Matern Child Health J (2015) 19:227–228 DOI 10.1007/s10995-014-1660-3
Introduction to the Special Issue on Leadership Development for the MCH Workforce Claudia Fernandez • Laura Kavanagh Deborah Klein Walker
•
Published online: 24 December 2014 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
From the Guest Editors As the Guest Editors of this Special Issue focusing on the theme of MCH Leadership Development, it has been a privilege to review the many submitted manuscripts and ideas, and to interact with authors and researchers from across the nation who share a passion for both developing the next generation of leaders and ensuring that our current MCH leaders have opportunities to refine, hone, and promote their leadership skills. One insight that was confirmed for us in selecting papers for this special edition was the diversity of voices and perspectives around what MCH leadership means to the variety of stakeholders. This diversity of voices is heard throughout the collection of research articles and commentaries. We were not surprised by this response, since MCH is a broad field where many different disciplines share a central concern for women, children, youth, and families. These stakeholders sometimes see leadership differently, depending upon whether they view leadership from a clinical lens, a training lens, a policy lens, or a practice lens. As a result, our MCH leadership teachers Laura Kavanagh —The views expressed are the author’s and not necessarily those of the HRSA or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. C. Fernandez (&) The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA e-mail: [email protected] L. Kavanagh Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Rockville, MD, USA D. K. Walker Abt Associates, Cambridge, MA, USA
focus on a variety of ‘‘hard and soft’’ skills that they develop in their students and colleagues. Yet this seeming diversity of voices and perspectives come together in a most striking way through this collection of work. Although viewing the manuscripts based on these lenses is interesting, the articles, as a whole, tell an MCH leadership story of their own. Valuable lessons in history (and the kind of effort and partnership required to give rise to a new specialty in MCH) are addressed by Baer et al. in their examination of the birth of the field of nutrition services for children with special health care needs, by Kogan et al. in their review of the evolution of MCH epidemiologists, and by Reynolds et al. in their overview of the evolution of parent leadership in MCH settings. This rich experience is likely familiar to many senior leaders in the field, who followed a similar journey to help their own disciplines mature in leadership and MCH. Both history and the challenges facing present day leaders in MCH-dedicated academic institutions, state agencies, and the federal government are addressed by the contributions by Petersen, Streeter, and Kavanagh, respectively. Together, these commentaries lay the groundwork for understanding much of the complexity of our fragmented and yet still intertwined MCH systems as a whole—from those working on the ground, to those preparing the future workforce. The article from Kavanagh et al. illustrates the systems view of the Federal commitment to supporting the development of MCH leaders in many fields, and details the outcomes of that investment. A set of articles give a broad sampling of evidence of the outcomes from these many investments, ranging from activities to recruit and train MCH professionals, to develop clinical leaders, and to hone the skills of leaders at senior levels of government administration. To this end, Guerrero et al. enlighten how a
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pipeline program aims to increase the enrollment of a diverse student body into a variety of MCH-related careers. Handler et al. focus on training MCH epidemiologists, while Hastings et al. share their lessons learned about the implementation of the Professional Process Portfolio and how it could be of use to other educators. The challenges and successes of clinical leadership training through LEND and LEAH programs across the country are shared in papers by Rosenberg, Humphreys and Blood and their colleagues. The team led by Leff shares a new model for assessing development of the core competencies, which should help further refine the approaches to teaching these skills. And finally, several manuscripts in the collection address workforce development of current MCH staff, as the papers of Grason et al. and Warren et al. explore in their investigations of the MCH Navigator. Similarly, Fernandez et al.
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Matern Child Health J (2015) 19:227–228
details efforts that focus on the development of leadership skills in mid-to-senior level leaders currently employed in the MCH workforce. MCH embraces a life-long learning approach. Leadership development is also an endeavor that requires a lifelong effort. Therefore, this issue focuses on pre-and-post graduate leadership development experiences to share information on what approaches exist and what might be helpful for currently working MCH leaders at every level to further their skill development. Our hope is that readers find this story of MCH leadership across time, across the country, across disciplines, and across career stages to be of interest and of value. We hope that this issue will serve as a clarion call for the Journal to be a place where articles on the present and future of MCH Leadership will flourish.
