Boston Medical Center program develops next generation of health care professionals

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A hospital’s most visible employees are the doctors and nurses that treat patients and save lives day in and day out. But behind the scenes and beyond the spotlight, a great many people work tirelessly to ensure that those in need of care can get the help they require.

Developing the next generation of those less known administrative health care professionals is a responsibility that Boston Medical Center (BMC) takes seriously.

BMC’s Emerging Leaders Healthcare Administration Program (ELHCAP) was established by Patricia G. Webb, Vice President of Human Resources and Barbara Y. Catchings, Director of Employment/Employee Relations, as a vehicle to recruit skilled students and young professionals pursuing careers in health care and give them an opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the field firsthand.

ELHCAP is broken into two separate tracks — a one-year fellowship program, which begins in September and concludes the following August, and a three-month summer internship program stretching from May to August — both of which place individuals “in positions that challenge them to utilize their skills and their academic knowledge to provide solutions to achieving Boston Medical Center’s primary goal of providing exceptional care without exception,” said BMC Workforce Diversity Programs Specialist Doreen Lindsay, who manages the ELHCAP program.

The program, part of the medical center’s broader initiative aimed at enhancing diversity in the workplace, draws participants of varied backgrounds from educational institutions across the country — eliciting applications from individuals domestically and internationally, Lindsay said.

“Although our program is small, the caliber of talent exhibited by the pool of applicants is noteworthy,” she said. “Managing a small group provides the opportunity to ensure participants obtain the guidance required to succeed within a fast-paced health care environment.”

Since its inception, the program has welcomed students from top-ranked national universities like Yale, Cornell, Colgate and Vanderbilt; vaunted local schools Boston College and Suffolk University; and esteemed historically black colleges and universities such as Florida A&M University, Meharry Medical College, Tennessee State University and Morehouse School of Medicine.

That students from such respected schools have flocked to the Emerging Leaders program speaks not only to the diversity of its population, but also to the array of opportunities it offers for burgeoning industry professionals.

To qualify for the one-year fellowship program, applicants must have completed their master’s degrees, but because of the variety of the hospital’s functions, advanced degrees in public health or health care administration are not prerequisites.

Fellows are placed in “rotational areas,” in which they work on a specific project for approximately three months before switching off to focus in another administrative discipline. They generally work in three or four BMC departments during their stay, which Lindsay called a strength of ELHCAP.

“The value of the program, as compared with others, is our commitment to finding placements in functional areas aligned with the participants’ skills and their interests,” said Lindsay.

Finding that match is also a hallmark of the summer internship program, which is open to college students with grade point averages of 3.0 or higher who have identified health care as their career track. The internships offer them the opportunity to spend their summer working on projects and familiarizing themselves with the day-to-day reality of working in a fast-paced health care environment.

The internship application process, which Lindsay described as “pretty rigorous,” requires that students complete an online application, submit their college transcripts with two letters of recommendation, and write a 700-word essay detailing the reasons for choosing health care as a career, their specific interest in coming to Boston Medical Center, and how they believe they can best utilize their skills in the program.

“We believe our program is attractive because the fellows and/or interns are assigned projects linked to the organizational goals and objectives of the medical center,” said Lindsay. “They are real projects, they are challenging projects, and they are equivalent to the type of work that a staff member who has the same kind of qualifications would be doing.”

And just like members of BMC’s staff, the program’s participants are held accountable for the quality of their work.

“They are placed in an environment where they are expected to work at a very high level,” said Lindsay.

That experience pays dividends, according to feedback forms Lindsay has received from both ELHCAP alumni and those now in the program. The evaluations routinely come back laden with glittering descriptions of experiences that broadened participants’ educations and prepared them for the road ahead.

Colgate student and former summer intern Zwena McLeod called her experience “a significant milestone in my personal and professional development.” Current fellow Ateesha Jackson called the one-year program “a training ground of future leaders,” while Angela Ndirangu said ELHCAP “has helped me identify my strengths and true areas of interest,” including working to improve access to health care services for underserved members of society.

To Lindsay, the program’s backbone is that both supervisors and participants view health care not solely as an occupation, but as their passion.

“Program participants want to eventually become the next generation of health care executives, and we work to create an environment that will cultivate that goal,” said Lindsay. “The success of the Emerging Leaders Healthcare Administration Program Initiative is directly attributed to the unyielding support received from members of Human Resources and BMC’s Leadership Team.”