Klaipėdos universitetas

The professional development of health-care workers is a key prerequisite for professional success, and its effectiveness contributes to the quality of health-care services at any level of health-care institution. Health-care professionals face constant changes, as a challenge to adapt to the competitive environment around them. This makes it important to ensure that health-care workers have effective training to meet their professional development needs. Thus, the aim of this study is to analyse the theoretical assumptions of professional development, and to reveal the attitudes of health-care professionals towards the needs and specifics of professional development. The study has indicated that the professional development for health-care workers is result-oriented, yet of insufficient quality, with organisational, financial and other problems. It has been found that the planning and implementation of professional development for health-care professionals is subject to specific requirements. The combination of these requirements and the way they are evolving imply that the needs and specifics of health-care professionals in the field of professional development need to be addressed beyond doubt.

The authors of this article argue that work in the 21st century is more complex instead of being routine. Solution of education management problems in the Baltic Region is greatly affected by system approach ideas that treat actions as a unified system that consists of mutually related elements with constant interaction of internal and external environment factors. The evolving nature of school environment has placed new demands on educational leaders. Where knowledge of school management, finance, legal issue and state mandates was once the primary focus for the preparation of school leaders, education reform has created an urgent need for a strong emphasis on development of instructional leadership skills to promote good teaching and high level learning. Educational leaders must recognize and assume a shared responsibility not only for students’ intellectual and educational development, but also for their personal, social, emotional and physical development. In the article was discovered that school principals need to improve their management competences in personnel management, financial and communication management for successful school leadership.