Health Manpower Management

M.A. Taylor

1998 Health Manpower Management

doi: 10.1108/09552069810235861pmid: 10346325

The success of an organisation is measured by the progress its people make towards its goals and objectives. But, most organisations today operate in fast changing and competitive environments. In turn, these unpredictable conditions impact on the organisation’s internal operations. As a result, established skills and competences can become obsolete. Strong and appropriate competences can enhance an organisation’s performance. Strategic managers then need to ensure that their organisational skills and competences remain of an appropriate mix and measure. They need to continuously develop and/or renew the skills and capabilities of their workforce. Identifying what skills need renewing is not easy but very necessary. Identifying them quickly is harder still. An easy to follow framework that can be adapted at the various levels within the organisation’s structure could prove useful as a consistent and relatively speedy format for analysing the organisation’s resources, capabilities and development needs. This paper supports the use of such a framework.

Mike Cooke

1998 Health Manpower Management

doi: 10.1108/09552069810235870pmid: 10346326

The success ofFunctions of primary care groups (PCG) should be considered ahead of structures and those forming PCGs need to see the links between the key health and social policy initiatives. Early influence by PCGs will shape the design and local implementation of health action zones, health improvement programmes and performance frameworks. The Green Paper “Our Healthier Nation” and its successor are central to the emerging role of PCGs. Partnership work between GPs, practice staff, trusts, local authorities and health authorities needs emphasis. Recognition of what people and existing organisations can contribute needs to be given. Leadership themes of good primary care operations, health development and clinical leadership or their equivalents need time and space to emerge.

Gabrielle Atmarow; Adam Brown; Jane Pinder; Edward Renvoize

1998 Health Manpower Management

doi: 10.1108/09552069810235889pmid: 10346327

The success of Health care professionals (nurses, a midwife, a physiotherapist and an occupational therapist) working in a large NHS Trust hospital who had completed the Certificate in Health Education with the support of their employer, were interviewed. The study objectives were to seek their views on the quality of the course, to determine the extent to which participants were able to apply their new found knowledge and skills in the care they provided to patients and the level of support received to allow them to do this. Barriers that prevented staff from routinely applying health education in their work were identified. The findings indicated that the majority found the course content to be good and relevant to their clinical work but they identified lack of time due to the pressure of routine clinical work as the main barrier to the promotion of health education in their clinical area.

Waleed M. Al‐Shakhaa; Mohammed Zairi

1998 Health Manpower Management

doi: 10.1108/09552069810235898pmid: 10346328

The success ofIn recent years, there has been significant interest in the application of continuous quality improvement (CQI) and total quality management (TQM), and patient‐focused care (PFC) in health care organisations around the globe. The hospital industry has substantially embraced the concepts of CQI and TQM with the belief that these concepts and programmes will lead to an improvement in both the quality and efficiency with which health services are delivered. The objective of this article is to achieve better outcomes in health care services with fewer resources by studying the implementation of patient‐focused care in the health care provision context and particularly in the area of pharmaceutical care management as an integrated process in the delivery of health care in a hospital setting. The changes in health care provision have in many instances meant that the provision of pharmaceutical services needed re‐assessing.

Pervaiz K. Ahmed; Lynne Cadenhead

1998 Health Manpower Management

doi: 10.1108/09552069810235906pmid: 10346329

The success ofIn this paper, key changes taking in the development of the UK health sector from the 1940s to the mid‐1990s are briefly sketched. The changes originating from a variety of socio‐economic and political circumstances have largely been responsible for the current shape and position of the NHS. In a forthcoming paper, we will review the status of the NHS under the new Labour Government and examine implications of new changes for the future of the NHS.

Mark Hackett

1998 Health Manpower Management

doi: 10.1108/09552069810239263pmid: 10346330

The success ofThe need to develop a consultant presence on the delivery suite has never been greater given the emerging quality agenda that is occurring within the speciality. This is identifying a clear impetus for changing consultant practice and also meeting the needs of women more effectively. The article describes these trends, the impetus for change and identifies practically how such a change was achieved within the largest women’s hospital in the UK. It defines the basis for building a vision for an improved future and the practical use of management and transformational leadership skills to change consultant behaviour and attitudes with a clear set of outcomes that were achieved.