As I think about the opening days working for AUPHA as your new President and CEO, I’m sometimes overwhelmed by the magnitude of the change that I face. Working in health management education since the early 1980s should provide a solid foundation, but leading an association is fundamentally different. New functions (writing blogs), new responsibilities, new expectations, new technologies (Google Hangouts), new bosses (Board and diverse constituents), new colleagues/staff, and a new city all represent a world different from leading an academic department and working closely with faculty in a University environment. Why would I consider this and what was I thinking?
Upon reflection, however, change, constant change, is a major part of our professional lives. Healthcare is facing change as the government struggles with Healthcare Reform currently. What President Obama and Secretary Sebelius are currently coping with makes my little concerns appear trivial. Change has been a major part of healthcare for my entire professional life. I can still recall a new concept for paying hospitals that came to be called DRGs. This reimbursement method changed incentives hospitals faced regarding the duration and intensity of services during inpatient stays. It forced us to scramble to begin to link clinical and financial data and spawned an expansion into post-acute rehabilitation care. These types of fundamental changes continued throughout the 1980s and 1990s to today.
If we consider the students that enroll in our programs, they face substantial changes as they begin undergraduate, Master’s, or doctoral education studies. Their decision to further their career in healthcare management forced many of them to move to new locations, find new friends and colleagues, and spend the remainder of their savings and/or assume debt. They cope with substantial change at a time of life that has great uncertainty (Can I master the material? Can I get a job? Will I like the job/career?). Now, many of our students are making career changes or pursuing advanced degrees to further their careers and thus continue to face change as they might quit a job, move themselves and perhaps their families, and face returning to student mode. Again, compared to what our students face, my change is trivial.
Finally, consider the impending changes facing our higher education system. The traditional method of classroom teaching begun in the late Middle Ages is currently in the process of change. Faced with rapidly rising costs, education reform has already begun to alter how we all teach. Many of us are experimenting or employing distance learning, blended learning, and technology enhanced learning. We are all changing the way in which we utilize learning and communication technologies to replace or at least augment the traditional classroom. I will not risk predicting how this ultimately plays out but as faculty we must accept substantial change in how we perform our job.
The conclusion is that I face change, have always faced change professionally and my challenges of change are small compared to others. We are all in this together! AUPHA will strive to assist “all you all” to succeed in preparing your students to succeed in their careers in health management and as you face monumental changes within your educational institutions.