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Leadership in Practice

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME
TO PHARMACIST AND
PHARMACIST SDTUDENT
TRAINING SATISFACTIONIN
GENERAL HOSPITAL
For Assignment or Dissertation Help, Please
Contact:
Muhammad Sajid Saeed
+44 141 4045137
Email:
todrsaeed@gmail.com
Skype ID: tosajidsaeed

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Leadership in Practice

Table of Contents
1.

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND...................................................................................2

1.1

PROBLEM CONTEXT AND STUDY RATIONALE...........................................................2

1.2.

AIM AND OBJECTIVES......................................................................................................4

1.3.

REPORT STRUCTURE........................................................................................................4

2.

STRATEGIES AND TACTICS.....................................................................................................4

3.

EVALUATION OF STRATEGIC PLAN.......................................................................................7

4.

DISSEMINATION PLAN.............................................................................................................8

5.

SUMMARY...................................................................................................................................9

REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................10
APPENDIX I.......................................................................................................................................12

Leadership in Practice

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

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1.

The leading role of pharmacists in hospitals is the subject of growing interest. Today,
pharmacists are more involved in the delivery of care alongside nursing and medical staff to
make sure that patients are receiving appropriate treatments and medicines. Their advisory
roles cover several areas such as selection and dose of medicine, administration for individual
patients, ensuring the compatibility of new medicines with present medication, and constantly
monitoring the impacts of medication and treatment to avoid ambiguities (Stone and Curtis,
2002). Pharmacists also provide special advice to patients suffering from diseases by taking
into account the medical history, lifestyle, patients belief, and other factors that may have
relation with the particular condition. Furthermore the pharmacists give advice on appropriate
medication, regular checkups, dosage, exercises, and therapy (Grabenstein, 1998).
Apart from advisory roles, pharmacists also play an important role in manufacturing,
purchasing, distributing, and supplying medicines (Chambliss et al. 2012). Also, quality
assurance, radiotherapy, pharmacist student training and education, and clinical trials are the
specialised areas where pharmacists perform their roles adequately. In these days, many
pharmacists are assigned management and team working responsibilities in order to monitor
and control overall operations of the hospitals. The management activities normally include:
preparing and controlling budgets for medicines, healthcare staff training, ensuring
teamwork, promoting timely and effective communication, motivating staff, and negotiating
with patients and other stakeholders (Hudson et al. 2007). In order to perform these roles,
they close work with pharmacy assistants, technicians, and students who are for training
purposes.

1.1 PROBLEM CONTEXT AND STUDY RATIONALE

I am the Chief of the pharmacy department at Abu Arish General Hospital in Saudi Arabia.
The pharmacy department of my hospital is usually opened 24/7 and managed by more than
70 employees including technicians and pharmacists. Most of the staff is local but there are
also some people from different ethnic backgrounds. Whilst supervising all activities in the
department as chief, I noticed several problems in carrying out day-to-day operations
associated with staff communication, teamwork, patient satisfaction, and most importantly
student training.

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Many issues are also evident in the literature that general hospitals in Saudi Arabia are facing
generally. For example, Al-Dhawailie (2011a) indicates nearly 7% mistakes in 1580
medication orders in one of the leading university teaching hospital i.e. King Khalid
University Hospital in Riyadh during 2010. Most of the errors detected due to wrong
administration, lack of communication, and wrong strength of the prescribed drug. In
addition, the errors like an inadequate dose (12%), wrong patient (4%), improper frequency
(23%), and wrong drug (10%) are encountered due to lack of knowledge and skills of the
responsible staff.
In another study Al-Dhawailie (2011b) highlights the fact that the control of intravenous
medication in teaching hospitals of Saudi Arabia is inadequate due to: lack of pharmacist
students training, lack of control over operations, and medication discontinuation. Due to this
problem, 77% antibiotics preparation are not utilised and thus wasted.
Al-Arifi (2012) in his article signifies the importance of pharmacists roles in Saudi Arabia.
He states that the Saudi patients are somehow satisfied with the role of pharmacists but the
problems still exist due to poor communication among pharmacist professionals, inadequate
teamwork, and lack of clinical skills of the community pharmacists. The survey further
indicates that pharmacists are lacking in training in reaching patients and offering them
effective and indispensable solutions. The study therefore emphasizes the need for proper
advice, guidance, and correct usage of drugs from pharmacists.
The most prominent issues which relate to my work area are summarised in the following
list:
o
o
o
o
o

