MBA Journal: B-School Update June 15, 2009, 3:40PM EST

Channeling Frances Perkins

(page 2 of 2)

Linda Craib
Health Care Executive MBA Program
Class of 2010
Yale School of Management

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As the largest municipal health-care system in the nation, his organization is addressing the diverse needs of 1.3 million New Yorkers while maintaining a long-standing commitment to safe, efficient, quality care. My interest in the national nurse staffing crisis, nursing unions, and the impact of nurse-patient ratios relative to safety and nurse job satisfaction was touched upon by Benjamin Chu, President and CEO of Kaiser Permanente Southern California. A public policy report issued by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and available on the JCAHO Web site recognized Kaiser Permanente's long-standing commitment to decreasing nursing turnover and creating a culture of retention to help control costs. Its goal to become the "employer of choice" for nurses seems to be working. Following his presentation, Chu confirmed what has become common knowledge among nurses: Kaiser has no trouble attracting and keeping them.

Outside the confines of the classroom, I have encountered alumni as generous with their time as they are with career advice, informal mentoring, and introductions to their own contacts within the business world. In just the past few months, I have spoken with managers and executives at such organizations as Americares, Save the Children, Yale New Haven Hospital, Boehringer Ingelheim, the Bridgeport Child Advocacy Center, and Cardiopulmonary Corporation. Each individual has helped me glimpse various aspects of the for-profit and nonprofit world of health care, and the meetings have been an invaluable education in and of themselves.

Classes in hypothesis testing and regression, leadership, financial theory, and mathematical modeling with spreadsheets have all wound down as I gear up for marketing management, health-care economics, operations management, and power and politics. Reading assignments and individual writing projects come fast and furious, while the team aspect of our education takes on the unique challenges that distance, work, and family commitments can impose. I've heard others in my class say, as I feel, that our lives have become inextricably intertwined. Perhaps some of the greatest lessons so far have been about individual relationships and group dynamics.

As the spring semester approaches, I'm struck by how much I have already learned and how much is yet to come. The readings, the group and individual assignments, and the expectations are only increasing. With the health-care industry in a state of undeniable transition, it would be easy to feel overwhelmed with thoughts about the future. Questions about how my clinical background will shape my eventual career choices remain unanswered; somehow I know that all will be fine. With colleagues, teachers, mentors, and friends by my side, a favorite motto of Frances Perkins helps move me forward with a sense of purpose and confidence. "Be ye steadfast"—words as appropriate in her time as they are in mine.

Craib is an MBA Journal writer and member of the Class of 2010 for the Yale School of Management Health Care Executive MBA program.