WGU MBA-HM first impressions and ongoing comments

[dposborne]

You can actually start your Capstone task 3 now and even finish it before your simulation portion is done. I finished my Task 3 a couple weeks ago and am waiting to finish up my final rounds of the simulation to knock out task 1 and 2. We may have to redo the simulation (it's a long story...)

If I may, i have some suggestions on task 3: you have to have at least 3 sources and make sure you put them in alphabetical order. They sent my task 3 back because of a calculation error I had on one of my financial charts I created and my sources weren't in alphabetical order per proper APA formatting. Once I fixed these it passed with all 4's.

I also have some suggestions for Leadership: pick out your 2 handbook sections now and complete them. Then when the cohort forms tell them you volunteer to do those 2 sections of the handbook because you already started working on them. That way you don't get stuck with 2 sections that you aren't too familiar with and risk getting work sent back. You can also do task 1 now if you like, its a simple task that requires you to answer some questions about your leadership style, strengths, etc...

Don't be afraid to cut and paste previous work for Leadership and your Capstone paper (as long as it's your work), this saved me a huge amount of time and effort.

[dmjacobsen]

Happy New Year! Another month (er.. a bit more than that) and another update. Organizational Management is done. I had to resubmit two of the three tasks. One of the things that's getting more and more aggravating as time goes on in the program is the double-edged sword of the pass/fail system for grading written assignments. I added two sentences to a 16-page paper and that changed it from not meeting requirements to passing. In a traditional setting, I don't know that two sentences on a 16-page paper would carry that much weight. But, the system is what it is.

Org Management was pretty dull. It's essentially an organizational psychology course -- how to best involve people, make everyone feel like they're part of the team, combine cultures of two companies to create a synergistic organization. This course wasn't too difficult, having had plenty of psychology courses in the past and working for a company that is fairly stereotypical in its corporate approach to team-building. The biggest stumbling block for this course was its placement on the calendar, with Thanksgiving just ending, and Christmas and New Year's coming up at the end.

Leadership should start in about 10 days (it starts on the Monday of the second full week of each month). Again, it's scheduled for 4 weeks, but I'm hoping that I will have a team motivated to get it over with faster. There really doesn't seem to be a whole lot involved in the team-based portion of the class, so long as everyone just bucks up and does their work. But, that's always the problem with group projects, isn't it? I'm going to go ahead and do the non-team task tomorrow, which is just an analysis of your personal leadership style with a comparison and contrast with other leadership styles.

On the capstone front, my team has finished our practice rounds for the simulation. We did pretty terrible, but that's what the practice rounds are for. We're gearing up for the 8 simulation rounds and we're still hoping to be done with those in a couple of weeks. For the written project, I already have a pretty good outline of what I'm going to do -- just need to meet with my manager and go from there. It's nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel and know that it's not a train coming my way. I'm still confident that I'll be done with this by the end of February.

On the MSN front, I've switched back to Nurse Practitioner. I spent one semester in the Executive Leadership program, did fine (all A's), but I figure the NP degree is more flexible in the long run. Even if I don't want to be an NP, I can still go into administration or teach. On the flip side, I can't be an NP with the Executive Leadership degree. Also, the downsizing of my job at corporate opened up my eyes to the ease of losing an administration job (lots of high-level execs were cut along with my peon job), so I figure it's harder to downsize a Nurse Practitioner. That downsizing was probably a blessing in disguise, because I would have never switched back to NP if that hadn't happened.

[dmjacobsen]

Another month goes by, and another update on my progress. I've completed the Leadership course and have completed 2 of the 3 tasks for the capstone. Our capsim team actually did remarkably well after an essentially miserable performance in the practice rounds. We finished round 8 of the capsim in the 97th percentile. Not a 97% score -- 97th percentile out of 1,308 teams from programs around the world. Not too shabby! I can't give many details on how to beat the capsim due to academic honesty requirements, but I will say this -- be VERY aggressive in expanding your company early on in the game. Spend a TON of money, and it will pay off exponentially in the end.

Leadership was pretty much a cakewalk. The first task was a description of your own leadership style and a comparison to other leadership styles. If you've never been in any leadership position, you might not really have a good idea of your own leadership style. But, chances are, if you think back, you've probably been in a lot of leadership positions, even if you didn't know it at the time. Even if you've never been in a leadership position, the text has some decent tools for identifying where your style fits in. I won't say much else about this -- it's very easy.

The second component to Leadership was the creation of a leadership handbook for future managers. Again, not hard at all. You have to write two sections of the book, 3-6 pages for each section (single-spaced). I chose "Leaders as Motivators" and "Leadership versus Management". These were pretty easy for me to write about. The only hard part was that you need 3 citations for each section, but it's not that hard to find information about these topics. At the end, you're required to critique the handbook itself in very simple terms, and talk about your team's performance and how you fit into the picture. Once again, not exactly rocket science.

Now, I'm working on my final project for the capstone. It's a growth project for the ER that I work in. I'm identifying barriers to the growth of our hospital, as we've actually had negative growth over the past two years while a nearby hospital has consistently more ER volume than it can handle. Considering that the ER is the primary source of admissions for the hospital, and since admitted patients are the biggest source of revenue for the hospital, it only makes sense to improve this for the long-term future of the hospital. I'm excited to apply what I've learned in the program to a project that might actually make a positive impact.

I'm hoping to be done with this project in 2 to 4 weeks. And, after that, walking across the stage at commencement in July. It's almost over!