Introduction to the Special Issue on Leadership Development for the MCH Workforce Claudia Fernandez • Laura Kavanagh Deborah Klein Walker
•
Published online: 24 December 2014 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
From the Guest Editors As the Guest Editors of this Special Issue focusing on the theme of MCH Leadership Development, it has been a privilege to review the many submitted manuscripts and ideas, and to interact with authors and researchers from across the nation who share a passion for both developing the next generation of leaders and ensuring that our current MCH leaders have opportunities to refine, hone, and promote their leadership skills. One insight that was confirmed for us in selecting papers for this special edition was the diversity of voices and perspectives around what MCH leadership means to the variety of stakeholders. This diversity of voices is heard throughout the collection of research articles and commentaries. We were not surprised by this response, since MCH is a broad field where many different disciplines share a central concern for women, children, youth, and families. These stakeholders sometimes see leadership differently, depending upon whether they view leadership from a clinical lens, a training lens, a policy lens, or a practice lens. As a result, our MCH leadership teachers Laura Kavanagh —The views expressed are the author’s and not necessarily those of the HRSA or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. C. Fernandez (&) The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA e-mail: [email protected] L. Kavanagh Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Rockville, MD, USA D. K. Walker Abt Associates, Cambridge, MA, USA
focus on a variety of ‘‘hard and soft’’ skills that they develop in their students and colleagues. Yet this seeming diversity of voices and perspectives come together in a most striking way through this collection of work. Although viewing the manuscripts based on these lenses is interesting, the articles, as a whole, tell an MCH leadership story of their own. Valuable lessons in history (and the kind of effort and partnership required to give rise to a new specialty in MCH) are addressed by Baer et al. in their examination of the birth of the field of nutrition services for children with special health care needs, by Kogan et al. in their review of the evolution of MCH epidemiologists, and by Reynolds et al. in their overview of the evolution of parent leadership in MCH settings. This rich experience is likely familiar to many senior leaders in the field, who followed a similar journey to help their own disciplines mature in leadership and MCH. Both history and the challenges facing present day leaders in MCH-dedicated academic institutions, state agencies, and the federal government are addressed by the contributions by Petersen, Streeter, and Kavanagh, respectively. Together, these commentaries lay the groundwork for understanding much of the complexity of our fragmented and yet still intertwined MCH systems as a whole—from those working on the ground, to those preparing the future workforce. The article from Kavanagh et al. illustrates the systems view of the Federal commitment to supporting the development of MCH leaders in many fields, and details the outcomes of that investment. A set of articles give a broad sampling of evidence of the outcomes from these many investments, ranging from activities to recruit and train MCH professionals, to develop clinical leaders, and to hone the skills of leaders at senior levels of government administration. To this end, Guerrero et al. enlighten how a
123
228
pipeline program aims to increase the enrollment of a diverse student body into a variety of MCH-related careers. Handler et al. focus on training MCH epidemiologists, while Hastings et al. share their lessons learned about the implementation of the Professional Process Portfolio and how it could be of use to other educators. The challenges and successes of clinical leadership training through LEND and LEAH programs across the country are shared in papers by Rosenberg, Humphreys and Blood and their colleagues. The team led by Leff shares a new model for assessing development of the core competencies, which should help further refine the approaches to teaching these skills. And finally, several manuscripts in the collection address workforce development of current MCH staff, as the papers of Grason et al. and Warren et al. explore in their investigations of the MCH Navigator. Similarly, Fernandez et al.
123
Matern Child Health J (2015) 19:227–228
details efforts that focus on the development of leadership skills in mid-to-senior level leaders currently employed in the MCH workforce. MCH embraces a life-long learning approach. Leadership development is also an endeavor that requires a lifelong effort. Therefore, this issue focuses on pre-and-post graduate leadership development experiences to share information on what approaches exist and what might be helpful for currently working MCH leaders at every level to further their skill development. Our hope is that readers find this story of MCH leadership across time, across the country, across disciplines, and across career stages to be of interest and of value. We hope that this issue will serve as a clarion call for the Journal to be a place where articles on the present and future of MCH Leadership will flourish.
