Changing from Legal Practice to Healthcare Administration

1458 Words3 Pages

Changing from Legal Practice to Healthcare Administration
A personal change I experienced that was very challenging emotionally and psychologically was a career change from legal practice to healthcare administration. The decision for a career change happened in 2007 after a near death experience in Cameroon, my home country, during a short vacation. During my vacation, a health scare got me to a local area hospital that had only one attending physician and 20 nurses to take care of approximately 200 patients. The physician happened to be the chief administrator of the hospital and juggled both responsibilities simultaneously. Due to mass shortage in healthcare professionals from my observation and country reports (Amani, 2010) there is inadequate coordination of care, which results in several unwanted patient outcomes. After returning to the United States, I had a strong feeling and belief that I can help to make a difference if I become a healthcare administrator. However, making the decision was not easy due to many envisaged barriers. In this paper, I will explain some of my personal barriers to changing from legal practice to healthcare administration: how they affected my reaction to the change process. I will also describe how the process could have been easier with knowledge of the techniques of change management learned from the Healthcare innovations course at GCU .
Barriers/Solutions to Change Management
Psychology of Fear and Destabilization of satisfaction with the status quo
A personality trait of mine is that, I tend to be stable and steady, and I value consistency and reliability highly. I see myself as modest and unassuming, and generally have a strong fear or anxiety around unknown or unfamiliar situations. For ...

... middle of paper ...

...scohost.com.library.gcu.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=16997410&site=ehost-live&scope=site
GCU. (2011). Leading the Change Process. Retrieved from GCU.edu/Loudcloud: https://lc.gcu.edu/learningPlatform/user/users.htm
Gruber, N., Darragh, J., Puccia, P., Kadric, D. S., & Bruce, S. (2010). Embracing change to improve performance. Long-Term Living: For The Continuing Care Professional. The Continuing Care Professional, 59(1), 28-31. Retrieved from http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=48144657&site=ehost-live&scope=site
NHS. (2007). How to Change Practice. National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence, 1-48.
Prosci. (2014). Change Management - The Systems and Tools for Managing Change. Retrieved from change-management.com: http://www.change-management.com/tutorial-change-process-detailed.htm

Open Document