In this paper, the issue of value will be the focus. Value will be covered from 4 different perspectives. Each section of the paper will seek to answer questions on self-value and value to others. Thus, each of the following objectives will be met :
Determining my worth to myself
Determining what provides my value to others
Determining what I consider valuable
Determining the value of the degree, I am earning
Each of these four objectives will be covered in one section. The overall goal of the paper is to determine the meaning of value, both from a personal perspective and from a social perspective.
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Self-Worth
Value and worth are important factors to consider from a number of levels, including a personal one, a professional one, and a social one. The first section of this final paper will cover my personal worth to myself. Self-worth is a feeling and therefore requires maintenance and upkeep. Therefore, this section will cover the journey towards my development of self-worth and the current value with which I view myself.
A sense of self-worth is derived from the value that one places on oneself. Self-worth can generally be defined as a feeling of being the person that is good and deserving of being treated with respect. The journey to cultivating this feeling is a personal one, as it is generally based on one’s personal beliefs about themselves rather than anything that can be taught or assimilated from others. My journey towards cultivating strong feelings of self-worth has been long and is still ongoing. Like many others, the transitional period of puberty led to the development of multiple insecurities for me. Some of these were physical and faded as I grew into myself. However, the most pervasive ones were mental and psychological and required several years of work to resolve. The process of developing self-value was a behavioral one. Rather than relying on emotion, behavior patterns were more useful in building self-value on a personal level. When a person values an item, they will treat it with a level of respect that is specific to valuable things. Thus, when it comes to developing self-value, I consistently treat myself with respect and remind myself why I should do so.
During the duration of my training for this degree, various concepts were covered in a number of courses that contributed to my self-value. The psychology of self-worth was one of the many topics covered in related courses that directly contribute to the subject of this final paper. The self-worth theory postulates that every individual seeks to find self-acceptance. Self-acceptance is gleaned from achievements made during the course of one’s life (Eren & Sagar, 2018). Furthermore, achievements are reinforced through competition with peers and other individuals. Thus, competing with others creates a sense of achievement, enhancing one's acceptance of oneself. There are three elements to the model of self-worth created in the self-worth theory – effort, ability, and performance (Eren & Sagar, 2018). These three elements work together to contribute to feelings of worth and value for one’s self.
By studying this self-worth theory, I realized that my value was directly connected to my perceptions of effort and performance. Thus, the more effort I placed into my studies and work, and the better that I performed; as a result, the better my self-worth. To myself, I am, therefore, worth my hard work and the results that I have to show for them. Given that I have worked extremely hard to improve my academic career over the years, I have developed a strong psychological attachment to measuring my self-worth according to my academic and professional achievements. It is my goal in the future to define my worth through more than just academic and professional work and find more fulfillment through socially driven achievements.
Value to Others
Apart from self-value, it is also important to understand the value that one can provide to others. In this case, my empirical knowledge is my primary value to others. In this context, empirical knowledge has two meanings – the knowledge that I have acquired from my practical experience in the field and the knowledge that I have acquired from professional and scientific knowledge from my studies and training in the field. Both perspectives will be covered in this section.
While pursuing a career in healthcare management, I have found that personal experiences and empirical knowledge are extremely useful. Healthcare management requires oversight and management over a large scope of elements, including entire administrative and public health systems. Due to the nature of the work, context is extremely important. A sense of familiarity with a field, an institution, or a region, can provide a professional with the context they require to increase their efficiency in their work. In my case, the application of my empirical knowledge with health care settings and the training that has been received during my academic training will be important in providing value to others from a professional setting.
My passion for the health sciences and the practical application of healthcare management, in particular, led to my interest in gaining practical experience before pursuing a degree. I spent time during my high school years volunteering in a variety of healthcare settings, including local clinics and nursing homes. The experiences that were obtained in such settings provided me with important empirical knowledge on administration and operation in healthcare settings. This empirical knowledge will prove useful when streamlining the transition from academics to the practical application of the skills learned during training to the professional setting.
Elements of Life with Personal Value
Each individual has several aspects of their life that they consider to be valuable to them. In this section, the elements of life that I believe are of utmost value will be covered. In my case, these are family, education, and religion.
The family has always been one of the most important things because it has shaped my personality and worldview. As one of several siblings, my socialization process began with my family. Before I learned to play and interact with other children, I learned to interact with my siblings first. Likewise, due to being able to spend a lot of time with both parents, they were my role models for interacting with adult figures. By the time I joined the elementary school, I had been acclimatized to an environment of acceptance and love, and I always enjoyed returning home for this reason. The more I interacted with the world, the more I realized that this was not always the case for other families. These realizations made my family feel even more precious to me. As a result, I am determined to not only always make room for family in my life but also to later creating one that can be as valuable to my children as mine has been to me. From a professional perspective, I plan to give family and support systems the importance they deserve in ensuring that health systems are holistic and inclusive of patients' opinions and the help their loved ones can provide.
Education is another factor that I consider to be extremely valuable in life. Education represents a means to empower oneself with knowledge and with skills that can create a livelihood. Education refers to knowledge from a variety of sources. The first definition of education that usually occurs to people is the formal study of various subjects that can be applied to either further studies or a career in a specific field. However, education also encompasses studies that assist people with daily life. For example, individuals who eventually work in the food industry will still need knowledge from Mathematics classes to price food accurately and bill clients efficiently. The power that education has to improve lives in a number of small but important ways is one of the reasons that I believe it is so important. Education also refers to things learned from outside of books through practical experiences. This type of education is equally important as it can contribute heavily to personal interactions and societal themes such as discrimination or ignorance. Taking the time to have meaningful experiences with others can provide education on different world views and different cultures and ways of life. This enriches one's understanding of other people and the world in general. From a professional standpoint, education is of value because it provides the training and skill set required to make a positive change globally through healthcare management. However, informal education also plays a major role in ensuring that healthcare managers understand the cultural and spiritual factors that create comprehensive and holistic healthcare systems and environments.
