Monday, June 7, 2010

The first day of class was much like it was when I started First grade.

I woke up way too early. In this case, it was at 2:30 in the morning, which translates from Colorado to North Carolina as my normal wake-up time.

It's tough to wake that early knowing you have to be attentive all day.

This was the first time in about 21 years since I've been a student in school It's a little different than when I was getting my Masters Degree.

Specifically, things I noticed about my classmates that was different than the last time I was in school:

a. We all pulled out our reading glasses
b. We all used laptops and blackberries

The day started with the Dean of the Program's welcome. She explained to us that doctoral education is a collaborative practice between/amongst students and faculty, as opposed to a Master's program which is much more independent. She described the program as "a way to widen your lens in how you view things." The mission of the program is to develop graduates to create strategic change in healthcare.

The core courses of the program are:
Leadership -- who are you as a leader?
Health Policy
Informatics -- Business Intelligence -- How to use the data that comes from informatics
Research and Evidence Based Practice

She also explained that our final "project" at the end of the two years is open to all kinds of options -- a traditional dissertation, a book, a series of articles, etc.

It was nice that the Dean, while not teaching any of the classes until the end of the week, was on site much of the time and was very involved in the discussions and activities.