The importance of strategic leadership in Australia's healthcare system

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The last few years have been full of unpredictability and stress on our communities, especially the healthcare system. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented solutions, and healthcare professionals have had to think on their feet to keep society safe and enforce effective strategies.

Australia's healthcare system is not perfect, but we have faced many trials and tribulations due to the fantastic leadership that can be found in local hospitals through to central, and national medical facilities.

If you are considering a career in healthcare or would like to learn how healthcare change and management happens in Australia, here is how strategic leadership is at the centre of that discussion.

Most healthcare leaders will have qualifications in a range of areas related to health and well-being. There are now so many educational institutions where you can study for a degree in Medicine, a Masters in Mental Health or a degree in Nursing.

Having qualifications and training is going to underpin your knowledge so that you can make leadership decisions with strategy and context in the healthcare environment. Healthcare leaders that enter a leadership role without healthcare qualifications and training may find that their business-orientated qualifications and training are not used to their full potential due to the lack of healthcare context.

Almost every healthcare qualification comes with a practical component, requiring students to complete five hundred to one thousand hours of practice in a healthcare setting. What sector they work in may be chosen by their university or they may have a say in the sector they wish to complete within. throughout the real-world experience, these students will be given the experience to actually make strategic decisions.

This is great training for working in the sector, and the strategic decisions may relate to triaging patients, assigning beds and doctors to patients, conducting morning and evening hand-overs and more. The more autonomy the student takes on in these practical settings is only going to shape their strategic leadership skills in the future.

When our healthcare leaders are acting strategically, we have a better chance of creating a fit-for-purpose healthcare system. An example of what this might look like in practice would be for healthcare leaders to compile data that suggests that mental health budget allowance needs to be greater as admitted patients are more often presenting with mental health systems over symptoms related to high budget areas.

They may also work to ask for larger salary allowances so that more doctors and nurses can be on duty in wards that require greater safety and more hands-on due to the nature of the patients being admitted. Oftentimes, it is not as easy as healthcare leaders asking and receiving what they need, but the importance of strategic leadership cannot be understated when considering how law reform works and what federal budgets are handed down.

The importance of strategic leadership in Australia's healthcare system is not only to benefit the healthcare system. It is also about reducing the strain on our society. If decisions are made quickly and without a foundation in the healthcare system, this can have an enormous and detrimental impact on all individuals. If there are not enough nurses and doctors, wait times increase, patients cannot be seen and time spent with patients may also reduce.

When our population is ill and not receiving care, this will have a flow-on effect for employers who have incomplete teams, teachers who are away from school and legal professionals pushing the dates of important hearings. The way our healthcare system runs can control the way our society moves forward, which is why strategic leadership is required.

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Pursuing a leadership role in Australia's healthcare system would be a diverse and extraordinarily interesting career path and one that can have an incredible impact on our communities.

There are also ways you can stay informed of the healthcare system changes, but reading reform bills and annual performance reviews to see what leaders are working towards and what threats may present in the future.