Program Overview
Curriculum | Cycle V Program Highlights
Curriculum
The Ecological Model has been chosen as the framework to build the curriculum for the Kansas Public Health Leadership Institute (KPHLI). The 2002 Institute of Medicine report “Who Will Keep the Public Healthy?” describes this model as “a model of health that emphasizes the linkages and relationships among multiple determinants affecting health.” Specific curriculum modules are based on competencies developed by the National Public Health Leadership Development Network.
Program Goals and Objectives
The KPHLI was designed to increase practitioners’ transformational and
transactional leadership knowledge, skills, and competencies in areas that
are vital to the development of their public health organizations/institutions
in order to impact Kansas’s state and local health departments and public
health infrastructure directly. Other goals of the program include:
- Providing a collaborative sequential leadership development model that supports the application of new knowledge and skills in the practice setting;
- Enhancing the leadership competencies that are vital to strengthening the public health system in Kansas; and
- Strengthening linkages among public health practitioners and developing collaborative networks with public health academicians.
In addition, the KPHLI curriculum acknowledges the importance of eight content areas recommended by the Council on Linkages Between Academia and Public Health Practice. The council comprises leaders from national organizations who represent both public health practice and academic communities, including the National Public Health Leadership Development Network. These leadership competencies represent a set of skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary for the broad practice of public health. They transcend the boundaries of the specific disciplines within public health and help to unify the profession. These content areas stress leadership that:
- Creates a culture of ethical standards within organizations and communities
- Helps create key values and shared vision and uses these principles to guide action
- Identifies internal and external issues that may impact delivery of essential public health services (i.e., strategic planning)
- Facilitates collaboration with internal and external groups to ensure participation of key stakeholders
- Promotes team and organizational learning
- Contributes to development, implementation, and monitoring of organizational performance standards
- Uses the legal and political system to effect change
- Applies theory of organizational structures to professional practice
The primary goal for each KPHLI fellow is to enhance and develop transactional
and transformational knowledge, skills, and competencies that are vital in
developing change strategies to impact the public’s health through 3
core functions. Within these core functions, the CDC has also identified 10
basic public health practices that are integral to the operation of state and
local health agencies:
- Assessment:
- Assess health needs effectively
- Investigate the occurrence of health effects and health hazards
- Analyze the determinants of identified health needs
- Policy development:
- Advocate for public health, build constituencies, and identify resources
- Set priorities among health needs
- Develop plans and policies to address priority health needs
- Assurance:
- Manage resources and develop organizational structures
- Implement programs
- Evaluate programs and provide quality assurance
- Inform and educate
The purpose of these functions is to impact the local public health infrastructure and meet the national objectives for the year 2010. Upon completion of the program, a scholar should have developed the knowledge, skills, and competencies to be able to:
Describe the meaning, value, and functions of leadership in public health
practice- Describe the mission, vision, values, goals, and objectives of their organization as a system
- Describe their own and other team members’ unique gifts and value to their organization/team
- Identify their personality styles and behavior patterns in regard to leadership practice strengths and areas for improvement
- Describe the purpose and methods for improving communication and teamwork in order to implement change strategies within their organization
- Describe the value of leadership competencies in their job and their impact on leading teams
- Select and define variables relevant to a problem requiring solution within their team and identify how the solution will contribute to the team’s vision of the future
- Develop and complete written documentation (as specified in course materials) of a case study addressing a problem in their work setting which seeks to enhance one or more of the three core functions of public health practice and meet specific national Year 2010 Objectives
- Describe how the five leadership practices of challenging, encouraging, inspiring, modeling, and enabling (according to Kouzes and Posner/Leadership Practices Inventory) are critical to most successful and productive leaders.
Cycle V Program Highlights
Session 1, “Public Health Leadership: Introduction and Team-Building” (October 24-26, 2007):
The first session of Cycle V kicked off with a reception to welcome the new class of scholars. Scholars, mentors, and faculty and staff enjoyed food and games as they got to know one another a little better.
On Day 1 of the session, the scholars spent the day on Prairie View’s Adventure Course in Newton. Over the course of the day, scholars went through a series of challenges and team-building exercises in order to meet goals they set as a group.
On Day 2, the group returned to Wichita for an overview of several self-assessments: the LPI-Self, Myers-Briggs, and CAP. Scholars also learned about the two major KPHLI projects, the capstone and the self-assessment paper. Cycle III Fellows Bob Hull, Terri Ploger-McCool, and Jerry Tenbrink closed the session with a discussion of their capstone project, a leadership summit that resulted in the creation of the Governor’s Commission for Healthy and Prepared Schools.
Instructors: Bob Hull, EdD Terri-Ploger-McCool, MS Jerry Tenbrink, BA |
Session 2, “Collaborative Leadership for Public Health Practice” (January 24-25, 2008):
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Over the course of the training, scholars applied these concepts to public health problems in Kansas and came to understand how collaborative leadership can influence system change. Co-executive director Dr. Suzanne Hawley closed the session with a discussion of the LPI-Observer assessment, which will contribute to scholars’ self-development plans for the KPHLI year. |
Keynote speaker Jeff Wilson Presented on collaborative leadership for public health, a practice-oriented concept that offers a process and methods for bringing different groups together for mutual benefit. Through training topics including assessing the environment, building trust, self reflection, creating clarity, and sharing power, scholars acquired the basic knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed for applying collaborative leadership models in their own organizations.  |
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Session 3, “Crisis Leadership” (May 1-2, 2008):
The possibility of a pandemic, disaster, or terrorist event presents great challenges for the public health workforce. Risk communication is a science-based approach for communicating effectively in these types of high concern/crisis situations. Keynote speaker Dr. Vincent Covello provided scholars with a “toolbox” of science-based risk communication models and methods that focused on the competence required of public health leadership in crisis or emergency situations.
Co-executive director Dr. Suzanne Hawley led a discussion of systems thinking and mental models for communicating in organizations. Then, Deborah Fromer delivered a talk on the elements of developing a scientific poster, including overviews of all poster sections as well as sample posters. Finally, scholars presented their own interpretations of leadership using the creative method of their choice.
Instructors:
Vincent T. Covello, PhD (Keynote Speaker)
Director, Center for Risk Communication
Suzanne Hawley, PhD, MPH
Co-Executive Director, KPHLI
Assistant Professor
Director of KU-MPH Program – Wichita
Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita
Deborah Fromer, MT (ASCP), MPH
Epidemiologist
Health Protection and Promotion
Sedgwick County Health Department
Session 4, “Current Issues in Public Health Leadership” (July 24-25, 2008):
At the final session of Cycle V, keynote speaker Jerry Sternin introducedscholars to the concept of“positive deviance,” which is the idea that solutions to community problems exist within the community. Elaborating on the concept with numerous examples from public health practice, Sternin explained that some members of a community are able to solve problems that most are not, by using the same resources available to all but in an unconventional way. Unlike traditional needs assessments, positive deviance is community-led and seeks to identify internal rather than external resources and solutions. This concept can be used to address complex social problems in environments with limited resources. On Day 2, the keynote presentation continued and scholars were able to work through a case study applying positive deviance methods in a hypothetical public health situation. The session concluded with an overview of the final stages of the capstone paper, self-assessment paper, and capstone presentation processes. The Cycle V capstone session will be held on September 16, 2008. |
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