Patient Safety Home :: Fellowship
| VIPC&S is proud to be a partner in the Executive Fellowship in Patient Safety Program at Virginia Commonwealth University's Health Administration Department: |
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EXECUTIVE
FELLOWSHIP IN PATIENT SAFETY
Class of 2007
Session Starts June 2006,
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From Dr. Swisher Developing a Proactive Executive Fellowship in Patient Safety The publication of the 1999 Institute of Medicine's report, "To Err is Human" generated much discussion and debate about the dangerous conditions within our health care system. The statistics published which mentioned that more people die every year in a hospital the result of various medical mistakes made, than die from car accidents, breast cancer, AIDS, and airplane crashes combined. The estimate that as many as 100,000 patients dying each year the result of healthcare accidents (that number may be as high as 200,000 per year according to more recent studies) was analogized with the deaths resulting in the crash of one jumbo airplane every day! |
This eight month, distance-learning program (some of our past Fellowship programs have been as long as 15 months) begins with a 3-4 day on-campus introduction to course material, followed by on-line modules taught by nationally renowned faculty, and concludes with a 2-3 day on campus session. The program’s first on-campus session is held on the College of William and Mary Law School campus in Colonial Williamsburg. Virginia. This session will introduce the fellows to each other, some of the teaching faculty, our academic blackboard system used for the on line sessions and finally to our outstanding VCU on line academic library system. The second on-campus session, in Richmond, Virginia, will be held in conjunction with the annual patient safety conference sponsored by VIPC&S (Virginian's Improving Patient Care & Safety). During this time the all fellows will present a power-point presentation to the class describing the patient safety project each fellow designed and implemented in his/her facility. All fellows will attend the VIPC&S conference (which nationally renowned speakers) and will graduate in a formal graduation ceremony.
The first on-campus session at the William & Mary School of Law is located in the heart of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. Colonial Williamsburg is a totally restored and renovated 18th century town, which is one of the most visited educational attractions in Virginia. For detailed information on Colonial Williamsburg, visit their website at www.colonialwilliamsburg.org. Nearby attractions, within an hour’s drive, include Virginia Beach, Virginia plantations, Blue Ridge Mountains, and much more. The second on-campus session will be held in Richmond Virginia, the capitol of Virginia with historic sites within minutes of the city.
The program focuses on professionals working in the healthcare industry who are involved in patient safety issues. Our almost 60 fellow alumni from our first three programs represent a variety of professionals including physicians, nurses, patient safety officers, researchers, pharmacists, lawyers, policy makers, risk managers, and academic professors to name but a few. They represent virtually every state in the country including Alaska (although we have yet to have a fellow from Hawaii to date) and outside countries including Canada and New Zealand. We encourage a variety of professionals from various backgrounds and experience in aspects of patient safety to apply to the program as these people bring as much expertise to the table to share with each other as do the faculty teaching the program
The Internet-based Program allows nationally renowned faculty, with select expertise in patient safety techniques, to participate. The faculty consists of a mix of fulltime academic faculty and affiliate faculty who are practitioners in the field. Currently about half of the faculty are from Virginia Commonwealth University and are selected not only because of their expertise but because of their deep commitment to effective distance learning techniques. Faculty is selected from other universities such as the University of Florida, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and University of Virginia. Organizations with particular expertise are selected as faculty, These include The Institute of Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), the United States Air Force, and members of various state and federal Health Departments involved in Patient Safety. Finally, and most significantly, some of the very best of our alumni are asked to become faculty members to carry on the tradition of incorporating clinical practice with teaching. Faculty are evaluated every year and continually update their modules to incorporate the latest research and literature on the tools and techniques of patient safety.
