Anthony McGillion1
1 Northern Health, 185 Cooper Street, Epping, Victoria, 3076, anthony.mcgillion@nh.org.au
Abstract:
The pandemic has piqued public interest in the importance of infection prevention and control and there is an opportunity to analogise the virus mutation and replication process to the spreading of intentional and influential leadership and the stewardship of best practice infection control and prevention. The behaviours associated with effective leadership and viruses are not mutually exclusive – the hardy and historically omnipresent nature of viruses, and the ability of humans to survive, to this point, a smorgasbord of pandemics, have furnished us with an opportunity to replicate viral behaviour to promote a sustainable approach to clinical governance.
We know from examples of global clinical governance failures what consequences arise from ineffective healthcare leadership so we should learn from, for example, the recommendations from the Francis Report (2013). In doing so we should start to engender sustainable learnings by metaphorically programming the cell nuclei with best practice leadership principles then adopting viral behaviour to influence others. The literal germination of ideas, reproducing within living hosts can potentially, through natural mutation, ensure the spread of best-practice leadership behaviours, evading organisational ‘immune’ responses such as budgetary and resourcing constraints.
Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. (2013). Report of the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Enquiry, accessed September 2024.