TITLE:
HEALTH CARE ADMINISTRATION OFFICER
MAJOR ALAINA MUNDY: I’m Major Alaina Mundy from Pembroke, Ontario – I’m a Health Care Administration Officer currently posted to National Defence Headquarters, Ottawa.
Health Care Administration Officers, or HCAs for short, manage the delivery of health care to Canada’s soldiers, sailors and Air Force personnel – that’s over 71,000 men and women across Canada and wherever our troops are stationed around the world.
MAJOR ALAINA MUNDY: We are the connection between the clinical side of health care and the administrative side of health care. Our jobs are to enable the clinicians to treat patients. So we enable that by making sure that they have staff, making sure they have supplies, making sure they have buildings and infrastructure, the right kind of people in the right places. In the battlespace, we’re responsible to make sure that the lines of evacuation are clear, that we have documents in place and policy in place to make sure that any patient is evacuated rearward to a medical facility – and that’s an important piece of our job.
HCAs work in close collaboration with Medical Officers, Physician Assistants, Nurses, Pharmacists, Physiotherapists, Mental Health professionals, Medical Specialists, and other clinicians.
MAJOR ALAINA MUNDY: HCAs really are the magic behind the scenes. We are the glue that binds that clinical team and allows them to treat the patients. If doctors don’t have the resources, if Med Techs or PAs or nurses don’t have the resources to treat their patients, patient care can’t be successful. HCAs make sure that all those resources are there, and that patient care can continue, no matter what space we’re working in – so whether that’s in garrison or in the field or on deployed operations, we make sure that clinicians are enabled to treat patients.
Being a Health Care Administrator in the Canadian Armed Forces calls for the same business and management skills required to manage a clinic or hospital in civilian life. That means managing all resources and projects to ensure that Canadian Armed Forces members receive a spectrum of care that is equivalent to what the most generous provincial or other federal government programs would provide in the same area.
But there’s more to it than that. As a platoon commander, having graduated from university, an HCA can find themselves leading 30 people on a mission overseas and that’s something that most civilians never get to experience, especially at such a young age.
MAJOR ALAINA MUNDY: The coolest part of our job is that I never have the same day twice. One day, I could be managing a file with the Deputy Commander; the next day, I’m working collaboratively with other teams in the Headquarters discussing policy; I might get a phone call from a former subordinate who needs my advice and guidance on a file. So the rule of the game is that I never do the same day twice.
Once they’ve completed their military training, HCAs will be posted to an operational unit or to one of the Canadian Armed Forces Health Services clinics across the country as a junior Health Care Administration Officer.
MAJOR ALAINA MUNDY: When you get posted to a unit as a brand-new HCA, you are going to be surrounded by your peers – they’re going to tell you what the expectations are of your position. You are going to be flexible and be offered a variety of different tasks. My advice to any junior HCA is to become involved in your unit, become involved in your garrison, become involved in your community, because those are the experiences that are going to help connect you with not only the people that you work with, but your patient population as well as your opportunities for professional development, and to use your leadership skills wisely.
As their career progresses, HCAs can be employed at regional or national headquarters or in a training unit, and may have the opportunity to deploy on international or domestic operations.
MAJOR ALAINA MUNDY: My pinch-me moment occurred, for me, on the 10th of November, 2013. I received a call from my boss and he said, “I need to deploy you on the Disaster Assistance Response Team.” And shortly thereafter, I was in the air, on a flight, ready to support the Philippines in their disaster cleanup of Typhoon Haiyan. And in 30 days of us working, we treated 6,603 patients with four mobile medical teams. And that is significant – that’s why you join.