Lastly, religion has been a major pillar in life that I consider valuable. Through religion, hope has become a drive for academic, social, and professional activities. The main relief and support that religion provides is faith in a better future. This faith helps to build individuals’ drive to make it through challenging times. Additionally, there is a sense of community and belonging that comes with religion, given the social and communal nature of worship. Through the networks and interactions built by participating in communal worship, long-lasting friendships, support systems, and social networks can be built that become a source of strength for oneself and others.
Value of my Degree
Lastly, the value of the degree I am earning will be covered. In this case, it is a Bachelor of Applied Science in Healthcare Management. There is value in a career in healthcare management as it broadly affects several careers and fields in healthcare provision that ensure better health outcomes for the general public.
Healthcare management is responsible for oversight in areas such as financing, budgeting, and ensuring the quality of the car. Through this management, it becomes possible to ensure the operational stability of healthcare institutions and medical practitioners in general. Healthcare managers have daily opportunities to make a difference in their community by monitoring the quality of their care and the accessibility of the services provided by healthcare institutions in their area.
One of the most valuable elements of a degree in healthcare management is its versatility. There is a commonly held belief that health care management revolves around offices in hospitals and paperwork for institutional records. However, health care management allows professionals to widen their scope past bettering their institution and towards bettering overall healthcare systems at large. For example, in the field of humanitarian services, health care managers assist donors and non-governmental organizations in distributing and administering drugs in harsh environments with limited infrastructure. In health information technology, healthcare managers teach other healthcare workers and practitioners how to incorporate new technology in their practice to improve their efficiency and record-keeping ( Garner, George, Young, Hitchcock, Koch, Green, & Norman, 2020). Efforts made by the World Health Organization have placed health care managers at the forefront of such projects in rural areas, especially in 3 rd world countries ( Garner, George, Young, Hitchcock, Koch, Green, & Norman, 2020). Health information technology has also become increasingly important lately as logistics and the global pandemic have formed communication barriers. There has been an increased reliance on telehealth services and equipment, which has brought health information technology to the forefront of the focus for developing health infrastructure currently and in the future ( Esper, Sweeney, Winchell, Duffell, Kier, Lukens, & Krupinski, 2020). For this type of development and operations management, the role of healthcare managers has been essential ( Esper, Sweeney, Winchell, Duffell, Kier, Lukens, & Krupinski, 2020) . Streamlining workflows and operations so that health workers can incorporate telehealth into their practice has been an effort spearheaded by professionals with this valuable skill set.
In the field of financial aid, health care administrators work together with providers and other stakeholders to make services more financially accessible. For example, healthcare managers from one Minnesota-based management care company worked with a dairy farmers’ cooperative in Uganda to develop a pre-paid health care delivery program for its members (Metropolitan State University, 2020). Other opportunities for providing financial aid for healthcare come by working in non-profit associations specializing in public health education, patient education, or increasing coverage in underserved low-income communities.
Another valuable aspect of a degree in healthcare administration is that it focuses on bettering the community. Working in any profession within the healthcare industry can change the world by positively impacting patients' lives. The same can be said of healthcare managers, but on a bigger scope than individual clients. Unlike practitioners who work on one patient at a time, healthcare managers focus on entire systems. A dedicated healthcare manager can not only maintain a working health system but also improve it. These improvements can better the lives of entire populations and communities. Improving health insurance systems, for example, can make insurance more accessible and appealing to more people. Improving health insurance accessibility can increase the proportion of individuals willing to seek out healthcare services, which will improve overall public health.
Emotional rewards are another facet of a healthcare management degree that can be considered valuable. Healthcare management allows for professionals to make significant differences in people's lives. As each health practitioner works to give as many patients as possible high-quality care, health care managers can streamline their workflow and improve their work environment in ways that significantly help them. On an even larger scale, health care managers can ensure that the institution itself is more efficiently managed by monitoring and evaluating conditions within it. For example, by noting that bed space is filled up or patient wait times are getting longer, a healthcare manager can improve the healthcare experience for both patients and staff by increasing equipment and staffers. Other avenues through which emotional rewards are budgeting efficiently to lower the costs of quality healthcare and allow more people to afford treatment.
Overall, the healthcare management degree is valuable for several reasons. These include the impact on the community, job satisfaction, and improving healthcare accessibility. Keeping these valuable elements of the profession in mind improves motivation and dedication to pursuing the field.
References
Eren, A. G., & Sağar, Ö. Ü. (2018). Self-Worth Concept. Current Researches in Health Sciences , 31-47. https://www.platanuskitap.com/Webkontrol/uploads/Fck/Dosya10_3.pdf#page=31
Esper, G. J., Sweeney, R. L., Winchell, E., Duffell, J. M., Kier, S. C., Lukens, H. W., & Krupinski, E. A. (2020). Rapid systemwide implementation of outpatient telehealth in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Healthcare Management , 65 (6), 443.
Garner, S. L., George, C. E., Young, P., Hitchcock, J., Koch, H., Green, G., ... & Norman, G. (2020). Effectiveness of a mHealth application to improve hypertension health literacy in India. International Nursing Review , 67 (4), 476-483.
Metropolitan State University. (2020). Health Care Management. MSU. https://temp.msudenver.edu/hep/healthcaremanagement/benefitsofhealthcaremanagement/
