Work Life Balance and Its Impact in Healthcare & Medical Industry

Work Life Balance and Its Impact in Healthcare & Medical Industry

1. Introduction

            Work-life balance measures, is a key feature in modern human resource management, and has received significant focus from management, employees, academics, and government. The concept is described as the duration one spends doing his/her job in comparison to the amount of time one spends with his/her family and engaging in the activities that one enjoys. Realizing a work-life balance has been a persistent issue across the world as many employees believe that the work-life balance is a serious issue. With longer working hour due to increased job demands and expanded roles, it is no surprise that burnout, dissatisfaction, and depression are typical health issues and this is alarming. This paper examines work-life balance practices in regards to the value of employee outcomes (work behavior and well-being), perceived monetary value, and the importance of work and life balance in the health care industry. The keen interest is sparked is sparked by worries that a work-life relationship that in not balanced can lead to decreased health outcomes, as well as low performance for an organization, the individual, and his/her family.

2. Learning Style

This section discuses my learning style which I have been using in the course of my studies and unique personality traits through the completion of different self-assessments. One’s learning style is important as it highlights the most effective way through which n individual is able to grasp concepts and ideas taught in the classroom. There are three wide learning styles, including visual, kinesthetic, and auditory. Each style describes a preferred method of getting and processing information to enable learning. Visual leaners prefer; (1) watching demonstrations, reading, charts, diagrams, images, and note taking; (2) talking about the appearance of things, instead of what was stated; (3) short statements and dislike lectures and talks. Auditory leaners like; (1) listening to descriptions, learning by recalling out loud, and speaking; (2) recalling what was said, instead of how they looked or what was done; (3) quiet environments as they are typically distracted by noises. Kinesthetic learners like; (1) learning whilst touching, doing, using or building objects, and writing things down; (2) learning by themselves and breaking things apart to see how they function; (3) to fidget around with things as they do not like to sit still while studying. Overall, the test results highlight that I am largely a visual leaner as this matches my extrovert personality.

2.1 VARK Questionnaire

2.1.1 Description of VARK

VARK is a personality assessment tool that is free-to-use for students and teachers in high schools and higher learning institutions for faculty or student development. VARK informs an individual about him/herself that one may not be familiar with. It can be utilized to understand the personality traits of oneself and those of other people. In particular it is a simple and brief stock taking till that is highly acknowledged since its features are intuitively comprehended and its uses are practical. It has assisted individuals to understand themselves and each other, and helps people to learn more effectively in numerous scenarios.

2.1.2 My VARK Results

After, taking the VARK questionnaire, the following results were derived in regards to my learning strategies.

Table 1: The results of the VARK questionnaire

Overall, the results depict that I have a multimodal learning preference (VAK). Based on this I should apply certain strategies to suit my learning preference, including, visual strategies, aural strategies, and kinesthetic strategies. Visual strategies entail the use of different mediums, colors, fonts, and symbolism to place emphasis on the key points. It is not comprised of pictures and video that show actual images and it is not visual simply because it is displayed on a screen. In aural strategies, information is heard or spoken and the use of queries is a key part of the learning strategy. In Kinesthetic strategies, one uses his/her experiences and the real things even when they are displayed on screens and in pictures. The combination of these strategies show that I am a highly active and dynamic leaner; therefore, I am not particularly suited for the conventional lecture room. To enable my effective learner, I should engage with multimedia forms and practice what I learn in the real world.

3. Personality
   • What Is Personality?

Whereas there are several paradigms of personality, the initial step is to comprehend precisely what the term personality means. The word itself originates form the Latin term persona, which described a theatrical mask that performers wore to either disguise their identities or fit into different roles. A short description is that personality is comprised of the characteristic patterns of behaviors, thoughts, and feelings that make an individual unique. Additionally, personality stems form within a person and generally remains consistent throughout a person’s lifetime.

• Types of Personality Testing Models

1. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and California Psychological Inventory (CPI)

The MMPI and CPI are two inter related tests that were used to examine the personality of job candidates and employees, The MMPI was creates for psychological clinical assessment and is comprised of ten clinical measures. Whereas some of these scales may be suitable to forecasting job performance in a selection technique, others are not. In addition, the items utilized in the MMPI may offend job candidates. Nonetheless, prior to the availability of personality assessments that were commercially available for use in a business environment, companies usually used the MMPI to examine the personality traits of employees and candidates. By applying the psychological notion of the MMPI, the CPI was developed to examine the personality of adults. It examines seventeen discrete different aspects of performance, including empathy, responsibility, sociability, and dominance. The CPI is more suitable for the business environment than the MMPI, but was not developed for commercial use.

2. Five-Factor Model

A different outset of personality is examined in the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, also referred to as the 16PF. It provides scores of 16 discrete personality traits, which includes emotional stability, vigilance, and dominance. These 16 variables can be merged to become 5 global factors of personality. These variables are usually referred to as the Five-Factor Model. Many researchers are in consensus that whereas more than five aspects of personality are present in humans, almost all of them can be grouped into five categories; conscientiousness, openness to experience, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability.

3. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

The Myer-Briggs Type Indicator is a highly popular assessment mainly utilized in companies to build teams and develop managers. It is quite different from the other personality assessments. Instead of capturing the Big five personality traits, the MBTI is developed from the work of Jung and considers four features of personality to develop sixteen discrete types.  The four features of personality are judgement (felling vs. thinking)., perception (intuiting vs. sensing), inclination towards the outer world (judging vs. perceiving), and extraversion (introversion vs. extraversion). The scores across these four features can be merged to develop sixteen discrete types. The scores on every dimension highlight the strength of the aspect; therefore, an individual might be thinking, sensing, perceiving, and introverted., and very robust sensing, but to some degree less robust in thinking.

Whereas other personality assessments are typically applied as a selection measure in a company, the MBTI is best applied for career advancement, team selection, and counselling. Another dissimilarity between the MBTI and other personality assessments is that strengths on the different aspects are all perceived as valuable. Therefore, an individual who is robust in thinking is perceived as skilled as a worker whose strength lies in feeling, but is seen more suited to different kinds of duties and tasks. Even though the MBTI is highly popular among employees and their staff and is utilized in many companies, there not a large body of research that provides evidence of its validity in comparison to other personality assessments. Therefore, it is usually not suggested as a measure for worker selection, instead, it is best fitted for managerial and employee development, along with team-building.

To bridge the gap between health workers and transform the health system, public health officers can begin by referring to the Practical Playbook. The guideline was developed as a resource to facilitate public health officials and clinicians with strategies and tools to reinforce different integrated concepts of enhancing population.  Aside from the Practical Playbook, public health officers can take other measures in the ever-changing health system. First, it is important that officers leverage public health data in a timely manner to assist clinicians tackle chronic diseases (Michener, Koo, Castrucci & Sprague, 2016). Public health officials need to utilize electronic health records in doctor’s offices and be multi-directional. Even though challenges exist, officials have to begin pushing public health forward by utilizing the current data (Michener, Koo, Castrucci & Sprague, 2016). For example, pediatricians are recording weight and height data each time a child makes a visit. Public health official would find such information key in tackling obesity among kids.

Second, public health officials can increase value through the triangulation of provider information with different sets of data like the environment data they are able to access. For instance, the health Extension Offices (HEROs) initiative in New Mexico links the health needs that are of top priority in a community with resources derived from University of New Mexico’s Health Sciences Center to register quantifiable development in health status (Michener, Koo, Castrucci & Sprague, 2016). Such an initiative enables a community to achieve meaningful health milestones like reduction of child mortality rates.

Third, public health IT officials should include public health standards comprising of electronic lab reporting, syndromic surveillance, cancer registries, and immunizations. This enables public health to be at the forefront when all quality measures are discussed for various quality reporting initiatives, which includes reports for accountable care organizations (Michener, Koo, Castrucci & Sprague, 2016). Officials need to reason in terms of health objectives they want to accomplish to enable them to decide how to achieve them; part of this involves data sharing. Public health officials need both a holistic view of what they want to achieve, along with technology.

Developing and Sustaining Cross Sector Partnerships

In recent years, cross-sector partnerships among health care discplines have exceedingly developed into a recognized concept in public health, especially in measures to contain infectious illness in middle and low-income nations. Today, they are becoming a common method in measures to prevent and decrease obesity and the pandemic of non-communicable illness. Partnerships among health professionals facilitates a way of obtaining resources, and chances to impact the public to engage in healthy activities (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2016). Collaboration is a key tenet in the practice of public health; nonetheless, cross-sector partnerships brings about challenges and risks that need to be taken into account. To overcome these issues, there are certain measures that health professionals can take.

First, officials should set the paradigm and objectives behind the partnership. The paradigm is the perspective of the framework, the level which facilitates the framework’s objectives, parameters, guidelines, and interruptions (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2016). In the health sector, paradigms toward collaboration have been determined both negative experiences (For example, the problem of misdiagnoses) and positive changes (for example, collaborating with the pharmaceutical sector to develop and supply effective vaccines). Clear enunciation of objectives is key for realizing achievements and creating responsibility (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2016). Nonetheless, alignment of objectives at the wider sectoral level creates a significant probability for conflict. Therefore, it is helpful that official examine partnerships in the setting of alignment of welfares (that is, developing perquisites for ideal population health, amassing income to meet the demand of stakeholders, among other things) instead of short-term objectives.

Second, health professionals should consider conflict of interest (COI). COI manifests itself in various ways that range from merging of interests to actual and perceived COI (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2016). To prevent probable COI when collaborating with an enterprise that operates within the medical sector, professionals should only collaborate when the private entity does not have any contribution into the content of the program, and is restricted from labeling material, to prevent promotional campaigns aimed at patients; this will make the collaboration meaningful.

Lastly, public health officials should engage in constant monitoring and evaluation. Developing trust among cross-sector partners before and during the partnership can be enhanced through improved monitoring and evaluation; both tolls facilitate key feedback to guide decision-making (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2016). Closer surveillance and monitoring of industry trends, voluntary pledges, and compliance with standards is essential to develop confidence and assist participants examine the appropriateness of associates.

Overall, the development of rigorous ways of examining cross sector partnerships will prove hard in the present environment in which professionals have showcased no universal comprehension of what such partnerships entail despite having much enthusiasm for them. More work must be done to create increased demand for reteach and consistency in this sector. Public health officials should be at the forefront of this push towards more cross-sector partnerships since they enable the improvement of population health.