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The MHA Program has a process in place to help you develop the necessary competencies to successfully lead in healthcare. Effective healthcare leadership requires that you commit to consistent personal development through self-reflection, exploration, and constant growth. Your development is rooted in feedback – asking for input, accepting feedback, analyzing feedback, and using it for on-going personal improvement. The feedback loop is never complete because we, if open to it, are always evolving.

Let's Get Started

Let’s talk about how to start your competency development and build the necessary skills to be a successful healthcare leader.  Your onboarding will include additional education around the competency model and competency development. Additionally, we will be working alongside you throughout the MHA Program.

Assessment Milestones

End-of-Course Feedback:

  • Every semester
  • Every course (core, not electives)
  • Preceptor Feedback
    • Administrative Practicum Position Preceptor: End of semester
    • Internship Preceptor: End of internship

UK MHA Student Self-Assessment Proficiency Scale

Descriptor Criteria
Beginning This is a new skill I could not perform and/or a skill I might not have learned before. I would need close guidance and cannot perform independently.
Developing This skill is somewhat familiar, but I would benefit from additional education, experience, and assistance to perform this skill. I have enough confidence to perform with frequent guidance.
Advancing This is a familiar skill where I am strengthening my confidence in applying this skill to a variety of increasingly complex scenarios. I could perform this skill with minimal guidance.
Proficient I am completely comfortable applying this skill to a broad range of complex scenarios and would feel comfortable helping a less experienced person learn this skill. I am very confident I can perform this skill independently with no guidance.

A Competency-Based Program

The UK MHA Program has a Competency Development Assessment Plan that helps each student track their competency development progress. Why is this important?

  • Competency-Based: The MHA Program is competency-based. That means that the program’s curriculum is developed to provide you and your fellow students with opportunities to understand, practice, and apply critical knowledge and a key set of skills – these are layered over multiple courses to help you build confidence, proficiency, and the ability to continue your professional development once you graduate.
  • Proficiency Scale: The faculty have developed a proficiency scale that describes how you will evolve in your competency development. The scale focuses on development rather than mastery. You will grow your skills in each competency with exposure to new situations and assignments that allow you to “stretch”.
      • Students will have access to the full-scale during onboarding
      • The scale is from 1 to 8, in two-point increments. This allows the student to see growth over time. The numbers correlate to descriptors:
        • 1-2 = Beginning (development)
        • 3-4 = Developing
        • 5-6 = Advancing (development)
        • 7-8 = Proficient (developed; has met the threshold for program targets)
  • Goal: The end goal is to provide you with the experience to apply the course concepts in a variety of situations that prepare you for real-world applications during the program and throughout your professional career.

UK MHA Student Competency Development Proficiency Scale

Descriptor Number Criteria
Beginning 1-2

Demonstrated a basic knowledge level in course assignments and/or experiences. Needs additional opportunities to fully understand the complexity of the skill and skill elements. The student is at the start of their learning in this area.

  • Level 1 - The student would need close and extensive guidance to perform the competency.
  • Level 2 - The student needs less extensive guidance to perform the competency that they did at the start.
Developing 3-4

Student demonstrates more than a basic knowledge, and ability to perform this skill in course assignments and/or observable experiences. The student demonstrates an ability to think with additional complexity. The student requires additional training/exposure to gain continued development in this competency. The student is not yet considering all the variables and decision points in this area.

  • Level 3 - The student needs frequent guidance in executing this competency.
  • Level 4 - The student needs less frequent guidance in executing this competency.
Advancing 5-6

The student demonstrates an in-depth proficiency of this competency on course assignments and/or observable experiences. The student demonstrates sophisticated knowledge and skill for this competency and can apply it in a variety of situations, and with increasing complexity. They are gaining the ability to develop recommendations and analysis that include many of the critical stakeholders, data points, and metrics in their assignments.