Poor communication amongst the pharmacist professionals and the students in general
Lack of teamwork amongst staff and students
Patient negotiation difficulties
Lack of staff motivation
Inadequate internal pharmacy system that needs to be improved on urgent basis

The primary aim of this project is to initiate education and training programmes for
pharmacist and pharmacist students in a general hospital to address above stated issues. The
expected outcomes of this project include: enhance motivational and satisfaction levels
among staff, handling issues in an effective way, improve collaboration between staff, and
achieve department based short-term goals and long-term organisational objectives.

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This paper will address a strategy to resolve these issues by putting leadership in practice. In
order to do so, an appropriate set of strategies and tactics will be presented to address crucial
matters that are hindering the achievement of strategic objectives of general hospitals in
Saudi Arabia. In this regard, this project is significant in increasing collaboration between
staff, enhancing the motivation of pharmacist professionals, and also enhancing the abilities
of pharmacist students by providing them adequate training. The strategic plan for this
programme is illustrated in table as evidence 1 in appendix I.

1.2. AIM AND OBJECTIVES

This paper aims to illustrate how the author will lead a project to tackle critical issues that are
evident in a general hospital in Saudi Arabia. In order to address the issues the following
objectives are set:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Increasing collaboration between staff

Enhancing motivation of staff pharmacy in the hospital
Enhance pharmacist student training satisfaction with pharmacy services in hospital
To provide recommendations how the critical issues can be tackled in an effective
way

1.3. REPORT STRUCTURE

The next section of the report documents the strategic plan consisting of strategies and tactics
that will be used to address underlying objectives of this study. After that the strategic plan is
evaluated to verify appropriateness and correctness of the strategic plan. Finally, the study
concludes with viable solutions and recommendations to pharmacists to tackle existing issues
in an efficient way that will improve practice and patient outcomes.

2.

STRATEGIES AND TACTICS

The identified issues in the General Hospital have persuaded me to modify the leadership
style currently practiced at the pharmacy. I intend to apply a transactional leadership style
which I deem is most appropriate as per the current needs and requirements of the
pharmacys operational deficiencies. As the transactional style of leadership is positively
concerned for tasks (see evidence 2) and operates at the fundamental levels to mollify the
needs of the followers, the key focus of the style is on the lower levels of the organisational
hierarchy (Bernard, 2008, p. 50). This style will lead the pharmacy staff at my hospital and

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also will enable me to implement certain plans and processes more effortlessly which are
required to improve the operational performance of the staff members. The lower level focus
of this style would enable me to emphasize on the performance of the specific tasks by the
workers though reward and punishment according to the individual performance of the tasks
assigned.
In my opinion, the first step in any plan, regardless of the outcomes anticipated, is the
communication and understanding of the stakeholders. Once interest in the process has been
established amongst the stakeholders, the chances to achieve desirable results are increased
(Chisholm-Burns et al. 2012). Keeping in mind this important aspect, I would interact with
the pharmacy staff who are the key stakeholders in this process, to understand their concerns
and limitations and encourage them to bring their ideas forward in order to develop interest in
the change process. Further, clear definition of the objectives of the process and
understanding of the staff members of the outcomes of the process, benefits which would be
achieved and issues which may arise would be given most priority as the key determinants of
the project success. The objectives defined for this project are based on SMART (Specific,
Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-scaled) framework (see evidence 3) to address
the following:
1.
2.
3.

