Do you want to be a part of a service that puts service users' needs first?

Do you want to understand the complexity of workplaces that can seem to stand in the way of achieving this? Do you want to develop your decision-making skills to help you make realistic, relevant decisions that put the service user first? Do you want to develop a strategic perspective whilst still being able to attend to the detail of service delivery? If the answer to these questions is yes, read this book.

Importance of decision-making skills

To be actively involved in decisions - and to avoid becoming passive spectators to decisions imposed from outside - service delivery staff need strong decision-making skills and strategic awareness. Decision Making and Healthcare Management for Frontline Staff helps provide the thinking space needed by service providers to ensure that the service user's experience remains the core focus and purpose.

Content and purpose of the book

It leads readers through a series of reference points to help them reflect upon and understand their own clinical situation, the factors that shape decisions made within it, and how they can actively engage with that process. The book will be essential reading for frontline healthcare staff and managers in all specialties who wish to understand factors in health service delivery beyond their own immediate professional interests and engage actively with them to shape decisions.

It also provides educators with a practical framework of six learning units around which healthcare management teaching and learning modules can be designed, and discussions and reflection can be held.

About the author and style

This is not just another book. Russell Gurbutt has managed in this short book to look at health service management from a multitude of perspectives in an original and creative way. This is not a stuffy textbook, but is written in a very personal style to the reader. I recommend this book to all health professionals, whether at the beginning of their career or those who need a fresh insight into their own managerial position, as well as educators who may want to use the coffee break exercises with their students.

- From the Foreword by Pat Donovan