Health Administration Traineeship Grant

Rationale The University of Kentucky's Martin School of Public Policy and Administration Master's of Health Administration (MHA) program proposes a traineeship program that will recruit and train MHA students to be placed in health administration positions in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Most of the state of Kentucky is defined as medicallyunderserved or poor. The lack of trainedhealth professionalsis particularlyacutein the Appalachianregion of Kentucky and . surrounding states. The Martin School historically has recruited ITomand placed students in this underserved state; Funding for this project will enable us to increase our pool of students by providing support to those persons who ordinarily would not have the financial resources to pursue the master of health administration degree. Our pool of students includes practicing health professional and new college graduates. Objectives The maior objective of this traineeship program is to recruit and train five full-time equivalent students per year as a result of this funding and to place them in underserved areas. The educational objective of the Martin School of Public Policy's MHA program is to prepare entry level health administrators to act effectively when addressing complex problems in health services management and health policy in a variety of health care settings. Methodology . Several types ofgraduate students will be recruited for these traiheeships: (1) students who will pursue their degrees on a full-time basis, (2) early and mid-career health service administrators who are employed in underserved rural health care facilities, and early and mid-career health providers employed in underserved rural health care facilities who want to move into administrative positions. The program anticipates that some of the latter two types of students will be enrolled in the MHA on a part-time basis. We will recruit students as we visit other colleges and attend regional graduate student recruiting fairs, including those focused on minority students. The colleges include the University's Community College and four year colleges in the Appalachia region such as Berea, Cumberland, and Alice Lloyd Colleges. Recruiting strategies also include targeted advertisements in publications of state professional associations with our region, e.g., state hospital associations, state nursing associations, state nursing home associations. A number of national professional publications will be selected to receive ads announcing the traineeship program. Recruiting information also will appear on our web page. . For placement in underserved areas, the MHA program will strengthen existing relationships with the Center for Rural Development, the Kentucky Department of Public Health, and the Appalachian Regional Healthcare organizations. The program has graduates employed in many of these. The program has a history of working with these organizations through its internship program and members of these organizations serve on the MHA advisory board. More fonnal agreements that foster placement activity will be implemented upon receipt of grant funding. The MHA is a 2-year, 44-hour degree program that consists of a management core curriculum, a health administration core curriculum, a course in human resource management, a practicum in health administration, and a final capstone project: The practicum and the capstone project involve health professionals from around the state. The program will solicit the assistance of these professionals to reinforce.the recruiting strategies of the program. This will insure not only that trainees are placed in the state but they also will be involved directly in solving the problems of the state. The trainees will then serve as examples for others to see the career opportunities available in the health administration professions in underserved areas. Evaluation The program will use fall 2003 data for student applicants and admissions to establish a baseline for effectiveness of the grant funds. The data provide information on number of applicants, ethnicity, educational and professional background, and location. The program will track the funded students as they proceed through the degree requirements. The funds granted to each trainee will be tracked. Finally, the placement for the trainees will be documented. The goal is to attract more, higher quality health administrators to the program and ultimately to place them in the vastly underserved areas of Kentucky (see section A for more details). . Selected specific outcomevariablesto be includedfor evaluationof the program:numberof full-time students enrolled (relative to goal); number of parHime students enrolled as trainees (relative to goal); number of trainees who receive their MHA degree (relative to goal); type of initial employment by function and location; trainee perceptions of traineeship; preceptor satisfaction with trainee/traineeship program; employer perceptions oftnUneeitraineeship program. Selected process variables to be included: number of senior health services administrators involved as mentors and as practicum preceptors; faculty perceptions of traineeship; and quality of trainees' academic performance.