It was a delight to see so many of you at the 2011 AUPHA Annual Meeting I Charleston last month. As you will read elsewhere in the Exchange, the meeting set records for attendance and was widely praised as the best ever! Many thanks to Peter Fitzpatrick, Christy Lemak, Jim Zoller and the rest of the Planning Committee for the very good work they did in putting together such a remarkable program.
A major topic of conversation at the meeting this year was the updated Strategic Plan that the Board adopted at its meeting in Charleston. The Strategic Plan will continue to be a living document as there are aspects that remain unfinished, but the Board has adopted three strategic directions that will guide new initiatives over the next several years. These three directions are described below:
International Membership and a Global Presence: AUPHA has long considered itself a “global” organization representing excellence in healthcare management education. Since the early 1980s AUPHA members have been active internationally, participating in study tours of foreign health systems, partnering with educational institutions outside of the US to exchange faculty and students, and offering training to organizations and individuals outside the US. AUPHA’s role in these activities has varied over time, and waned altogether in the late 1990’s. However, our membership and faculty have remained interested in the global arena, and we are seeing increasing interest from the global arena in what AUPHA does. The issue of international program membership has been discussed by AUPHA’s membership committee on multiple occasions. Most recently, the committee recommended and the Board approved a three-tiered approach to international program membership. Under this approach an international program can opt for associate program membership with all of the benefits for which an associate program based in North America is eligible. While we had established these membership categories and continue to believe that they are appropriate, we had not previously dedicated any resources (staff or financial) to marketing or pursuing memberships in these categories.
So going forward, AUPHA staff and the membership committee will be seeking ways to expand AUPHA’s international presence through both increased membership as well as engagement in more global initiatives. I have already had the opportunity to travel to Italy where I participated in the Bocconi Case Competition, the first ever international healthcare management case competition. There I met with programs from Europe and Asia who are interested in the programs and services AUPHA has to offer. Additionally, I have been in touch with SHAPE, the Society for Health Administration Programs in Education in Australia regarding a membership swap arrangement. Additionally, AUPHA will be hosting an international study tour to the Netherlands in July of 2012. More information is available elsewhere in this Exchange.
Creating Closer Linkages with Practice: Since the Summit meeting of 2001, there has been a call for developing closer linkages between academe and the field of practice. NCHL was founded largely on the principal that an outside organization could serve as a conduit between practice and academe more effectively than an existing academic or practice organization. However, there has not been as much progress as we would have all liked on this front in the last ten years. It is critical that the practice community understand what our member programs do, what the value added is in hiring an academically prepared healthcare manager out of an AUPHA member program. In order to grow that understanding, we need to get our programs closer to the practice community.
The AUPHA Board has explored the possibility of pursuing several initiatives related to creating stronger linkages between academe and practice. They might include but are not limited to:
1— Continuing and enhancing the partnership with ACHE to develop guidelines and promotional materials for post-graduate fellowships. This might include exploring the development of a “centralized application” for post-graduate fellowships. See elsewhere in this Exchange a call for materials related to this initiative.
2—Working to increase the number of practice experiences for all students at all levels by promoting internships and fellowships to the practice community.
3—Develop a directory of practitioners seeking roles as adjunct faculty and guest lecturers in specific curricular areas. A related initiative might be to develop a directory of adjunct opportunities.
4—Developing resources for programs to orient and train Adjunct Faculty.
5—Develop a faculty fellowship program to enable faculty to spend 3-6 months in a practice setting conducting research to benefit both the faculty and the organization.
At the AUPHA Business meeting, the members suggested an additional initiative involving the production of a video that markets the degree and the value added of hiring a program graduate that could be shared with the practice community. These are all ideas that we will explore implementing in the next several years.
Defining the Body of Knowledge: The recent revision to the CAHME standards for accreditation have left the field without a clear list of expected content in a graduate program curriculum. As the association that represents the field, it is critical that we be able to point to a source of information as the guideline for the type of content and curriculum that is included in a course in healthcare management. Until recently, that source was the CAHME standards at the graduate level and the Undergraduate Certification Criteria at the undergrad level. And while there does not currently seem to be an appetite to create a single set of competencies that the entire field could or would adopt, the Board agreed that there is a need to provide guidance to programs as well as current and future students as to the core body of knowledge encompassed in a healthcare management curriculum.
To that end we have already engaged the AUPHA Faculty Networks in examining and defining the Body of Knowledge for their particular area. The Networks will be working over the next year to develop a clear outline of what can and should be covered under their focus area. Once we have that information for the existing Networks, we will expand the BOK development to areas not currently covered by the Networks. I encourage any of you interested in taking on a piece of this project to get in touch with me at your earliest convenience.
Diversity: While not defined as a strategic focus area, the Board has acknowledged that AUPHA has a long way to go to live up to its stated value of Diversity, from the makeup of our Board of Directors to the speakers at our meetings, more needs to be done in this area. Jackie Gaines, whose Board term ended in June, has agreed to stay engaged with AUPHA to work in this area and help us move forward in "walking our talk."
While these three new strategic areas of focus will engage volunteers and staff over the next three years, we will continue to remain steadfast in our commitment to ongoing projects, programs, and services. The upcoming launch of our Centralized Application Service is an exciting endeavor for AUPHA and I want to recognize the good work of our HAMPCAS Advisory Board, led by Dan Gentry, and staffed by the incredibly competent and committed Liane Kluge without whom this would never have gotten off the ground. We are confident that HAMPCAS will serve as another means to define and distinguish the field of healthcare management among students and the profession.
As always, AUPHA is here to serve you, our members. To that end, we conducted a member satisfaction survey in the Spring. The results of that survey are shared elsewhere in this Exchange. But we are always ready to hear from you about what we can do better, what we can do that we are not currently doing, and what we are doing that you don’t see of value, so don’t wait for the next survey to come around to share your thoughts on that. I welcome your response to this Blog to that effect, or a private email if you prefer. Either way, I hope to hear from you about your thoughts and insights.
Best of luck to all of you as you kick off yet another academic year.
Lydia