Preparing Future Healthcare Leaders Today at UAB!

I talked with you last month about some of the things we are doing to reach our goal of becoming a “destination“ program for both exceptional students and employers throughout the southeast region. As we work in that direction, we are developing a collaborative, interdisciplinary culture that thrives on pushing boundaries, surpassing expectations and creating exciting learning opportunities.
As a national leader in healthcare education and research, UAB has a wealth of expertise to offer the multi-faceted healthcare industry. The School of Business is highly involved with collaborations that provide healthcare professionals with the business skills required in today’s healthcare environment and business students with the knowledge they need to succeed in the healthcare industry. Here are a few examples of what we are doing:
In 2008, the School of Business, in a joint effort with the School of Medicine (and with the very generous support of the Doré Family), initiated The Healthcare Leadership Academy to provide strategic management training for key healthcare faculty and staff members identified as possessing the potential to take on more demanding leadership positions in the near future. Retired scholar and faculty member Dr. Jack Duncan played a key role in designing and implementing the curriculum for the successful first class of 2008/2009.

The School of Business is a much better place of scholarship and teaching because of the long and positive impact of Dr. Jack Duncan. All that have interacted with Jack know that a kind and genuinely caring teacher scholar has touched them. We will honor Jack and extend our historical involvement in healthcare management by bringing new scholars to UAB who will continue his exceptional work. In addition to a national search for a focused senior scholar position in healthcare, the school is also engaged in eight other faculty searches---with many of the new positions having an opportunity to enhance our healthcare related research.
In addition to The Healthcare Leadership Academy, the School of Business works closely with UAB healthcare professionals to insure the Industrial Distribution Program in Medical Equipment and Supplies meets the ever-changing needs of the healthcare industry. The school also collaborates with the Schools of Nursing, Health Related Professions, and Public Health to offer dual degrees and areas of concentration for our MBA students.
As Dean, I am committed to our School playing a growing role in research that will have a real impact on healthcare management and future healthcare leaders. I welcome your ideas on how Business can work more closely in the many areas of healthcare to provide additional advantages for the university and its students to flourish in the collaborative environment we enjoy here at UAB!

The Destination: UAB School of Business

The School of Business is engaged this year in an intense strategic planning process----with the focused goal to become a “destination“ program for both exceptional students and employers throughout the southeast region. With monthly faculty meetings with assigned projects, led by faculty task forces, we are setting forth plans leading to recognition for excellence in both our programs of student learning and our exceptional faculty research. We have a simple initial 3-5 year “destination” goal--- when high-achieving high school students are seeking an undergraduate business education, the UAB School of Business will be top of mind. We will be top of mind for quality faculty scholars and respected programs of study and top of mind for internships and long-term employment opportunities. To these ends, we are implementing programs of support for: (1) enhanced faculty development and scholarship, including expanding research grants and (2) recruitment of eight new faculty scholars for fall 2010---three in accounting, two in marketing, two in management/quantitative methods, and one in healthcare management. These efforts are matched with major reviews/updates of academic programs and a material growth in external PR and news releases on excellence in programs and research---we will be doing a better job of telling the story of excellence in Business education and research at UAB.

School's core mission is enhanced by the diversity of students and faculty common to UAB

The core mission of the School of Business goes beyond providing our students with exceptional technical, communication, and critical thinking skills. We also aim to provide intense experiential learning opportunities----a ten-dollar academic word for hands-on, learn by doing. In today’s very competitive and “flat” world, our students need the practical job environment skills that the best employers expect and seek. We work to accomplish this key experiential learning goal by many ways, including:

1. Paid and faculty supervised internships with local and regional companies

2. Faculty supervised service-learning projects where our students help small businesses and not-for-profit organizations with the design and the implementation of strategic plans

3. Real-world case studies led by faculty with extensive and relevant industry experience

4. Opportunities for students to participate in the cutting edge research conducted by School faculty members

5. International study programs designed to gain cultural and unique business insights.

Our focus on experiential learning is enhanced by the diversity of students and faculty common to UAB. As recently reported, UAB has the third most diverse campus in the U.S. Diversity is a complex and very broad term at our School---encompassing diversity of race, economic background, culture, skills, geography, and political viewpoints. Business students at UAB are in a daily environment that matches the diversity of the work place and the diversity of the communities where they may live/work. Their perception of folks from very different cultures and life experiences is an initial challenge that quickly becomes an exceptional opportunity to gain new insights. It is a pleasure to observe our students as they gain new ways to think about common business issues and problems---and find creative ways to work with other students from materially different cultures. As they mature in this process, their eyes are opened wide to the real economic benefits of a diverse work place. Old perceptions fade away and new friendships are formed and nurtured. Our students leave UAB prepared to work with diverse associates, with diverse customers, with diverse regulators, and to prosper in diverse cultures.

