References
Understanding an alternative approach to paramedic leadership
Abstract
Overview
Leadership is an essential feature of the life of a paramedic. During incidents, while working with multi-agency colleagues, and within organisations, leadership is an expected quality for paramedics to have. Across health and social care organisations, leadership is said to be of pivotal importance to future success. This has led to a large investment in leadership development programmes that organisations are now seeking to justify. Leadership, as a concept however, is complex and multifaceted. The nature of leadership has been debated over millennia and disagreement remains as to how to define it. The current article uses Critical Interpretive Synthesis to consider how approaches to leadership have developed over time. It concludes with a synthesising argument that leadership is a social construct; as such, no single definition will ever be appropriate. However, the four elements that comprise the leadership equation should be considered if the paramedic leader is to be effective.
After completing this module, the paramedic will be able to:
Leadership is an essential feature of the life of a paramedic. Paramedics will be expected to demonstrate leadership during incidents, while working with multi-agency colleagues and within employing organisations. Simply, leadership (however it is defined) is an expected quality of paramedics—be they in practitioner or management roles.
Leadership is said to be of pivotal importance to the future of health and social care organisations (Darzi, 2008; Ham, 2011). Many authors (e.g. Alimo-Metcalf and Alban-Metcalf, 2006; Vardiman et al, 2006; Anderson et al 2009; Amagoh, 2009; Hotho and Dowling, 2010) have identified that organisations considered to have good leadership are those that thrive, even when times are difficult. Conversely, poor leadership is an often cited reason for organisational failure. As a consequence, the need to develop leadership capacity has been identified as an important issue in organisations across the world. Leadership is, however, a complex multifaceted concept that has been subject to much debate.
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