Scholarly Intent for Pursuing a Doctoral Degree

Scholarly Intent for Pursuing a Doctoral Degree

I currently work for the Arizona Department of Corrections in Medical Records. My intent to pursue a doctoral program is driven by a desire and a commitment to advancing healthcare management practices, both within the general public healthcare system and correctional facilities. My goal in beginning this doctoral program is to gain advanced knowledge and skills in leadership and emerging and future-proof tools in medical records management. Working at the Arizona Department of Corrections has helped me understand healthcare challenges within correctional facilities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the population, regardless of whether a staff member or incarcerated, is highly susceptible to infectious diseases, making correctional institutions a point of focus for current and future public health (Montoya-Barthelemy et al., 2020). A challenge of managing healthcare within correctional institutions is majorly on how fast outbreaks of contagious diseases spread within prison settings due to direct exposure to blood and other bodily fluids through drug injection, poor healthcare systems, overcrowding, demographics, security issues, lack of community support, and high-risk behaviors. Although we currently use medical records in our department, our correctional department, as with all other correctional institutions across the United States, is yet to adopt predictive healthcare management systems that can support healthcare professionals within these correctional settings to make more effective and efficient operational and clinical decisions. I aim to utilize my acquired skills and knowledge to improve the adoption and utilization of advanced technologies in managing health and medical records within correctional institutions. Specifically,  I will test, push for, and lead the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical records within correctional settings for predictive healthcare management with the goal of achieving better health outcomes for inmates and strengthening the public health systems.

The Scholar-Practitioner-Leader model fits in with my intent to pursue a doctoral program, especially in my desire to engage in continuous learning, driving innovation, and creating solutions for problems that affect my industry of practice. The model focuses on preparing the student to be both a student and a scholar leader with the capacity to influence and inspire changes within the society, with the capacity to identify emerging opportunities, diagnose and address problems as they emerge (Bailey & Gautam, 2015). As a scholar, I will focus on research to generate more knowledge and evidence to influence current practices in health records and information management in both the general society and within correctional institutions. The model will act as a guide throughout my doctoral education journal to combine and utilize both the experiences from my practice settings as a medical records manager at the Arizona Department of Corrections and the knowledge from the doctoral program to advance my leadership competencies, identify problems in medical records and healthcare information management within correctional institutions, and employ advanced knowledge and leadership to develop solutions and lead meaningful change within the broader correctional industry.

One major problem I have identified while working for the Arizona Department of Corrections in Medical Records is the reluctance to adopt and utilize advanced technologies in managing information, especially AI, despite the benefits such technologies provide to the industry. The use of AI faces cultural resistance and skepticism toward integrating such technologies within correctional settings. Trustworthiness of AI technologies and digital literacy levels remain the drivers of cultural resistance and skepticism toward using such technologies (Knowles et al., 2023). However, such cultural resistance and skepticism can be resolved and managed through the integration of leadership skills that focus on overcoming organizational and industry-related barriers and promoting innovativeness in healthcare information management within correctional facilities.

References

Bailey, S., & Gautam, C. (2015). A philosophical twist to the scholar-practitioner tradition. Education Research and Perspectives, 42, 556–581. https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/ielapa.136335894921846

Knowles, B., Fledderjohann, J., Richards, J. T., & Varshney, K. R. (2023). Trustworthy AI and the Logics of Intersectional Resistance. ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, 172–182. https://doi.org/10.1145/3593013.3593986

Montoya-Barthelemy, A. G., Lee, C. D., Cundiff, D. R., & Smith, E. B. (2020). COVID-19 and the Correctional Environment: The American Prison as a Focal Point for Public Health. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 58(6), 888–891. https://doi.org/10.1016/

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Locate current research topics relevant to your field of study to help identify a problem in your organization or industry that can be mitigated or resolved through effective leadership.

Write a 350- to 525-word (minimum) statement of intent for the desired outcomes of your doctoral study. This assignment may be written in the first person.

Scholarly Intent for Pursuing a Doctoral Degree

Explain your intent or goals for beginning a doctoral program.
Summarize how your intent fits the Scholar-Practitioner-Leader model.
Identify a problem in your organization or industry that can be solved or better managed through leadership skills.

Include APA-formatted in-text citations and references.

Submit your assignment using the paper template provided below.