trends in leadership,
thinking, and action, in their analysis; they argue that public health leadership is a dynamic
response that focuses on embracing the health care needs of communities. In their
argument, leadership is a framework that integrates the values of communities through
assessing the trends and changing healthcare needs of communities in general. The two
centers their leadership argument on Warwick 6 C leadership framework. The structure,
therefore, provides a guide to public health leaders by allowing them to view the changing
needs health care needs of communities not as a burden but as an opportunity to implement
the various changes in the health care delivery system that can help in meeting the
emerging shifts in the health needs of communities. Ham (2003) focuses on improving the

3. performance of health services through effective clinical health leadership within the public
health. Public health leaders thus have the sole responsibility for ensuring quality and
reliable healthcare within the public health care system. Assignment: Public Health
Leadership projectImprovement of performance in the health care system first and
foremost require effective leadership that stems from both clinical and the entire public
health care system as noted by Ham (2003). Within the context of the public healthcare
system, reforms based on ideas such as managed competition and integrated care must be
embraced to meet the changing needs of patients within the healthcare environment. As
noted by Rowitz (2013), public health leadership functions across the organization and in
this case, trans-organizational skills are critical in fostering effective change within the
healthcare delivery system. In his perspective, he notes that public health leaders practice
their public health leadership within a community setting and in this case, they are tasked
with a role of validating community values that promote the changing needs in health
among communities. Public health leaders must, therefore, commit to lifelong learning that
appreciates the values of community health and promotes ways to handle the changing
healthcare needs of communities. Rowitz (2013) provides new insight into the
understanding of changing healthcare needs of communities and the various leadership
competencies that leaders must adopt to foster effective healthcare outcomes within the
context of community health. Public health leaders must be leaders regardless of the
realities they face in the course of their work. They must make a well-informed decision of
shaping the healthcare system and embracing the health care needs of communities. Plochg,
Klazinga, & Starfield, (2009) notes that professional organizations and health systems no
longer reflects the changing healthcare needs of individuals within communities. The
evolution of needs is caused by the growing number of complex and chronically ill patients.
It is, therefore, necessary for the key stakeholders of to initiate fundamental changes aimed
at integrating the changing needs of patients within the community public health system.
They proceed to note that the medical health leaders supported by health policy makers can
initiate programs aimed at fostering effective health outcome in communities. Assignment:
Public Health Leadership projectThis is done through defining and categorizing the health
needs of communities and organizing specialty domains around the needs of the population
so as to ensure that the health care system meets the needs of the community. Epping-
Jordan et al. (2004) on the other hand notes that chronic conditions are increasingly
becoming community health challenge for public health leaders. It is a primary concern for
public health leaders throughout the world. In response to this overarching challenge, the
WHO has proposed a chronic care model that aims at expanding the community and policy
aspects so as to improve healthcare and chronic conditions of individuals (Epping-Jordan et
al., 2004). In a bid to foster effective intervention for a chronic condition in community
health, Koh & Jacobson (2009) notes that the enormous challenge lies beyond the control of
any single authority but rather combined effort centered on effective leadership as well as
broad societal level changes. The changing health care needs are thus as a result of the
emerging nature of chronic health conditions that limit the capacity of the current health
care system. Popescu & Predescu, (2016) thus proposes a functional leadership and
governance in public health that embraces the need to change the tactics of dealing with

4. these challenges. Popescu & Predescu, (2016) argues that public health leaders should be
centered on the health care needs of the population. Health care leaders should, therefore,
focus their leadership on delivering health care services that embrace the various
healthcare challenges brought about by the emerging chronic health conditions.
Assignment: Public Health Leadership projectThe two proposes necessary skills and
abilities that are required of public health leaders in satisfying the health care needs of
individuals within communities. In conclusion, Saleh, Williams & Balougan, (2004) notes
that the context of public health requires strong leadership that can enable the public health
leader to respond to the changing needs of individuals. There several threats that are
increasingly posing challenges to patients and thus prompting them to change their
healthcare needs. In this regard, health organization must be ready to foster effective public
health leadership that can enable public health leaders to respond more efficiently to the
changing health care needs of communities. Reference Epping-Jordan, J. E., Pruitt, S. D.,
Bengoa, R., & Wagner, E. H. (2004). Improving the quality of health care for chronic
conditions. Quality and safety in health care, 13(4), 299-305. Ham, C. (2003). Improving the
performance of health services: the role of clinical leadership. The Lancet, 361(9373), 1978-
1980. Hartley, J., & Benington, J. (2011). Recent trends in leadership thinking and action in
the public and voluntary service sectors. London: The King’s Fund. Holt, D. T., Helfrich, C. D.,
Hall, C. G., & Weiner, B. J. (2010). Are you ready? How health professionals can
comprehensively conceptualize readiness for change. Journal of general internal medicine,
25, 50-55. Koh, H. K., & Jacobson, M. (2009). Fostering public health leadership. Journal of
public health, 31(2), 199-201. Lukas, C. V., Holmes, S. K., Cohen, A. B., Restuccia, J., Cramer, I.
E., Shwartz, M., & Charns, M. P. (2007). Transformational change in health care systems: an
organizational model. Health care management review, 32(4), 309-320. Plochg, T., Klazinga,
N. S., & Starfield, B. (2009). Transforming medical professionalism to fit changing health
needs. BMC medicine, 7(1), 64. Popescu, G. H., & Predescu, V. (2016). The role of leadership
in public health. American Journal of Medical Research, 3(1), 273-273. Rowitz, L. (2013).
Public health leadership. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Saleh, S. S., Williams, D., & Balougan, M.
(2004). Evaluating the effectiveness of public health leadership training: the NEPHLI
experience. American journal of public health, 94(7), 12451249. … Assignment: Public
Health Leadership project