Visiting Residents

As we approach the end of 2016, our on-campus graduate students who are completing their administrative residencies are receiving visits from their faculty readers.  These site visits often include: tours of the organizations and facilities that have defined the residents' experiences; individual meetings with residency preceptors and mentors to express gratitude for their role in the residencies and their perspective on ways to improve the program experience; and, focused time with residents to discuss their experiences over the course of the administrative residency as well as the entire program and to think about what the future holds for them.

Of course, site visits aren't always just tours of facilities and individual meetings to discuss how the year has gone.  Residents are still working full time in their roles, which often means staff meetings, projects, and urgent communications that can't wait may come up during a visit.  In these instances, faculty readers get to be a fly on the wall and observe, providing valuable insights into today's health care organizations that can then be taken back into the classroom.  Each site visit is different, but it's always so much fun to see how much development and growth has taken place among our students during their residencies.

This year, once again, our faculty readers are finding and seeing the great work that students have done over the course of the past year in their administrative residencies.  Students' experiences within their respective organizations have been diverse, ranging from an array of departmental rotations and committee meetings to activities such as budgeting, town hall meeting presentations, market expansion analysis, medical education, hospital operations innovation, safety and high reliability blueprinting, process improvement, strategic business planning, productivity analyses, behavioral health service development, physician recruitment, provider agreement negotiations, fair market value assessments, and even management and leadership of departments such as environmental services, imaging, therapy, and dietary services, among many other opportunities!

As faculty readers complete their site visits with administrative residents, we are also gaining valuable feedback from residents and preceptors alike regarding things our program is doing well and ways we can continue to improve moving forward.  Some of those sentiments, to share just a few, include:

• "We had fantastic speakers during our time in the program, and it hasn't been until the administrative residency that I've been able to appreciate that in retrospect."
• "I loved our incorporation of case studies in the curriculum.  This was the best part of my graduate experience, allowing me to use my skills in strategy and analysis to study individual markets and scenarios and craft a meaningful proposal."
• "Students should know that we have to use what we learned in Statistics and Operations Management courses a lot!"
• "Continue to find ways to bring together and synthesize concepts across the curriculum through case studies, including ways in which financing, operations, and strategy are all tied together.  Case studies are really valuable, because case work is what we do everyday."
• "I love how the classes we took throughout the program built upon each other and connected."
• "Be sure to have students emphasize in their work the potential unintended consequences across different functions of the organization, and continue to develop students' abilities to view the health care system from diverse perspectives, not just the eyes of a hospital administrator."
• "Your students are focused, energetic, goal-oriented, and effective communicators!"
• "I observe other administrative residents in our organization who came from other health administration programs, and I feel that we were so well prepared at Trinity."
• "Work to ensure that students are equipped to engage in difficult conversations as they enter the workforce.  This is a critical part of communication, including having the courage and confidence to address difficult issues in a constructive fashion that exposes perspectives and engages others in communication that otherwise goes unsaid."
• "I benefited tremendously from the program's content that developed leadership and honed our personal values.  Coursework throughout the program, including our quantitative courses, helped give me the skills and confidence I needed to succeed in my residency."
• "The best part about my experience in Trinity's graduate program was the culture that the program fosters.  It truly is a family environment, and I didn't anticipate that coming into the program."

As our administrative residents see their year come to an end in the coming months, this time of year often includes a mix of emotions.  For some, this includes bittersweet sadness that this unique experience is coming to an end.  At the same time, there is much excitement and anticipation for what the future holds after the administrative residency.  And, of course, there is often a great sense of pride for what the students have accomplished as they look forward to graduation in December.  For the program, we share an immense sense of pride in our students as well: over the course of 28 months, we have seen students grow remarkably, and we are incredibly proud of the personal development they have exhibited as well as the differences they have made (and will continue to make) in their organizations and the health care industry.  Although they'll be transitioning in status from students to alumni come December, we know they'll continue to be a part of the growing Trinity HCAD family.  

How fast a year goes by...an early congratulations to our 2016 administrative residents!