Medical Society of PEI adopts successful Schulich ExecEd program for physician leaders

Posted on June 01, 2018
Medical Society of PEI adopts successful Schulich ExecEd program for physician leaders

In April of this year, Schulich ExecEd kicked off a custom, seven-month run of its highly regarded Physician Leadership Development Program (PLDP) for the Medical Society of Prince Edward Island (MSPEI).

Schulich ExecEd’s successful bid for the program proposal was due primarily to its many years of experience in running the program and its focus on training physician leaders to work in Complex Adaptive Systems. The forerunner of this program was created for the Ontario Medical Association in partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. It was also the basis for the public version of the course, titled Healthcare Leadership Development Program.

PEI physicians talk
Dr. Michael Gardam, program director of the Physicians Leadership Development Program, listens to Alex MacBeath, former chair of Health PEI / Kathi Grossman photo

While the framework and complexity lens from the original program was maintained for the MSPEI program, the content was completely updated and customized, with a slight shift towards more applied content from the original emphasis on academic content. These changes were based on extensive feedback Schulich ExecEd received from participants in the original program as well as from Program Director Dr. Michael Gardam, who is a practising physician leader.

The Physician Leadership Development Program is based on Jonathan Gosling and Harvey Minzberg’s article “Five minds of a manager” and is cross referenced with the Canadian College of Health Leaders’ LEADS framework. The 25 applicants selected for this program were guided from an initial phase of introspection and learning about their leadership styles through techniques of interacting with others and, finally, to managing systems change. Woven throughout the program are the principles of complexity science that was brought to the program originally by its creator, the late Dr. Brenda Zimmerman. The program is delivered in five two-day modules held at various venues in PEI.

Participants at the June session of the MSPEI Physicians Leadership Development Program are all smiles during a break. / Kathi Grossman photo

In addition to the didactic content, the program incorporates executive coaching (both one-on-one and peer coaching) throughout the seven months. The physician participants are also required to complete an Action Learning Project (ALP) over the program of the program. The ALP is meant to provide participants with the opportunity to apply concepts and tools they have learned in the classroom to a real-life challenge they are facing in their workplace. The coaching and the ALP sessions in the original program were continued in the MSPEI program because they were widely viewed as instrumental to the success of the original OMA program. The participants’ ALP Projects will be presented in the final module to an audience of invited guests from Health PEI and other stakeholders in the province’s healthcare system.

The program invites speakers for “fireside chats” in each module. While these are traditionally physician leaders, this was modified for the MSPEI program to enable the doctors in attendance to learn from non-physician healthcare leaders.

Finally, the Schulich ExecEd MSPEI Physician Leadership Development Program is accredited by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and provides each physician who completes the Masters Certificate in Physician Leadership with Mainpro+ credits towards their maintenance of proficiency requirement for the CFP’s continuing professional development program.

For more information on how Schulich ExecEd’s custom program team can help your organization’s training and needs, visit the Offerings for Organizations section of our site.