Improving leadership of health services in rural areas: Exploring traits and characteristics

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Leadership is considered a necessity for people and institutions by scholars and academicians [1]. This study focuses on understanding traits and characteristics of leaders in a rural and remote health service area of Australia.

Methodology: Convenience sampling was used to invite participants, who were identified by their position description. Fourteen healthcare leaders were interviewed. Grounded theory process and thematic analysis were used to analyse the data [2]. Ethical approval was obtained.

Results: The results show that adaptation, contentiousness, acting as a role model, agreeableness and ability to take initiative were consistent themes for the existing leaders in rural and remote health service areas. Ownership, passion for work, staff and community involvement and sociability were considered important in rural area. Dominance, self-confidence and extraversion were viewed favourably in rural areas. Resilience, generation trait, adaptability and emotional intelligence were identified as rural specific traits.

Conclusion: Rural area leadership is a challenge and leaders require rural specific skills to be successful. Leaders may need to modify and shift emphasis on specific traits and characteristics to work in rural health services. Further study in different rural and remote settings is proposed to test the effectiveness of the described traits and characteristics.

KEYWORDS:

• Rural
• leadership
• traits
• characteristics
• healthcare

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Associate Professor Deepak Doshi is Deputy Executive Director Medical Services at Rockhampton Hospital, Queensland, Australia. Deepak Is an emergency specialist and has interest in healthcare management, research, education and community health. Deepak has published in several peer reviewed journals and presented at International conferences across Europe, Asia, Oceania and Africa.