October 9, 2012
Volume 2, No. 9
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Alumni from the Arlinghaus Era (1966-1992) fondly recall weekly “Forum” class meetings which afforded time to cover topics not
included in the HSA coursework, like the Flexner Report, and to meet/hear from practitioners in the field. The weekly Forum
meetings still live on, but for the past few years have been re-structured into four “Professional Development” courses taken for
credit. These courses still have the same purpose as the original Forum and follow a curriculum geared to helping MHSA students
become accomplished and ready healthcare executives. I thought you might like to know about these PD classes since these
draw upon a number of MHSA Alumni as presenters.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 1 (fall semester of Year 1)
Covers: A) Communication skills, including good writing, business writing, emailing, taking minutes, preparing agendas, giving
oral presentations, and developing and using PowerPoint.
B) Interpersonal skills, including networking, developing a personal “brand”, and conflict resolution
Assigned students prepare a “What’s new in healthcare?” article summary that they use with notes in this scenario: you are
riding in the car with your residency preceptor who asks, “Tell me something new in healthcare that you’ve read about”. The
students assigned that week to the article summary also send a handwritten thank you to the speaker for that class meeting.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 2 (spring semester of Year 1)
Covers: A) Introduction to the Administrative Residency, including experience interviewing
B) Various career options in health services administration, e.g. CEO, COO, manager, rural healthcare, insurance, longterm care, marketing and PR
C) Teamwork in health services—understanding Nursing and other health professions
D) Understanding Project Management and Change Management
Assigned students orally summarize the gist of the speaker’s presentation, indicating what was learned and why this is important
to healthcare executives-to-be. Those students also send a handwritten thank you to the speaker for that class meeting.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 3 (fall semester of Year 2)
Covers: A) Practitioner side of the MHSA program (Administrative Residency and how the summer internship informed this)
B) Facility matters: Planning for buildings; physician relations; fund raising; conflict resolution
C) The “More” of HSA: Healthcare is a ministry; service organizations
Assigned students prepare a simplified “What’s new in healthcare?” article summary that they use without notes in this scenario:
you are at lunch with your residency preceptor who asks, “Tell me something new going on in healthcare”. The students
assigned that week to the article summary also offer the opening prayer and send a handwritten thank you to the speaker for
that class meeting.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 4 (spring semester of Year 2)
Covers: A) Residency Guidelines
B) Challenges in Healthcare (delivery system, reimbursement, workforce, contracting/negotiating, governance, faithbased organizations, leadership dilemmas, innovation, entrepreneurship)
Assigned students open and close the class: offer the opening prayer, introduce the speaker, summarize the speaker’s topic
regarding importance for the class to hear, thank the speaker, and send a handwritten thank you note.
I teach these “PD” courses, as they’re affectionately known, and appreciate the opportunity to present outstanding speakers each
week to our students. Our MHSA program is a “scholar/practitioner” program. The more we can validate and bring to life our
academic coursework by introducing the realities of practice, the better.