Pathway to professionalizing health leadership in Canada: The two faces of Janus

The imperative of professionalising healthcare management: A global perspective

Effective healthcare management for addressing complex organisational challenges is crucial for efficient healthcare delivery. Healthcare management involves organising, coordinating, planning and operationalising healthcare services, as well as leading people to ensure the delivery of effective patient care. Healthcare management applies management principles and practices to various healthcare organisations, such as hospitals, functional departments, clinics, cross-functional departments and public health organisations. Recognising a gap in management training, especially for clinicians having managerial responsibilities, is a call for global professionalisation of healthcare management to equip leaders with essential skills. In many healthcare settings across the globe, healthcare management does not always require professional management qualifications. This article advocates for the need for a structured approach towards professionalising healthcare management globally and especially in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR).

Dimensions of Health Care Management Professionalization: A Scoping Review

Background

Within the public sector, health managers occupy positions that are typically filled by individuals with a medical, clinical, or nursing experience who are entrusted with assuming an additional role. The primary objective of this study was to employ a scoping review methodology to ascertain a cluster of prevalent subjects encompassing the development of a proficient health care manager.

Methods

The purpose of this scoping review study was to identify critical components in the field of management professionalization, as described by Arksey and O'Malley. A total of 13 studies, characterized by predefined keywords, were meticulously culled from Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and Embase, Magiran, and SID databases. The inclusion and exclusion criteria considered factors such as language, temporal relevance, redundancy, thematic alignment with the professionalization domain, and congruence with the overarching objectives and methodologies of the present investigation. Subsequently, the contents of the selected studies were subjected to rigorous thematic analysis and judicious categorization using a framework analysis approach.

Results

From a total of 10,117 articles, a rigorous selection process yielded 13 articles to be included in this study. The identified dimensions are classified and elucidated across 6 overarching domains; namely, the science of management, educational trajectory, and curriculum, cultural infrastructure and ideologies, standards, professional institutions and associations, and licenses and certifications.

Conclusion

To enhance the efficacy of health management, policymakers and planners ought to adeptly incorporate these dimensions within the framework of the country's health system.