Graduate / My health and management interest : Statement of Purpose for an MSc in Management [4]

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE- AMEVIALOR DELALI DANIEL

At an early age of 7, I started to develop interest for two things; health and management. Both interests stemmed from my mother, she was a nurse, and doubled as a petty trader to make ends meet. After accompanying her to the hospital a couple of times, I began to empathize with the patients and purposed to be in a position of help to them when I grew up. On the other hand, I was also excited whenever I had to accompany my mother on her trading expeditions. I was intrigued by how she related with her customers and creditors; it was almost as if she were two different people. Being a single mother, I admired how expertly she managed her time, resources, work and all other activities. As a child, I began to absorb these management related concepts and ideas which proved invaluable during my High School and Undergraduate education. I took some management related courses during my undergraduate studies, including Engineering management, Project management and Entrepreneurial development. Realizing the applications of management in efficient healthcare delivery, I resolved to purse an MSc in management.

I earned a Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in 2016. I saw Biomedical Engineering, which is the application of engineering principles in solving medical problems, as the perfect opportunity to fulfill my purpose of being in a position of help to patients. As an intern with Goldstar Medical Group, I had the opportunity of working with the medical supply unit. Together with my supervisors, we supplied and installed medical equipment in various health facilities. I realized a problem during these operations; these equipment we were installing needed regular maintenance and re-calibration to prevent them from breaking down. But as was the case, we were only called to fix them after they had broken down. The engineers complained of the difficulty in convincing the management of the importance of maintenance and re-calibration. This problem is widespread as I observed the same issue during my research for my final thesis. I believe that an engineer in a management position will be instrumental in curbing this problem; as the engineer can fully grasp the importance of maintenance culture, and the severity of the repercussions of having faulty or broken down equipment; decision making and allocation of funds for both maintenance and procurement of essential equipment will be given the necessary attention, to minimize mortality and deterioration of patients' conditions. Apart from academics, I was involved in extracurricular activities that helped me further develop my management skills.

As part of my extracurricular activities, I was the Judicial Chairperson of the Biomedical Engineering Students Society (BMESS) in my fourth year. My role as a Judicial Chairperson included review and amendment of the Society's constitution and organization of elections. I was also a member of the College Judicial Committee. Serving in this capacity, I was able to work with my team to successfully settle disputes that arose during college and departmental elections. In my third year, I was part of the committee for an annual Trade and Technology Fair organized by the university. From my first year, I volunteered to be part of the Transport committee of the Assemblies of God Campus Ministry (AGCM). My duties included driving and maintenance of the vehicles owned by the Ministry. The ministry owned three vehicles; two busses and a truck which and had a membership of about 1,100. In my fourth year, I was appointed as the Head of Transport and in addition to my previous, I was tasked with organizing means of transport for all activities of the ministry throughout the year; these included outreaches to orphanages, prisons, crusades and missionary projects. In the same year, I was also the Vice Head of Transport for the Students' Chaplaincy Council (SCC); the SCC comprises of all religious denominations in the University; with membership of over 5,000 students. These experiences gave me the opportunity develop and exercise skills like time management, organization, teamwork, leadership and conflict resolution.

My academics did not suffer as a result of these extracurricular activities. I was awarded the Best Student award in 2014 and another one in 2015 by the College of Engineering; consequently, I graduated with a First Class Honors. In all these, I believe I have developed and demonstrated an ability to manage multiple priorities, a quality I believe is an important one for this program. Currently, I am a National Service Personnel doing my mandatory national service which I will complete in July 2017. I was retained by the University to serve as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Computer Engineering.

Ultimately, my goals are to blend my knowledge in Biomedical engineering with that of Management to contribute to the optimization of healthcare delivery. To be able to bridge the gap between Biomedical Engineers and the management in order to facilitate the procurement of the best medical equipment, sensitize the other management members about the importance of maintenance culture and to help establish more healthcare facilities in rural areas. Modules like Project management, operations management, supply chain management, managing financial resources and the Independent Consultancy Project will equip me with the necessary skills to contribute to efficiently managing increasing patient numbers and demands, improving productivity rates by eliminating wasteful processes and controlling costs by choosing the right projects to implement. I believe studying MSc Management (Operations and Supply management) in your institution will expose me to skills and ideas that will enable me develop into a management professional with virtually unlimited potential.