| Description of the theme:
This role describes the knowledge, skills, and attitudes in leadership required for professional practice, managing of a department, and contributing to healthcare service improvements. |
| Knowledge:
All participants articulated that graduates should know how to evaluate existing services and be able to develop new services. The need for graduates to know the budgets and management of a department was highlighted in the national regulatory documents. The DoH participants particularly stressed that graduates should acquire some understanding in financial management and administration to lead a department effectively.
Prepares estimate budgets for management of own department. (HPCSA standards of practice, P7)
We [established occupational therapists] do a lot of admin which I think they have[graduates] realised, we do a lot of admin and stats, we do a lot of ordering and they do not know how that works but I suppose I’m saying if it’s something they could maybe learn... (Participant 5, established occupational therapist)
I wasn’t prepared for anything admin related. I thought I would get instructions from my supervisor, but it did not happen like that. (Participant 30, novice occupational therapist) |
| Skills:
The DoH stakeholders emphasized the need to develop policies and procedures for the department. Novice occupational therapists verbalized the need to prioritize their workload in balancing administration, hospital patients, and community work. Both the DoH participants and novice occupational therapists agreed that graduates must develop and implement new services after negotiations with the relevant stakeholders or propose changes to inefficient existing services. This was particularly relevant in cases where recent graduates served as the only therapist. However, in the face of resource limitations, established occupational therapists warned that graduates should learn to build on previous successes and evaluate the success of existing services before they attempted to develop new ones.
I can go to my medical manager and say, ‘can we change the admission form a little bit?’ but my medical manager will ignore me. So being able to know how to propose changes would be nice, (Participant 27, novice occupational therapist)
There’s your operational plans, there’s your national cost standards, there’s your statistics for every day and for every week and for every month, there’s your ordering of equipment, there’s your cash flow; knowing your stuff and how much budget is allocated to you. (Participant 4, established occupational therapist)
They [OT] need to learn how to develop a new service, how to work in an existing service and how to plan services, what to look out for if you are an occupational therapist. (KZN-DoH, district manager) |
| Attitudes:
Occupational therapists emphasized that graduates must be proactive and determined to manage leadership tasks.
...You need to be proactive. I had to negotiate with the nurses and doctors to allow for screening of clients in the clinic, rather than waiting for a direct referral. (Participant 22, novice occupational therapist) |
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