The management fellowship experience
I am sure everyone is coming through their student management fellowship experience. The reference letters have been written, you have critiqued the student personal statements, and given your endorsement to their complete package before shipping the materials off via overland mail, express mail, email, or through the digital National Administrative Fellowship Centralized Application System (NAFCAS). After spending 53-days writing reference letters and reviewing student packets, I’m sure I am as tired as you are. With the NAFCAS process being very efficient, it was still one more method to submit applications.
There was a NAFCAS meeting with Liaison International, the manager of the centralized application process, the morning following the annual ACHE Chicago Health Executives Fellowship program on September 23, 2016. There were 30 fellowship sites at the meeting and those who came to the breakfast meeting were able to weigh in on their experience. For the most part, the experience was positive and attendees complimented the ease of the submission process. The areas for enhancement included securing student transcripts in a timely fashion to get them submitted; clarifying the distinction between a “verified” and “completed” application; and providing feedback to students who remain eligible for a second round of interviews if they did not secure a fellowship in the first-round.
Liaison International and National Center for Healthcare Leadership took the questions and are currently working to address the issues presented at the meeting. NAFCAS is collecting feedback from the verified applicants to capture capabilities that worked well in the NAFCAS portal and improvements that could be made for future application cycles. Faculty were asked to encourage student applicants to complete the survey by November 21.
The Collaborative Partnership Committee (CPC) chaired by Board Secretary Brenda Freshman, University of California Long Beach, is working to bring organizations together to share how best we can collaborate to advance the education of our students and to advance the health management field. Jerry Glandon was a speaker at the ACHE fellowship event representing the Winston Fellowship and participated in the NAFCAS meeting since Liaison manages the AUPHA HAMPCAS process. Brenda and her committee are keenly aware of the need to bring complementary organizations together to discuss how best to address the challenges facing faculty and students. The fellowship application is one such issue she has on the CPC.
AUPHA transparency
Lindsey McDougle (2016) at the University of San Diego writes that only 30 percent of Americans have a high degree of confidence that nonprofits are providing quality services, and less than 20 percent believe nonprofits spend money wisely. There are interesting articles on the American Society of Association Executives website in Washington, DC (www.asae.org). The ASAE “cause” is to help associations and association professionals transform society through the power of collaboration. AUPHA is a member organization and we are working to increase our visibility with our faculty and student members as well as outside of the academic community.
The issue of transparency has been an issue advocated by ASAE and your AUPHA Board and President/CEO. We take transparency seriously and we are working to enhance Board transparency. To that end, the Board would like to open our meetings to allow members to participate in our discussion. Jerry will be directing communication on how we plan to introduce an “open meeting” format. It will work to better introduce the Board deliberations to our members, to invite input, and more importantly to help train future Board members.
Case competitions and their value
There have been a number of case competitions developed around the country – Baylor University, Cleveland Clinic, National Association of Health Services Executives, The Ohio State University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and others. They each work to develop student analytical thinking, collaboration, communication, public speaking, and writing skills. Several AUPHA faculty returned from the NAHSE case competition held in Las Vegas from October 12 – 14, where 24 teams addressed the issue of behavioral health services in San Diego from a policy perspective. While participating teams could not observe each other, the questions to the various teams that stood out to me were:
- How will the team negotiate the proposed Medicare PMPM
- Will there be penalty payments for bundled payments
- What reconciliation will be done for the 5% increase in salaries
- How will the team address incarcerated community members with mental health issues
- How will mental health stigma be handled in the schools
- How will the team sustain its surplus after x-years
- What community partnerships will the team have in the housing arena
The teams were superb. What most impressed me was the collaboration across university faculty and students. The students would enjoy the evening events and then head out for more fun through the early morning. Not being much of a late evening person, I checked on my team to make sure they were still alive in the morning. It did my heart good to see the collegiality and professionalism of the teams. And, if I must say, they all represent the best of what we do every day – teach, mentor, and advise. Congratulations, it made me very proud to witness the good work we do!