  • Level 5 - The student requires minimal guidance as their development is progressing with more sophisticated abilities.
  • Level 6 - The student requires increasingly less guidance as their development is progressing with more sophisticated abilities; may demonstrate the ability to help others with less proficiency and expand their use of the skill in new situations.
Proficient 7-8

The student demonstrates a broad, in-depth ability in performing the competency across varied and complex situations, with many variables, and with significant complexity. They consider critical stakeholders, data, analysis, metrics, etc. each time they demonstrate this skill. The student can easily explain the relevant process elements and issues in significant detail in discussions and presentations.

  • Level 7 - The student performs independently; is working on deepening the grasp of the skill; is clear on when to ask for input and takes every opportunity to practice this skill.
  • Level 8 - The student consistently performs independently and can teach others; can serve as a resource and/or mentor; able to perform regardless of situation, variable, and environment.

How was the Competency-Model Developed?

The UK MHA competency model was developed by the faculty with input from the MHA Advisory Board, the MHA Young Leaders Alumni Council, alumni feedback, student input, and industry experts.

  • The model is reviewed on a cycle and revisions are made to assure the Program is providing students with relevant skills that increase employability and meet the changing needs of healthcare management.
  • Competency Layering Example: Financial skills are extremely important for any role in healthcare leadership. Our program offers three finance-based courses . Financial skills are taught in one of the first classes, CPH 655, and then reinforced in the next finance course, CPH 652. In your last semester you will take CPH 783 and apply finance skills to operations. Additionally, finance skills are applied in other courses but within the context of that course’s content. Human resources require that students consider position budgeting and strategic planning builds on capital budgeting considerations. This results in a student being able to not only understand the concepts but apply them with different variables – layering the skills with each course offering.

How Do Students Know They Are Developing Key Skills?

Students are assessed in courses, by preceptors, and by faculty. Milestone assessed are layered over the program length and scheduled to allow the student to monitor their own development.

Student Dashboard

To help you track your progress to competency proficiency in the MHA program, we developed a personalized dashboard for each student. The dashboard will track a student’s competency development progress as they move through the program. You will receive feedback every semester including:

  • Course feedback from faculty: assignment feedback and end-of-course evaluation of your progress for the specific competencies assigned to that course
  • APP Preceptor feedback (full time APP students): informal, mid- end-of-semester feedback
  • Internship preceptor feedback (all students)
  • Other – mentors, staff, guest speakers, coaches
  • Career and Professional advisor
  • Academic advisor
  • Faculty feedback

This is your toolbox for developing the competencies you need to get a job, develop as a leader, and continue to advance. Learning is not “done” at graduation.

What are the Benefits of a Dashboard?

  • See your progress over time
  • Identify strengths – build on those and look for positions that accentuate these skills
  • Identify gaps – everyone has opportunities to grow. Take them seriously and strive to improve with each opportunity

Input for your Individual Development Plan: This dashboard gives you a summary of your competency development throughout the program and allows you an overview of how you have progressed. Please use your dashboard along with any assessment data you have received (i.e. internship, preceptor, self-assessment) to complete your individual development plan (IDP). 

Who Has Access?

  • You will have access to your dashboard at onboarding. The assessment team will email you a link. You will use this folder for the length of the program so everything is in one place.
  • Faculty, Professional Advisor (Program Director), Academic Advisor (Benji Bryant), and our Assessment Director (Andrea Perkins) all have access so we can support you in your development.

Individual Development Plan (IDP)

  • When? At the end of each semester you will gather all the feedback (formal and informal) and develop (the first time) or revise and add (after the first time) your individual development plan (IDP).
  • Who is in charge: This is all YOU! It is required and it’s in YOUR hands – we are here to help but YOU must take the initiative.
  • Best-Practice: An IDP is a human capital development best practice and is used by most organizations (called a lot of different things). Being familiar with an IDP is itself a key skill for healthcare leadership.
  • Location: Your IDP and Dashboard will live in the individual link shared with you at onboarding