Alumni Spotlight: Chandell Kelly
Chandell Kelly’s recent career trajectory – from ICU nurse to educator to managing educator – was accelerated by the MHLP, which equipped her with tangible leadership skills, expanded her knowledge of clinical education and grew her professional network.
Several years ago, one of Chandell Kelly’s managers encouraged her to apply for a leadership role. Then working as a nurse in the cardiac surgery ICU, Chandell applied for the job and was shortlisted for an interview. Although she wasn’t successful, it was a pivotal moment.
“I realized that I didn’t yet have the leadership and management skills needed for this job and that a master’s degree would help me where I wanted to go.”
While researching options for a master’s program, she came across UBC’s Master of Health Leadership & Policy in Clinical Education. “It was a good fit for me,” she says.
“The clinical education component appealed as I enjoyed the precepting I did in my ICU role. I also loved the opportunity to gain business skills.”
Balancing full-time work with a part-time program
Soon after accepting her MHLP admissions offer, Chandell advanced into a clinical nurse educator position where she was responsible for educating emergency nurses and patient care aides.
Starting a new job at the same time she was returning to university for the first time in more than 10 years meant an intense period of learning and discovery. She chose the part-time MHLP option so she could continue working full time, and found that this structure enabled her to immediately apply the knowledge she was learning in the classroom to her professional role.
“The clinical education courses helped me tremendously as a new educator,” she says.
“I learned so much about adult learning, different learning styles, teaching strategies and facilitation. The business courses were also incredibly helpful. Organizational leadership offered great insights into understanding human behaviour, and given that so many health-care initiatives are project based, the project management course was very useful at providing me with structured and applicable skills for delivering projects.”
Chandell also highlights the value of the Business Acumen for Technical Leaders course, which is familiarly known as “business summer camp.” Over three weeks, students cover core business competencies in accounting, human resources, finance, marketing, technology and professional development. She says that gaining a foundational understanding of accounting and finance, for example, has been very helpful in her work, and that the concepts covered in marketing are equally transferable to many contexts.
In addition to balancing the demands of work and school, Chandell also found the time during the program to embark on a practice-based research project on strategies for integrating licensed practical nurses into emergency departments along with classmate Emily Tang. They presented the initial findings of their work at the BC Quality Forum and are now editing the manuscript of their research findings for publication.
Practicum focuses on the experience of educators
For her 70-hour practicum, Chandell worked at the Provincial Health Services Authority on a project that explored how to support nurse educators.
“Simmie Kalan, my practicum coordinator, was phenomenal,” says Chandell. “She was very engaged and focused on making sure the practicum was a learning experience.”
Chandell facilitated seven focus groups with educators to learn what they need to be successful in their roles. One major theme that emerged was the challenge faced by many nurse educators who move into their positions without a solid foundation in educational theory and practice – highlighting the need for more standardized orientations and supports for clinical educators.
Stepping into a leadership role
In May of the final year of her MHLP degree, Chandell moved into a position with greater scope and influence: manager of clinical excellence and program education for long-term care and assisted living at Providence Health Care. In this role, she oversees seven sites, supporting clinical nurse educators in their day-to-day work, guiding quality improvement initiatives and providing program-wide education for long-term care. A current initiative, for example, is focused on reducing the inappropriate use of anti-psychotics in long-term care.
“This job appealed to me because of its focus on clinical education and quality improvement,” says Chandell. “I welcomed the opportunity to work directly with educators and support them, especially some of the newer educators. There is some really good work being done in quality improvement and education and it’s rewarding to build on that.”
She credits the MHLP with giving her the knowledge, skills and network that enabled her to be successful in the position.
“Even though I didn’t have prior experience as a manager when I applied for this position, in my interview I was able to highlight the tangible leadership and strategic-thinking skills I was developing in this program. The relationships I’ve built and the people I’ve met are invaluable. The professors are so supportive and committed to your success. I think my career trajectory has accelerated thanks to this degree – I don’t think I would have been able to go from bedside to educator to managing educator as quickly as I did without the MHLP.”