We are being unfair to President Obama.

We are being unfair to President Obama. We are also being very unfair to ourselves, unfair to our children, and unfair to our traditional institutions of public service. We are expecting our new President and our many appointed or elected Washington DC based public servants quickly to solve all our economic, education, and healthcare problems. We always seem to expect this of our Presidents---Republican or Democrat. However, in the current time of economic concerns we have taken the level of Presidential expectation and dependency to a very unhealthy level---a level that will only disappoint. I call this phenomenon the overreliance on leadership—an issue not just for the President but also for all individuals placed in leadership positions. The problem is compounded by many leaders that welcome, even seek out, the opportunity to be “the one” for whom the folks become dependent. We need to step back and recognize that the operative words for helping our President are “what do I personally need to do today to help improve our economy, to help reduce our healthcare costs, and/or to improve our education system”. We can be fair, and even instructive, to President Obama by being patient and by not demanding short-term “easy” solutions. While the President, with Congress, works to define and implement the “right things” (for which there are many conflicting and confusing options), we can be fair to the President by taking immediate personal initiatives to solve our own issues. I provide a list of actions we can take today to be fair to our governmental leaders and to be fair to ourselves:

1. Do all things for your personal health that we all know are positive---loose some weight, exercise, eat less fat, stop smoking. You know--all those things that are hard to do, but are things all healthcare professionals tell us are essential for reducing escalating healthcare costs. In the same category of known healthcare cost issues---use seat belts and do not drink and drive. If you choose to reach out to help the hurts and hopes of the less fortunate, you can start an outreach mission at your place of worship or community center to provide healthier food, advice on nutrition or exercise, and help with disease prevention.

2. Help one child to learn the excitement of reading and learning. In the process, you can help one child to understand the great benefits of deferred gratification. The child may be you own son or daughter, or a grandchild, or a stranger at any elementary school with budget cuts. Help a child to be excited about learning and you help create a productive contributor to our economy. This will also give a teacher help and encouragement—they deserve your help!

3. Spend your limited resources on needs and less on wants—and allocate some funds to savings for your future needs. Start today to save your own nest egg and be less dependent on government. Become less dependent on debt and more willing to defer purchases while you save to pay cash. If you still have a good income, use your resources to invest in those less fortunate who need a lift up. There is no better investment than lifting others up from desperate conditions—your returns will be infinite, even if it means some potential frustrations at not being thanked.

4. Help one unemployed individual to identify a pathway to work. You can help an unemployed person build a network of job contacts, you can help an unemployed person find retraining, you can invest in his or her future by gifting tuition for retraining, or you can personally tutor this person on improved skills needed in the changed workplace. Help one adult to learn to read – Birmingham has a very active Adult Literacy Program that makes it very easy to participate in this incredibly worthwhile endeavor. Be creative, kind, and generous in helping just one unemployed person find a path to work.

5. Avoid being a self-fulfilling phenomenon who whines about how bad things are at work or in the country, talking in the halls about how the economy or the boss or the employer are so bad that we will all loose our jobs. These folks (who may be hourly workers and/or executives) forget to work hard each day—too busy anticipating and talking about the bad things that may happen. Go to work each day with a great attitude and with a great work ethic---invest every hour and every day doing your job and helping your employer and your community to survive. You may face unfairness in pay or promotion---but keep on working hard. When times improve, your options will be many if you maintain a great work ethic and a positive attitude. Be helpful to others with a positive attitude rather than by dragging them down with your whining.

6. Visit and help in some small way one senior citizen confined to a home or a nursing facility. Healthcare cost fall disproportionally on the elderly. Many physician friends tell me their waiting rooms and phone messages are full of elderly patients just seeking comfort and some attention. One visit a week to an elderly person can lift a spirit and improve feelings of being loved---a less expensive but potent medicine for an elderly person facing death. If you feel like giving more time, help take an elderly person to their place of worship or bring the worship to their home—for many, this brings comfort.

7. Help in any way you can to allow one student to remain in college. Many college students are in need of aid to stay in school as their families face severe financial hardships. Your help can by a direct gift or a part-time job. By keeping one more student in college and allowing him or her to get a degree, you are creating one more employable worker and eliminating one more person seeking a job today.