Tuition for the 2006 program is set for $4800 (subject to change) exclusive of some books which faculty may require or highly recommend. In addition fellows are responsible for their own travel, hotel and expenses for the on campus sessions. Most fellows are financially supported by their institutions. We encourage this as it will be the institution as much as the fellow who will benefit from the implementation of a patient safety project. Program payment should be made payable to MCVF/HAD. Those wishing to reserve a spot in the upcoming 2006 Fellowship should complete and return the application, facility reference letter, and CV. The facility reference letter is required to show support from the facility to the fellow that the facility will allow the fellow to design and implement a patient safety project in the facility and that such facility will give adequate support in time, effort and other resources to help ensure the success of the project. Do not send program payment at this time.
In keeping with the philosophy of a post graduate fellowship, fellows are not “graded” nor evaluated on their participation in the on line Blackboard sessions. However, in the past programs, the participation has been extensive and lively which is important to the success of a distance learning program. We understand that these fellows are full time working professionals and as such modules and sessions are designed by faculty to take about 10 hours of work each week for the most advantageous learning experience. This time includes reading, participating on blackboard, working in groups, working with the assigned faculty mentor. The only requirement for graduation is to design a project implementing a patient safety program in your facility
The minimum hardware should meet the specifications for incoming students to the University. These specifications cover both new and existing computers, and can be found at this web address (link opens in a new window):
http://www.vcu.edu/sci/0506specs.htm
In addition to the operating system and Microsoft Office, fellows must be able to access the Internet from their personal computer.
Even though fellows have the use of a computer at the office, we strongly recommend the availability of a personal computer at home. Fellows will be instructed in the use of necessary software for coursework and communicating via the Internet (such as Blackboard) during the first on-campus session.
Blackboard is a web-based course management system. Because it is web-based, anyone with a connection to the Internet and a reasonably modern web browser can access and use Blackboard. Blackboard provides all necessary tools needed for an instructor to present material to the student without having to learn how to create web pages or do programming.
There are two basic concepts behind Blackboard. 1) Provide a set of standard web forms for the instructor to use to add content to the web site. Once the instructor enters course content to one of these forms, Blackboard creates the web pages with the content and automatically makes them available on the web. Course content can consist of just about anything, including documents created on the computer (plain text, word processing files, presentations, spreadsheets, etc.), images, links to other web sites, etc. 2) Provide a set of tools allowing students and instructors to communicate during the course term. Again, for students and instructors to use these tools do not require knowledge of programming or web page development. These tools consist of discussion boards, virtual classrooms, and e-mail facilities. The discussion boards are where much of the interaction between students and instructors takes place. Participating in a discussion board is similar to sending e-mail, but all participants can view every message. Messages are submitted through standard web forms. Reading messages is as simple as clicking on the desired message. Virtual classrooms allow students and instructors to communicate in real time, much like internet chat rooms. The virtual classroom has the ability to show web pages during the session, and provides a variety of tools for highlighting content. One click is all it takes to start the virtual classroom. Blackboard provides facilities for students and instructors to send e-mail to everyone in the group or to selected members only. Files can be easily attached for turning in assignments or providing additional material.
Blackboard does offer a variety of other tools, including a course calendar, a course grade book, individual student and instructor web pages, and the ability to create links to external sites. None of these are necessary to provide a basic course, but they all use the same simple web-based approach as the other areas of Blackboard.
The Department offers extensive support for instructors and students participating in HAD courses through the Blackboard. All participants are given initial in-person training on the basic functions of Blackboard. For instructors, the on-going level of support depends on the level of comfort and available time the instructor has for developing the course web site. Instructors can send all of their content and requirements to the Department, preferably electronically, and the course web site will be built there; or instructors can build as much or all of the course web site they wish on their own. If support is needed at any point during the development and delivery of the course, it is available from the Department.
If you are interested in more information, contact Professor Karen Swisher, Director of Executive Fellowship Programs at:
Karen N. Swisher, MS, JD
Associate Professor
Grant House
1008 East Clay Street
P.O. Box 980203
Richmond, Virginia 23298-0203
804 828-5460
kswisher@hsc.vcu.edu
You may download an application in either Microsoft Word (188 KB) or PDF format (38 KB - Adobe Acrobat Reader required).