Promoting the Team Approach Mindset with a Consultant

As presented by Medea Valdez, Ph.D.

From her webinar, “Consultants and Accreditation Support”

Thank you for joining me once again. Last week, we covered what a consultant can do to assist program directors and PA programs with accreditation and compliance. One critical thing that a consultant can do is convey to your team (administration, faculty, and staff) the importance of their “buy-in” to the accreditation process. 

We frequently see the program director as the one responsible for compliance with the Standards. When you bring in a consultant, you have someone who works with the program director, faculty, staff, and upper administration, thereby unifying the team around the process. A consultant provides an external perspective and supports the mindset that everyone on your team should be cognizant of accreditation and have buy-in to ensuring compliance. 

I’d like you to consider whether everyone at your institution supports compliance and accreditation by asking several questions. These questions illustrate the value of real teamwork in handling the hefty task of compliance and accreditation and demonstrate how a consultant can assist with aligning your team with their contributions.

Survey of Team Buy-In to the Accreditation Process

Admissions Committee

1. Is your admissions committee considering the A3 standards related to admissions when creating the admissions requirements and making applicant acceptance decisions? 

2. Do they know the website's admissions and fair practice compliance expectations? 

3. Are they taking an active role, or do they simply ask the program director for direction?

Curriculum Committee / Instructors

1. Do the curriculum committee and didactic instructors examine the curriculum, syllabi, and lectures in terms of accreditation? 

2. Can they alter the institution’s syllabus template to meet standard B1.03? 

3. Does the team understand the relationship between the competencies, course learning outcomes, instructional objectives, and assessment methods? 

4. Are the B2 didactic instruction Standards represented in the course IOs? 

5. Do they truly understand and apply this knowledge, rather than mindlessly following the program director when they say, “It needs to be done this way!”

Administration

1. Do members of the upper administration know their responsibilities per the A1.02 Standards? 

2. Do they understand the expectations and significance of providing support and demonstrating compliance, as well as the potential outcomes if they do not? 

The truth is that sometimes it takes an external person to validate what a program director has been saying all along. Through the consulting process, a consultant can also support a change in mindset to one of accreditation as a team effort, empowering everyone to take responsibility. 

Program directors are a PA program’s principal faculty members, and they are responsible for a great deal. There never seems to be enough time to finish things, and there are so many competing demands! 

Student-focused issues almost always take precedence, too, so other tasks (including assessment) may be overlooked. 

A personal view

I’m the Founding PA Program Director at the SEU PA Program at Saint Elizabeth University. I have been through the Initial Provisional Application process twice. The first time, I was not successful. I learned from that and reflected a lot. I tried again—with a consultant the second time—and was successful. 

Having a consultant alongside me truly helped me. Practically speaking, their advice helped hold me accountable and assisted in creating timelines and processes to ensure compliance.

But more than that, having a confidante to talk to from the outside who could appreciate what I was going through was beneficial. I felt comfortable having that person as a sounding board for more than just accreditation compliance. It helped me look at the operational and personnel issues I was dealing with from their perspective and experience.

In the following newsletter…

Join me again next time as we’ll review the many reasons your PA program might decide to employ a consultant. These may include:

⮚   Initial Provisional Application

⮚   Upcoming Accreditation Visit (Provisional Monitoring, Final Provisional and Continuing)

⮚   Probation – This is an unfortunate, adverse outcome, but you must deal with it. A consultant can help you get back on track!

⮚   Other (like leadership and faculty development, student success, and assessment)

We’ll also look into reasons beyond a list when even well-established programs can find themselves in a position where a consultant’s experience is invaluable. 

Thank you, and I’ll see you next week.