Twelve UM Shore Regional Health team members graduated from University of Maryland Medical System’s Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) on December 20, 2018. ELP is a seven-month leadership development program designed to introduce potential leaders to the changing landscape of health care and the role of effective leadership.
Completing the program as the first UM SRH cohort, the ELP graduates received certificates from Ken Kozel, president and CEO, UM SRH, and Kate McCann, senior vice president and chief human resources officer, University of Maryland Medical System.
Lyndsey Feather, lead respiratory therapist at UM Shore Medical Center at Easton, and Alison Toepfer, staff nurse, UM Shore Emergency Center at Queenstown, were among ELP graduates. “I found the Emerging Leaders Program to be incredibly beneficial, personally and professionally,” said Feather. “Every topic circled back to our organizational ‘RITES’ values: Respect, Integrity, Teamwork, Excellence, and Service. From learning about how to navigate difficult conversations to understanding the difference between diversity and inclusion, we discovered ways to develop and explore what it means to be a leader, and how to develop these characteristics in our employees.”
“The program covered concepts that apply to becoming a leader in a health care setting,” added Alison Toepfer. “Those concepts were shared in a very interactive way, and it gave me, as a staff nurse, a better view of the nurse leader mindset. The program gave me the confidence as well as the tools to see myself in a leadership role going forward.”
Others completing the ELP program were: from UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown, Karen Hemingway, clinical nurse coordinator, Intensive Care: from UM Shore Medical Center at Dorchester, Koreen Smith, site coordinator, Laboratory Services, and Melissa Svehla, clinical specialist, Non-Invasive Cardiology; and from Easton, Catherine Tripp, clinical nurse coordinator, Ambulatory Surgery Center, and Melanie Donaway, supervisor, Nursing Administration, and hospital team members Donna Collins, Telemetry clinical nurse coordinator, Lisa Eisemann, Multi Specialty Care staff nurse, Jamie Johnson, Post Anesthesia Care clinical nurse coordinator, and Tara Smith, Multi Specialty Care staff nurse.
The program focused on six topics: models of leadership and the role leadership in driving organizational, team and employee performance; identifying and building on managerial strengths; effective communication; creating and delivering effective presentations; fostering inclusion and diversity; and strategies for creating and developing high-performing teams. Participants met as a group once each month for half-day sessions starting in July, and met in pairs between sessions.
During the half-day sessions, topics including health care finance, marketing, quality, safety, compliance and patient experience were illuminated by UM Shore Regional Health executives who made presentations to the group that included scenarios drawn from their own experiences as senior leaders in health care. Presenters were Ken Kozel, president and chief executive officer; William Huffner, MD, senior vice president, Medical Affairs and chief medical officer; Patti Willis, senior vice president, Strategy and Communications; JoAnne Hahey, chief financial officer; and Robert Frank, senior vice president, Operations.
Notes UM SRH Human Resources Director Barbara Hendricks, “One of the values of Emerging Leaders is learning about leadership concepts, and then taking the time to reflect. This helps to build leadership strengths and enhances the overall team member experience.”