Increasing collaboration between staff

Enhance motivation of staff pharmacy in the hospital
Enhance pharmacist student training satisfaction with pharmacy services in
hospital

The desired results can be obtained once the staff know their role and also what they need to
achieve to reach the ultimate goals. For this purpose, I will use Belbin team role theory (see
evidence 4) to let the staff members know about their exact roles. This will enable them to
utilize maximum available resources to achieve ultimate goals. I will use a specific Belbin
team role questionnaire to assess the ability of each staff member before assigning roles. An
example of my assessment through Belbin questionnaire is presented in evidence 5 that
shows my abilities to drive the department to achieve overall goals and objectives.
Nevertheless staff understanding and their participation is necessary, but the key to bring
them together in a collaborative fashion is through encouraging communication which is at
all levels. I will arrange meetings with different staff members, depending on the skill and
operational position level and will discuss with them their concerns, understandings, and

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suggestions in an interactive manner. The intergroup and intragroup communications would

also be facilitated through assignment tasks among different groups to ensure all experience
and ideas in the pharmacy have been combined together in a way which is more beneficial to
the overall pharmacy operations (Giles, 2012). The communication plan with pharmacist
stakeholders is illustrated in the communication matrix in evidence 6.
Further, the policies and procedures of the pharmacy which have been restructured or
introduced would be communicated clearly in order to avoid any ambiguity which may lead
to malpractice that is essentially unacceptable for the sensitivity of the work of my
department. The staff members would be allowed to comment on the policies or procedures
to ensure their complete satisfaction with them which would lead to higher compliance and
also covering points which have been missed by the leadership.
Further, training would be conducted on a regular basis to enhance the interpersonal
communication level of all the members of the pharmacy. Initially, these trainings would be
conducted on a monthly basis to cope with the immediate effect of lack or at times,
deficiency of adequate interpersonal communication skills and with time, the frequency
would be gradually reduced. During these trainings, the staff members would be involved in
different tasks which would facilitate learning through experience and in a more conducive
manner.
The pharmacist would be given significant attention in this plan as they are being the major
troupes of the pharmacy, must understand their role in the smooth operations of the pharmacy
to produce desirable outcomes. The communication deficiencies of the system would be
made clear to them through discussions and they would be encouraged to interact with the
technicians and the students and share their knowledge and experience. Further, they would
be encouraged to perform their required role by offering incentives for good performance in
the form of appreciations and rewards (Brown, 2006).
Rotations would be planned among different pharmacists and technicians within their
particular domains to ensure the experience and knowledge is distributed equally among all
staff members in the pharmacy. The senior staff working in the position would be encouraged
to train the rotated member and communicate the information and knowledge he has obtained
during his work at the pharmacy and so would be the case with the students in the pharmacy.

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The staff members would be encouraged to communicate and a strong social network would
be built among them. I would apply the emotional intelligence to bring together the different
staff members in positions where they could interact more feasibly to develop a work
environment where they could share their concerns, issues, experiences and knowledge which
I believe would ultimately resolve the communication and motivational problem faced by the
pharmacy. The tasks would be assigned to each single individual and it would be ensured that
they have understood what they are required to do and why they are asked to do it.
I will develop a reward system placed on the pharmacy operation which would be totally
performance based and would be helpful in coping with the motivational challenge of the
pharmacy. A good working environment where I would be appreciating the efforts of my staff
members, excellent communication is established where they could discuss their concerns
with each other and with me. Training programs which are tailored to their needs and system
which is strong enough to facilitate the students during their most valuable time at the
pharmacy and ensuring they are given the required knowledge by the pharmacist would
enable the pharmacy department of the General Hospital to enhance their perform.

3.

EVALUATION OF STRATEGIC PLAN

Evaluation strategies will focus on to evaluate the strategic plan in order to:

Observe the compliance level

Determine potential improvement; and

Monitor redesigning of service

I will use the PDSA cycle to evaluate the performance of a strategic plan (see evidence 7) at
departmental level. In addition, I intend to apply a combination of different tools of
evaluation such as audits, surveys, interviews and appraisal system. Audits will be conducted
to evaluate an individual, a system, an organisation, a process or anything (Francine, 2011).
Regular audits would be conducted by a committee of senior pharmacist. A total of two
pharmacists would be joining me to plan and evaluate the audit findings. These audits would
enable us to identify is the plan is implemented appropriately and how the staff members are
responding to it.

