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Certificate in Physician Leadership Capstone Project
Overview
The capstone project should be a longer-term project that demonstrates learning acquisition and knowledge application from the program courses to the participant’s current institutional setting or clinical practice.
Each participant will select an advisor who will review the capstone project proposal and provide relevant input throughout the duration of the project. Each capstone project proposal is reviewed and approved by a designated ACP Leadership Academy reviewer. Once the capstone project is complete, it will be reviewed and evaluated by the Capstone Review Board — a select group of experts in either hospital medicine or general internal medicine who will assess the overall quality of the project.
The final project should culminate in demonstrable personal, professional, or institutional change. It should have the potential benefit to other leaders within hospital medicine or primary care internal medicine.
Examples
The capstone project should be applicable to the participant’s current professional setting. Projects are grouped by the certificate program’s three core subject areas: communication, influence, and quality. View samples of past capstone projects and see below for potential project topics.
Communication
- Optimizing interpersonal communication within the hospitalist group
- Optimizing communication between the hospitalist group and other institutional groups
- Improvement of individual hospitalist communication skills with patients and colleagues
- Effective communication techniques between hospitalist physicians and non-physician administration
Influence
- Development and implementation of strategic planning for the hospitalist group
- Negotiating with the hospital, health system, and other services on behalf of the hospitalist group
- Management of intra-professional conflict within the hospitalist group
- Management of inter-professional conflict with the hospital medicine service (e.g., emergency department, non-internal medicine services)
- Development and implementation of performance assessment metrics for hospitalists
- Improving hospitalist staff unity and cohesiveness
- Managing difficult or disruptive behavior in hospitalist staff
- Optimizing the balance of hospitalist activities between clinical care, institutional/practice service, and educational activities
- Managing ethical issues in hospital medicine
- Creation of career development pathways for hospitalists
- Work on optimizing work-life balance and wellness among hospitalists
- Managing stress and wellness by hospitalist leadership
Quality
- Development and implementation of quality measures on the hospital medicine service based on national or local quality indicators
- Transitions of care from outpatient to inpatient to outpatient settings
- Transitions of in-hospital care (e.g., emergency department, intensive care units)
- Standardize workplace safety (e.g., biohazard prevention)
- Develop and implement patient safety initiatives (e.g., diagnostic errors, medication errors)
- Application of High Vale Care initiatives to hospital medicine setting
- Use of technology in the hospital setting to improve patient safety and communications
Communication
- Optimizing interpersonal communication within the practice group
- Improving inter-professional team communications within the practice group
- Facilitating communication between the practice group and physician and/or non-physician administrators
- Optimizing communication between the practice group and external organizations
- Improving internist communication skills with patients and colleagues
Influence
- Development and implementation of strategic planning for the practice group
- Negotiating with the hospital, health system, and other services on behalf of the practice group
- Management of intra-professional conflict within the practice group
- Management of inter-professional conflict with the practice group and other services or organizations
- Development and implementation of performance assessment metrics for the practice group
- Improving practice group staff unity and cohesiveness
- Managing difficult or disruptive behavior in the practice group
- Optimizing the balance of practice group activities between clinical care, organizational service, and educational activities
- Managing ethical issues in internal medicine practice
- Creation of career development pathways for internists within the practice group
- Work on optimizing work-life balance and well-being among internists
- Managing stress and well-being by practice group leadership
Quality
- Development and implementation of quality measures for the practice group based on national or local quality indicators
- Facilitating transitions of care from outpatient to inpatient settings
- Optimizing transitions from in-hospital care to other care settings
- Standardize workplace safety (e.g., biohazard prevention)
- Develop and implement patient safety initiatives (e.g., diagnostic errors, medication errors)
- Application of High Vale Care initiatives to the practice group setting
- Use of technology in the practice group setting to improve patient safety and communications
Requirements
The following will be required of each participant in conjunction with the capstone project:
- Submit Capstone Project Fee.
- Select Project Advisor. (Must be a post-training physician either at your institution or within your local ACP chapter. Upon request, you may select an advisor with an advanced degree [PhD, MBA, etc.] who serves in a senior-level role locally.)
- Review Capstone Project Proposal with Advisor. Advisor must provide comments.
- Submit your Capstone Project Proposal to ACP for formal review.
- Revise Capstone Project Proposal based on Reviewer comments, if needed.
- Produce a final Capstone Project to ACP for evaluation by the Capstone Review Board. It must include:
- Thorough, written overview of Capstone Project which will document in PDF format:
- Project definition and scope
- Methodology
- Results
- Discussion/Impact
- References
- Comments from advisor
- 15-20 minute Voiceover PowerPoint Presentation. (View instructions on how to create your presentation.)
- Thorough, written overview of Capstone Project which will document in PDF format:
Recognition
Upon completion, successful participants will be:
- Awarded a Certificate in Physician Leadership
- Highlighted by ACP and AAPL in organizational communications
- Projects of exceptional quality as determined by the Capstone Review Board will be selected for presentation at ACP's annual Internal Medicine meeting.