As a child, I always saw doctors and nurses as saints, protectors and healers. I was fascinated by their work and how they could literally transform someone’s life. This inspired me to become a doctor and a thoracic surgeon. Today, as an experienced clinician, I see how healthcare professionals work tirelessly to deliver the best care. But sadly, sometimes things don’t go to plan.
According to the World Health Organization, 40% of patients face unintentional harm when interacting with healthcare providers in primary and ambulatory settings, and up to 80% of this harm is preventable. The factors are complex, but poor teamwork is a common theme.
As a researcher and Director of Interprofessional Education in the Medical School at Queen’s University, Canada, I spend my time exploring how healthcare teams function and how we can make them work better together. Our research has shown that if we can get teams working together better, healthcare outcomes can improve for at least 30% of patients.
At Queen’s, we want to revolutionize the way we teach healthcare – fostering closer interdisciplinary collaboration. In this blog, I’d like to share how the Oxford Executive MBA is helping me transform healthcare training and improve patient outcomes.
The challenges for healthcare
If you’re admitted to an internal medicine ward, you’re likely to interact with 18 healthcare professionals on average. Whatever the medical situation, clinicians come together with one common goal: to provide the best care for patients. However, poor teamwork can impact patients negatively (source: International Journal for Quality in Health Care and Journal of Patient Safety).
A key problem is the way healthcare training is structured. In North America, every healthcare professional is trained in a distinct curriculum developed separately from other disciplines. As a result, there are few opportunities to collaborate with peers from different specialties until we’re faced with real-life patients. This way of working is deeply ingrained in the way we teach and subsequent clinical practice.
At Queen’s, we have a bold vision. By 2026, our aim is to make 20% of our curricula shared across 52 undergraduate and graduate programmes in our School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and School of Rehabilitation Therapy. We want to create an environment where learners don’t just learn with one another; they learn from and about one another. That way, they’ll be better prepared when real patient lives are at stake. It’s a radical concept but one that, we believe, can deliver transformational change.
Applying business insights to improve healthcare training
We can learn a lot from the business sector – and that’s what led me to the Executive MBA at Saïd Business School. I wanted to deepen my own understanding of organisational behavior theories and strategies, so I could harness these learnings to transform our training curricula.
The Oxford Executive MBA stood out from other degrees due to its unique structure and approach. Unlike many US programmes, Oxford doesn’t just recruit from a few domains; it attracts students from a huge array of sectors. Diversity is woven into the fabric of the programme. When you’re working on a case study challenge, you see how professionals from different fields approach the same problem with different perspectives. You can’t get that kind of diversity anywhere else in the world.
Oxford teaches you how to restructure your mindset and think more laterally about problems. It equips you with the skills to deliver institution-wide change. I’m learning how to tackle potential barriers that could hamper the adoption of our new curricula. In any institution, it can be hard to reset traditional ways of working. So, I’m employing my newly honed communication and negotiation skills to bring everyone within my faculty and our training cohort on the journey with me.
Previously, I’d never seen myself as the CEO of my team, but that’s exactly my role. I need to inspire change at an institutional level, within the faculty and also amongst our learners.
The Oxford Executive MBA stood out from other degrees due to its unique structure and approach. Diversity is woven into the fabric of the programme.
Delivering transformational change
Through the Executive MBA, I’m learning how to ‘sell’ my vision as a product and pitch the benefits to our faculty team and learners – just as you would to a board of investors. These ‘customers’ need to be invested in this change to make it work. I’m also working with champions within core areas to smooth the transition. Already, I’m seeing the positive impact of the Executive MBA – and progressing at a much faster rate with our plans.
Longer term, what benefits could we see from the new curricula? The average clinician sees 2000 patients a year. So, graduates at Queen’s will collectively see one million patients by next year. Imagine if we can deliver on our goals and improve outcomes for 30% of those patients. That’s 300,000 patients benefiting from better healthcare collaboration each year.
The Executive MBA is equipping me with the skills needed to deliver this transformational change for the benefit of healthcare professionals and, ultimately, our patients.
Find out more about the Oxford Executive MBA.
Watch Wiley's talk 'Unleashing the Power of Teamwork in Health Care'
Wiley Chung gave this talk as part of the '5 à 7 Research Talks' series (video courtesy of Queen's University, Canada).