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One to one interviews will be conducted among the staff members and their supervisors and
then they would be interviewed by me in order to observe their perceptions of the new system
in place, their limitations and suggestions. These would enable me to identify any gaps in the
process. Further satisfaction surveys would be conducted on a regular basis for not only the
staff members but for the students as well. This would enable me not only to identify the
level of satisfaction of each group but also the deficiencies of the groups as the students
would be reporting low satisfaction if the communications and knowledge sharing is still
been lacking on the part of the pharmacists and vice versa.
Another major tool which would be implemented in the pharmacy to not only review and
evaluate the system in place and the individuals but also to reward or chastise the individuals
based on their performance is the performance appraisal system. This would be implemented
on both student and staff groups to ensure each aspect that has been covered and the results
would be discussed with each single individual by their supervisors, and immediate reporting
heads. The results would be presented before the hospital committee in quarterly meetings of
all the evaluation measures that are in place and the hospital changing policies affecting the
pharmacy operations would be discussed and implemented in the system.

4.

DISSEMINATION PLAN

The dissemination plan is important as it enables the organisation to assist the stakeholders to
understand what they are required to do and why it is important. The parts of the
dissemination strategy of this plan are as follows:
Purpose:

To encourage communication among the pharmacists, technicians and students

To ensure adequate trainings are done for each individual to make him more

productive for the pharmacy

To engage staff members in the administration and planning to motivate them to work

and achieve the goals

To overcome the staff motivation and communication challenge in the pharmacy

Message:
The pharmacy plays a key role in health provision for the patients and the
operations we are conducting are critical for their life. It is important to focus on the

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work and create an environment where the performance is not because of pressure
but for the motivation to serve and learn to serve.
Audience: The audience of this plan would be the pharmacists, the pharmacy technicians and
the students.
Methods: The methods applied to disseminate the information about the plan would be the
interdepartmental emails, notices, and group meetings.
Timing:

The need to plan and change would be communicated among the stakeholders at
the first step of the process and the timetable for the meetings and the agenda
would be communicated as well. At the second stage, when the plan has been
developed, the tasks would be assigned and the staff members would be again
commented about the next schedule of the task assignment and final
implementation. During the third phase, the evaluation routine would be
communicated.

5.

SUMMARY

The leadership of an organisation is the key driver not only the organisational performance
but also for development of the people involved in the operations. I believe this plan would
not only satisfy the need to achieve the goals of the pharmacy, and implement the required
change but would also contribute significantly in individual development through staff
empowerment. Transactional leadership will focus on the hierarchal position of the
organisation and tend to achieve the goals through a system of reward and punishment and
thus in my opinion, for the current situation of the general hospital pharmacy, this style of
leadership could contribute precisely what is required. As the change is created from the base
of the system and gradually moved to the top, the achievement would be tremendous with
motivated and satisfied staff members. In addition, the Belbin team roles theory and the
questionnaire will help me to assign appropriate roles to the staff in order to achieve ultimate
goals and objectives of the project.

