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Healthcare organizations are increasingly complex and dynamic, making the task of leadership more difficult than ever. Healthcare leaders face near constant electronic communication, public attention to organizational practices, oversight by regulatory bodies, and pressures to generate immediate results. Additionally, many healthcare leaders face the difficult task of balancing needs of staff, physicians and other providers (who many not be employees of the hospital or healthcare organization), patients, and increasingly, parent companies. Consequently, the rate of burnout, turnover, and health problems among leaders is on the rise. The average tenure of hospital CEOs is 3.5 years and more than half of CEO turnovers are involuntary.

There are literally hundreds of different theories and models of leadership. Rather than studying these different theories and models, we will examine leadership from a practical perspective. Across these theories, there is a common set of effective leadership practices. These practices do not encompass everything a leader needs to do to be effective. Nor do these practices address all the nuances of leading different types of people in different healthcare settings. Nonetheless, they represent a foundation for exemplary leadership and if you can master these practices you will be more effective at leading healthcare teams, departments, and organizations.

Leadership in practice is endlessly fascinating. Reading about theories of leadership can be as entertaining as watching paint dry. Therefore, the challenge in this class is learning about leadership in a way that is engaging and insightful. We will use a number of interviews with healthcare leaders to help understand the subtleties of leadership action. We will also use a number of exercises, cases, and reflections to have you experience different elements of effective leadership. The exam, term paper, and other writing assignments will ask you to analyze and reflect, rather than simply memorize and recite.

GRD - Regular Grades A, B, C, D, E

Graduate