Practicum Project
Ebony
Leadership Reflection
By Ebony Robertson
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for
RADS 3450- Leadership in Healthcare
Summer 2007
Dr. Strickland
Prior to beginning this class, I saw leadership as some innate personality trait that some people were given at birth and some people weren't. I always thought of myself as one of those people fortunate enough to have been given this trait and I always thought of myself as a leader. But what exactly is a leader? What does it mean to lead? This Leadership in Healthcare class taught me that leadership is not necessarily innate. It is a learned skill based off of a set of values and beliefs and once the art of that skill is learned, practiced, and mastered, only then are you a true leader. Leadership involves not only you in a bubble all by yourself, calling yourself a leader, but more so the people around you; the people you are leading and those affected by the decisions you make.
On page 16 of Leadership in Healthcare: Values at the top (Dye), I found the stages in the growth of leadership to be very interesting. It lists and describes the stages that people progress through in order to grow and develop into leaders. At the beginning of the class, I believe I was on the very first stage called "Unconscious Incompetence." Dye describes this stage as "You don't know that you don't know." I had been going along from organization to organization believing that I had great leadership skills when in fact, I hadn't even really started to develop appropriate leadership values. People in this stage need training and awareness to enhance their understanding of leadership. This class helped me to do just that. Throughout the 8-week course, I also came to the second stage, "Conscious Incompetence," which Dye describes as "You know that you don't know." In this stage I reevaluated myself and saw that my leadership skills actually need lots of work and improvement. It was hard to admit this to myself but once I accepted the fact, I was able to continue my learning process. Now that I have completed this course and I am in the "Conscious Competence" stage where "You know that you know." I have learned throughout this course what it takes to be a good leader. I now have the knowledge so I can continue to practice and further develop my learned skills.
As a requirement for the course, Jacqueline and I had to complete a leadership practicum activity. We were required to come up with a project idea that involved various learning objectives and goals. We formed an action plan and carried it out and in the end we were proud of the end result and the impact we were able to make on the community.
For our project we decided to target the women in the community and make them more aware of heart disease since it is the number one cause of deaths in women today. We went to the Heart and Vascular department of the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) hospital and gathered lots of information on the topic of heart disease awareness. We also visited the marketing department where we were given handouts and nutrition guides to give to our program guests. The Go Red For Women website (www.goredforwomen.com) was very valuable because it focuses solely on women's heart awareness on a national level and serves as a reference for women who want to be more aware of heart disease risks.
When we did our presentation at Cypress Cove I was very impressed with the impact we were able to make on our guests. Even though we are only in our twenties, they saw us as women who were setting an example and leading the way. They listened intently to our presentation and even asked questions at the end. They really appreciated us taking the time to share such beneficial information with them. Their gratitude meant alot and is what made me feel like a leader the most.
Now that I have completed the class and the practicum, I feel like I have another notch on my leadership belt. I have learned a lot about myself and about my leadership values and abilities. I plan to further my experiences all throughout my career as a radiation therapist by serving as a leader to my coworkers and also to my patients. I will be in a position where others will look up to me and come to me for support. This class has helped me look forward to the opportunity and I welcome it.
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