Over 100 health professionals and managers participate in Summer School 2018
On June 17, 2018 the 5th “Health Care Systems Transformation: Eastern Europe” Summer School started in Snovianka, Chernihiv Oblast. This year, the Summer School has attracted more than 100 participants and guest speakers from 8 countries.
The 2018 Summer School participants will learn and discuss a variety of topics related to general health care system organization and implementation of the long-awaited changes, namely the healthcare economics and strategy, effective management and communication. The Ukrainian Summer School stimulates the healthcare transformation process and supports leaders who are full of initiative and willing to implement changes in this sector. The training program has been jointly initiated by the School of Public Health of National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, UNICEF Ukraine and Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. Every year the School invites leading national and international experts, and develops trainings that responds to specific needs and context of the Ukrainian professional audience. Since in October 2017Ukraine adopted the law launching transformation of the national health care system, the 2018 Summer School participants will discuss practical tools for improving work in a new environment.
"The Summer School is a unique platform for effective communication and sharing experience among leaders and healthcare professionals from around the world. Among other important things that we developed during the previous Summer Schools were the principles of the ongoing transformation of the healthcare system in Ukraine. Today, we are particularly pleased to note that the former summer school participants are now actively promoting and implementing changes on the ground", noted Pavlo Kovtoniuk, Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine.
"In early June, when I saw that almost 20 thousand doctors registered in the eHealth system and over 2 million patients signed declarations with doctors working at the hospitals contracted with the NHSU, I realized that Ukrainians were ready for change. Every year since Ukraine’s independence, more and more people value life. To me, as a professional with higher medical education, this means that people form a conscientious attitude towards their own health and the health of others, and I am confident that this is just the beginning of the health reform implementation, with doctors themselves being the main driving force behind it ", underlined Oleh Petrenko, Head of the National Health Service of Ukraine.
Family doctors, heads of both public and private health facilities, experts, politicians, senior decision-makers representing governmental and non-governmental bodies were invited to participate in the discussion of systemic changes.
"The Summer School promotes the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy’s values: learning is always meaningful, and by asking relevant questions the participants help teachers in each section guide the discussion. It is essential to ensure that the Summer School participants find answers to their questions and get inspiration", commented Tetiana Stepurko, PhD, Head of Master program “Health Care Management” at School of Public Health, NaUKMA.
The 2018 Summer School is a short-term (6 days) intensive training program, which includes several intensive training modules, plenary lectures, team-work events, practical project assignment and informal discussions of healthcare-related topics.
"Learning opens up new possibilities. In the health reform implementation context, it is crucial to provide opportunities for the professional development of healthcare managers and professionals at all levels. We at UNICEF welcome the opportunity to continue supporting healthcare transformation and developing training programs on strategic communication, effective management and leadership in healthcare. Every child, family and citizen of Ukraine has the right to quality care. Only by working together can we achieve this goal", summed up Anna Sukhodolska, Communication for Development Officer, UNICEF Ukraine.
Sections and Formats
Traditionally, the program consists of three sections:
- Planning and Financing of Health Care System. The section will be especially interesting for the administrators of health care system, policy makers and civil society representatives. It provides participants with modern approaches and tools for the planning and financing of health care system, supplemented by the regional country examples.
- Management of Health Care Facility. This section is designed mainly for the managers of health care facilities, their deputies and chiefs of departments. The module foresees the intensive work in groups on practical tasks. The participants will further explore the tools of operational and personnel management, goal-setting.
- Communication in Health Care. This section is oriented towards the managers interested in effective communication strategies for their facilities, regions or civil initiatives. During this section the participants will develop in groups the communication strategies according to the defined problems. In the frame of the strategies the participants will learn to define their target audiences, effective messages, appropriate communication channels, partners, etc., learn about crisis communications and current strategic communication trends. The section demands active involvement of every participant.
Lecturers
- Axel Hoffmann, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Basel, Switzerland);
- Mark Govers and Mauk Wilbers, Maastricht University (the Netherlands);
- Erica Richardson, the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies;
- Wim Groot, Maastricht University (the Netherlands);
- Jerzy Miller, Poland's deputy finance minister in 1998-2000, who, among other things, was responsible for the health care reform at the time;
- Agron Gashi, Health and Nutrition Officer, Head of Health and Nutrition Section at UNICEF Kosovo.
Visit https://www.facebook.com/hct.summer.school/ to view live streams of plenary sessions at 9:00 am, and discussion panels at 6:00 pm.