New CORE Certificate Program Enhances Leadership, Administrative Skills

Cuyahoga Falls hospital’s resident directors all plan to participate

By Natalie Cammarata

A new training opportunity for CORE residency program directors will launch this June that will focus on enhancing the directors’ capabilities as effective leaders for their trainees.

The Residency Directors Residency Administration Program (RD RAP) is a yearlong fellowship certificate program that consists of a curriculum that combines two live sessions scheduled to take place in Northeast Ohio and eleven sessions to be offered online.

“The program is designed to provide program directors in Ohio with the opportunity to strengthen their knowledge and skills and to become successful leaders of their programs and (in their) training,” Olivia Sheehan, Ph.D., assistant director of CORE Faculty Development, explained.

Funding for the initiative comes from two grants. One grant, provided by Cuyahoga Falls General Hospital Medical Education Foundation, will cover costs for their own hospital’s program directors to attend sessions. Additional support is being provided by the CORE New Initiative Fund. It will provide funding for up to six program directors to attend from other CORE hospitals. All slots are filled for the first year, Sheehan said.

According to Ronald Russ, D.O. (’98), clinical associate professor and CORE assistant dean at Cuyahoga Falls General Hospital, most allopathic program directors must go through formal administrative training, but such training is not traditionally offered for osteopathic physicians.

“We inherit the program from our predecessor, but we don’t always have the leadership and administrative … skills that others are taught. I felt strongly that … to continue our residency programs here, we needed to do this,” Russ said.

Sheehan said monthly online modules were developed by CORE faculty members to make the information accessible to program directors from anywhere—at home, in the office or at the hospital. The modules will focus on administration and education, and topics include portfolio development, preparing for an internal program review, legal issues in residency training, managing conflict, and the art of delegation and negotiation.

Information about the program and future sessions will be posted on the CORE web site, Sheehan said, or she is available to answer questions at 740-597-3711.