Communities of Influence: Improving Healthcare Through Conversations and Connections

ISBN-13: 9781846194924 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 200 str.

Alison Donaldson

Opis

Dedicated and hard-working staff at all levels of large healthcare organisations can be frustrated by a perceived inability to influence healthcare priorities. One way of enabling such practitioners to shape and improve services is to bring them together in 'communities of influence'. These are informal groups or networks of committed people who meet regularly to share experiences develop a collective voice and influence policy and practice at local and national levels. Such 'bottom-up' approaches to change can complement the more conventional management mechanisms widely employed today. "Communities of Influence" tells the story of how a prominent UK non-profit organisation (Macmillan Cancer Support) has engaged both professionals and patients over the past two decades to improve cancer care. It will stimulate managers and practitioners alike to develop their capacity to work through networks relationships and conversations in pursuing their objectives. This book will appeal to clinicians and managers responsible for service improvement as well as public servants researchers and educators interested in management and organisational change.

Spis treści

Introduction – a fresh approach to improving services. The power of the collective voice. Making the invisible visible. Working with and through doctors. The social life of documents. Hybrid creatures. Cultivating a lively community. Involving lay people as partners. Playing a long game. Postscript: a writer’s personal reflections. Suggestions for further reading. Abbreviations.

O autorze

ALISON DONALDSON Independent expert in refl ective and narrative writing. Visiting Research Fellow, Business School, University of Hertfordshire ELIZABETH LANK Independent expert in collaborative working.