A leader has the ability to combine commitment for improvement with knowledge regarding how to exercise influence and engage support (Dickson & Tholl, 2014). In the areas of nursing and public health, the focus is on improving health. Porter-O’Grady and Malloch (2015) noted several major tasks of 21st-century healthcare leaders. Applying essentials of leadership, select two (2) tasks from the following list of tasks and discuss how you would exercise influence and engage support for each of your selected tasks.

1. Deconstructing the barriers and structures of the 20th century
2. Alerting staff about the implications of changing what they do
3. Establishing safety around taking risks and experimenting
4. Embracing new technologies as a way of doing work
5. Reading the signposts along the road to the future
6. Translating the emerging reality of health reform into language that the staff can use
7. Demonstrating personal engagement with health reform
8. Helping others adapt to the demands of a value-driven health system
9. Creating a safe milieu for the struggles and pain of changing practice and service
10. Enumerating small successes as a basis for supporting staff

1. Team up with Independent Transportation Network, ITN.

Seniors in the United States typically outlive their ability drive—seven years for men and a decade for women. And this has a big impact on their health. For seniors not comfortable driving or who can no longer drive, an ITN assist can be a lifeline. Residents where ITN operates can schedule trips 24 hours a day. Drivers even come to the door to help the passenger into and out of the car. Seniors use ITN to get to medical appointments, go grocery shopping, attend religious services or go almost anywhere. Today the nonprofit ITN has affiliates in 27 communities, from San Diego to Boston. They offer volunteer-based transportation in personal cars “for hundreds of thousands of older and vision-impaired people.” Read more HERE.

2. Use Mobile Clinics to Go to the Patient.

Mobile clinics include clinics that provide primary care services, preventive care services, or dental care services from a van, truck, or bus equipped with all of the necessary technology to provide clinical services in underserved areas, both rural and urban. According to Mobile Health Map, over 700 mobile health clinics currently operate in the country, with at least one in each state. A 2013 study of a mobile clinic in Boston, known as the “Family Van”, resulted in significant cost savings due to a reduction in emergency room visits as well as a significant reduction in blood pressure among patients who received services from the van. Read more HERE.

3. Work with Congregational Networks to Coordinate Rides.

Around the nation, volunteers from congregational networks are giving the gift of transportation to those who need to get to a medical appointment. “It doesn’t do any good to provide a service if people can’t access. For poor people, it may be helping them to get their medications, get to a doctor or get to a grocery story,’’ says Rev. Sam Lewis of Oak Grove United Methodist Church in Mocksville, N.C. Members of that church provide transportation for a throat cancer patient who required near daily treatments for several weeks 25 miles from his home. Read more HERE.

4. Partner with or Co-host Pop-up Clinics.

These pop-up clinics rely on volunteer clinicians to provide care, ranging from preventive screenings to condition-specific treatment, to a high volume of patients in a short time-span for little-to-no cost. While pop-up clinics seek to meet some of the immediate health care needs of patients and connect those patients with services that can help them access preventive services and disease management services more frequently, organizations like NAFC and RAM are limited by the short time-frames of their clinics and the first-come, first-served process that goes hand-in-hand with time and volunteer constraints. However, these pop-up clinics are making a difference in the lives of those that remain uninsured by providing them with quality health care and connecting them to services that will help them to better manage their health care in the future. Read more HERE.