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REFERENCES

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Leadership in Practice

Al-Arifi, M.N. (2012). Patients perception, views and satisfaction with pharmacists role as
health care provider in community pharmacy setting at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi
Pharmaceutical Journal, 20(4), pp. 323-330.
Al-Dhawailie, A.A. (2011a).Inpatient prescribing errors and pharmacist intervention at a
teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia.Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal, 19(3), pp. 193-196.
Al-Dhawailie, A.A. (2011b).Control of intravenous medication wastage at a teaching hospital
in Saudi Arabia.Saudi Medical Journal, 32(1), pp. 62-65.
Bernard, B, (2008). Bass and Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research &
Managerial Applications, 4th edition. New York, NY: The Free Press. pp. 50.
Brown, T.R. (2006). Handbook of institutional pharmacy practice. 4th edition, ASHP
Chambliss, W.G., Carroll, W.A., Kennedy, D., Levine, D., Mon, M.A., Ried, L.D.,
Shepherd, M. and Yelvigi, M. (2012).Role of the pharmacist in preventing distribution
of counterfeit medications.Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association,
52(2), pp. 195-199.
Chisholm-Burns, M.A., Vaillancourt, A.M. and Shepherd, M. (2012). Pharmacy
management, leadership, marketing, and finance. 2nd edition, Jones & Bartlett
Publishers
Francine, M, 2011, "Auditors and Audit Reports: Is The Firm's "John Hancock"
Enough?",Forbes
Grabenstein, J.D. (1998). Pharmacists as vaccine advocates: roles in community pharmacies,
nursing homes, and hospitals. Vaccine, 16(8), pp. 1705-1710.
Giles, H. (2012). The handbook of intergroup communication. Routledge.
Gupta, D. (2009). Total Quality Management. 2nd edition, Tata McGraw-Hill Education
Hudson, S.A., McAnaw, J.J. and Johnson, B.J. (2007).The changing roles of pharmacists in
society.International e-Journal of Science, Medicine & Education, 1(1), pp. 22-34.
Ramsey, R.D. (2006). Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way: How to Be a More Effective
Leader in Today's Schools. 2nd edition, Corwin Press

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Schilling, L. (2008). Time of organisations, time for leadership: on the dynamics of

leadership behaviours and time strategies. Business Leadership Review, 5(2), pp. 1-12.
Stone, K.P. and Curtis, S.J. (2002)..Pharmacy practice. Pharmaceutical Press
www.123test.com/team-roles-test/index.php

Leadership in Practice

APPENDIX I
Evidence 1: Strategic Plan
Objective

Issue
1. Negotiation difficulty
with patients

Strategy

1- I will adopt a leadership 1- I will utilize the

style for this project.
transactional leadership
style.
2- I will raise the interest

2. Poor communication
amongst the pharmacist
professionals and
amongst the student in
general
3Increasing collaboration
between staff

Enhance motivation of
staff pharmacy in hospital

1. Lack of teamwork
amongst the
pharmacists
2. Discussion with staff

Tactic

of the staff to the issues 2- I will set goal for this

and benefits of the
project and aim to
outcomes of the project.
achieve it.
I will improve
communication,
interpersonal
relationship and team
work in the
establishment.

Evaluation
1-PDSA Cycle
2-Audits
3-One-on-one interviews
4-Survey

3- Encourage staff
discussion.
4- Clarify the department
role; policy and
procedure

4- Implement plan
program

5- I will create opportunity

for staff interactions
and staff participation.

5- Design work task

6- Social network

1- I will ensure that the

1- I will make use of
pharmacists
emotional intelligence
professionals know and 2- Make organizational
play their roles
social network to keep

1- Observe and appraise

employee performance
on administrative and
operation tasks.

Leadership in Practice

1. Lack of Motivation
2. Lack of teamwork
amongst pharmacist
Enhance pharmacist
students
student training
3. System in the pharmacy
satisfaction with pharmacy
need to be reviewed
services in hospital
and assessed to
improve student
service.

2- Sharing experience
between pharmacists.
3- Network will be
established to keep
pharmacist share
information.
1- Allow pharmacist to
help student
2- Make training
programs

communications
between pharmacists
open

1- I will make use of

emotional intelligence
2- I will ensure that we
have regular meetings.

1- Observe and appraise

student performance
2- Monitor students'
satisfaction survey
3- Quality evaluation plan

Leadership in Practice
Evidence 2: Leadership styles

Source: Schilling (2008, p. 4)

Leadership in Practice
Evidence 3: SMART Objectives

Source: Ramsey (2006, p. 27)

Leadership in Practice
Evidence 4: Belbins Theory

Leadership in Practice
Evidence 5: Results of Belbins Nine Team Roles Questionnaire

Source: http://www.123test.com/team-roles-test/index.php

Leadership in Practice
Evidence 6: Communication Matrix

Source: Self created by the author

Leadership in Practice
Evidence 7: PDSA Cycle

Source: Gupta (2009, p. 45)