[dmjacobsen]

One more thought as I near the end of this journey. I really wish I had gone with the Management & Strategy MBA instead. I don't necessarily regret earning this credential, but I feel that the "Healthcare Management" focus may be limiting if I choose to move to another industry. I don't foresee ever leaving healthcare -- especially since I'm pursuing a career as a Nurse Practitioner -- but who knows what the future holds? Although the MBA is more or less a check-the-box credential these days, I can see myself having to explain to hiring managers how my healthcare degree is relevant to other industries. Mind you, it IS relevant outside of healthcare, but it's just one more frustration that would have to be endured.

Again, I don't foresee leaving healthcare, so this shouldn't be an issue. However, if one is thinking about getting this degree and they are not already entrenched in healthcare as a career, I would caution against it. The entire healthcare system is on very shaky ground right now, with reduced reimbursement leading to cutbacks everywhere. Unless one is already on a good path with a successful healthcare organization, this is not the degree to get.

[dposborne]

Now, I'm working on my final project for the capstone. It's a growth project for the ER that I work in. I'm identifying barriers to the growth of our hospital, as we've actually had negative growth over the past two years while a nearby hospital has consistently more ER volume than it can handle. Considering that the ER is the primary source of admissions for the hospital, and since admitted patients are the biggest source of revenue for the hospital, it only makes sense to improve this for the long-term future of the hospital. I'm excited to apply what I've learned in the program to a project that might actually make a positive impact.

Not to get sidetracked from the original post, but I think one of the big issues ER's are facing these days is the massive influx of available Urgent Care facilities that seem to be popping up everywhere. I know that I take myself and family to urgent care first before considering the ER since my insurance charges me an exorbitant amount if I/they don't end up staying overnight in the hospital.

I read an article somewhere about all this, maybe you can use this as one of your barriers?

[smf6824]

One more thought as I near the end of this journey. I really wish I had gone with the Management & Strategy MBA instead. I don't necessarily regret earning this credential, but I feel that the "Healthcare Management" focus may be limiting if I choose to move to another industry. I don't foresee ever leaving healthcare -- especially since I'm pursuing a career as a Nurse Practitioner -- but who knows what the future holds? Although the MBA is more or less a check-the-box credential these days, I can see myself having to explain to hiring managers how my healthcare degree is relevant to other industries. Mind you, it IS relevant outside of healthcare, but it's just one more frustration that would have to be endured.

Again, I don't foresee leaving healthcare, so this shouldn't be an issue. However, if one is thinking about getting this degree and they are not already entrenched in healthcare as a career, I would caution against it. The entire healthcare system is on very shaky ground right now, with reduced reimbursement leading to cutbacks everywhere. Unless one is already on a good path with a successful healthcare organization, this is not the degree to get.

You know its insurance and the economy.

[dmjacobsen]

Not to get sidetracked from the original post, but I think one of the big issues ER's are facing these days is the massive influx of available Urgent Care facilities that seem to be popping up everywhere. I know that I take myself and family to urgent care first before considering the ER since my insurance charges me an exorbitant amount if I/they don't end up staying overnight in the hospital.

I read an article somewhere about all this, maybe you can use this as one of your barriers?

This is definitely one of the issues I have discussed with my manager in the preliminary work for the capstone. We've had several urgent cares popping up in the local area that have probably impacted our fast track volume somewhat. I mentioned that we aren't really promoting our fast track capability in the ER at all, so we're not effectively competing against these urgent cares.

It's sort of a double-edged sword, though. One one hand, I do believe that urgent care centers are better for most of the patients that choose to go there. The ER is *not* the place for runny noses and stubbed toes. On the other hand, that's a lot of lost revenue on relatively easy cases. I think that, because of our overall decline in volume, we shouldn't be worried about our ER becoming overcrowded with these types of cases.

[dmjacobsen]

You know its insurance and the economy.

Of course. That's what "reduced reimbursement" refers to.

As with most things, this too will pass. However, healthcare is in a real glut right now, and it's probably not best to get a healthcare-focused MBA unless you are already heavily invested in that industry.

[rebel100]

One more thought as I near the end of this journey. I really wish I had gone with the Management & Strategy MBA instead. I don't necessarily regret earning this credential, but I feel that the "Healthcare Management" focus may be limiting if I choose to move to another industry.

This is why I chose the more vanilla "Strategy and Leadership". But I haven't found other industries knocking down my door either. I'm not sure you didn't make the right choice. There is plenty of growth in the Health Care sector, with an NP credential it just makes so much sense. I wouldn't stress about your choice too much.

[sanantone]

One more thought as I near the end of this journey. I really wish I had gone with the Management & Strategy MBA instead. I don't necessarily regret earning this credential, but I feel that the "Healthcare Management" focus may be limiting if I choose to move to another industry. I don't foresee ever leaving healthcare -- especially since I'm pursuing a career as a Nurse Practitioner -- but who knows what the future holds? Although the MBA is more or less a check-the-box credential these days, I can see myself having to explain to hiring managers how my healthcare degree is relevant to other industries. Mind you, it IS relevant outside of healthcare, but it's just one more frustration that would have to be endured.

Again, I don't foresee leaving healthcare, so this shouldn't be an issue. However, if one is thinking about getting this degree and they are not already entrenched in healthcare as a career, I would caution against it. The entire healthcare system is on very shaky ground right now, with reduced reimbursement leading to cutbacks everywhere. Unless one is already on a good path with a successful healthcare organization, this is not the degree to get.

There is an easy solution to this. Just say you have an MBA because that's what it is first and foremost. Many MBAs don't even have a concentration.