Developing Competencies for Health System Impact: Early Lessons learned from the Health System Impact Fellows

Abstract

Background: The Health System Impact (HSI) Fellowship program provides highly qualified post-doctoral fellows studying health services and policy research (HSPR) with opportunities for experiential learning, enriched core competency development and mentorship from senior-level leaders within health system organizations. Its overall aim is to prepare postdoctoral fellows with the research and professional skills, experiences and networks to make meaningful and impactful contributions in careers in academic and applied health system settings. Objective: This study examined whether this HSI Fellowship program has contributed to the development of enriched core competencies in HSPR. Methods: A competency assessment tool was developed and administered to the 46 fellows and their health system and academic supervisors from the inaugural HSI Fellowship cohort. Fellows' self-assessments at baseline, three months and 12 months were analyzed, along with supervisors' assessments at three and 12 months. Descriptive analyses were used to examine competency development over time. Differences by gender and between supervisor and fellow ratings were analyzed. Results: HSI fellows' self-assessments indicate that they strengthened their skills in all 10 enriched core competencies. Supervisors' assessments of the fellows' competencies also improved from baseline to 12 months. Gender differences at baseline disappeared by the 12-month assessment. Conclusion: The HSI Fellowship provides an opportunity to develop the full suite of enriched core competencies, particularly in competency domains that are not currently emphasized in HSPR doctoral curriculum.

The Promise of Science, Knowledge Mobilization, and Rapid Learning Systems for COVID-19 Recovery

“…Third, it involves a modernized curriculum focused on a set of enriched core competencies (eg, leadership, project management, collaboration, and knowledge translation) designed to prepare fellows for success and impact as emerging leaders. 12,13 Fourth, it permits fellows to protect up to one-third of their time for academic research within the university to stay at the forefront of their field and bring the latest developments to bear on “real-world” challenges. Fifth, it brings all the fellows and alumni fellows together in a national cohort whose monthly “learning collaborative” virtual meetings contribute to cross-cohort learning and collaboration.…”

Destination Impact! The Many Roads to Influencing Health System Change: A Response to Recent Commentaries

“…8 Women's College Hospital Institute for Health Systems and Virtual Care, Toronto, ON, Canada. 9 Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. 10…”

“…However, we also contend that the perspective of “it’s all about iKT” 6 minimizes the “active and experiential learning” 8 component of the fellowship that concern the fellows’ professional development and embedded training. The professional development component of the HSI fellowship supports the fellow in their development of both research and non-academic competencies 9 in such areas as “negotiation and dialogue,” “change management” and “project management.” 9 Moreover, we suggest that the competencies gained through HSI Fellowship-support (eg, leadership, negotiation, dialogue) are critical antecedents for the effectiveness of iKT . In this regard, the importance of fellows’ professional development as a component of the fellowship cannot be overlooked.…”

Training for Health System Improvement: Emerging Lessons from Canadian and US Approaches to Embedded Fellowships

“…So, to contribute to the currently limited evidence on impact-oriented HSPR training, it will be important to evaluate their impact at regular intervals, adjust their parameters for continued relevance to employment trends and health system needs and report on lessons learned. The papers in the present issue reflect initial efforts to learn from early experiences with the HSI Fellowship program, including whether and how fellows' enriched core competencies evolved over the course of the first year (see McMahon et al 2019a), what contributions fellows made to their host partner organizations (see Blanchette et al 2019) and the role and value of mentors in embedded research settings (see Bornstein et al 2019). Over time, as the Canadian and US programs expand and evolve, it will be important to investigate questions such as the following: Does hosting a fellow generate spillover effects for an organization' s internal culture of research and continuous learning?…”