Accelerating leadership development: Rush University

The HSM department at Rush is a terrific case example of the “accelerating leadership development” principles described in chapter 2 of Healing our Future.  Their MS in Health Systems Management program uses a unique practitioner-teacher model, in which most learning takes place in the context of application, with mentorship from working healthcare leaders.  Rush leadership has made this possible by recognizing the educator role as itself a leadership development activity.

Over time, we have been able to more closely align work experiences more systematically with formal learning activities, evolving toward the lifelong learning roles model illustrated below:

Through this work program has also seen an escalation in national visibility, as illustrated by the U.S. News & World Report rankings over time: 

• 2011: U.S. News quality score increased, moving ranking from #25 to #9
• 2015: U.S. News quality score increased again, moving from #9 to #5
• 2019: U.S. News quality score increased again, maintaining a ranking of #5

For more information about program design, you can view this 2020 webinar we conducted for CAHME, or the chapter, An Academic Practice Partnership to Support Evidence-Based Management at Rush University Medical Center in this book.