This innovative program delivers the leadership knowledge, behaviours, and skills that senior physicians need to effectively engage in the planning, delivery and transformation of our health care system. You will acquire meaningful new perspectives on health care leadership, and develop a practical, broad-based set of skills to apply up and down multiple levels of organizations and across multiple health care contexts. The objective is to help you become a change-ready strategic leader in the healthcare industry.

This program is available for specialists who are certificants or fellows of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada who are actively and independently practicing in BC. Specifically, it is designed for physicians who are in a leadership role or are preparing to take on a leadership role in their health authority, and who wish to augment their medical background with applied, forward-thinking management skills.

It is expected that participants will have completed some introductory management and leadership training (ex: PMI) prior to enrolling in this program. Funding is provided for participation in programs with a core and primary focus on leadership.

• Mobilize the strategic thinking and hands-on capabilities needed to effectively lead quality and safety improvements throughout the organization.
• Build your capacity to navigate through the complex organizational environment of health care
• Create a gateway to inspired leadership thinking and effective action within the health care sector
• Recognize your many roles as a leader and strengthen your self-awareness and the leadership impact you have on your team. 
• Gain deeper insights into how to engage, inspire, and motivate your team.
• Feel confident initiating and implementing change at a program or organizational level.
• Enhance your critical communication, negotiation, problem-solving and decision-making skills.
• Develop and nurture a physician community within B.C.

How you will learn

The PLP is a cohort-based program offered twice a year, with each cohort's capacity set at 47 seats. Its interdisciplinary outlook ensures a system-wide, yet well-integrated, view both the medical and management aspects required for excellence in health care leadership.

Completed over six months, the program consists of 9.5 days of in-person classroom training. It is delivered in a blended format, with Module 1 and 3 held at UBC Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, and Modules 2 and 4 offered in a real-time virtual Zoom classroom.

Each module offers a blend of Sauder professors bringing the latest in innovative thinking and business knowledge, with domestic and international healthcare industry speakers presenting on the latest trends and business-related healthcare issues. Between modules, you will complete assignments that enable you to apply the skills you are learning to your workplace. In addition, you will engage in an Action Learning Project in which you will collaborate with a team of operational or administrative counterparts from your health authority, to lead an initiative that affects real change in your organization.

Upon completion of the program, you will be awarded a Physician Leadership Certificate from the Sauder School of Business, and receive Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits.

What you will learn

MODULE 1: LEADING SELF (3 DAYS)

Physician, Heal Thyself: Leadership Excellence Starts with The Self

As a leader, you cannot effectively lead others until you lead yourself. In this highly experiential module, you will explore what it means to be an authentic leader, engage in difficult conversations and develop a personal leadership vision for yourself.

During this module you will:

• Understand how to align a clinical role and an administrative leadership role under a single, unified, and cohesive vision 
• Expand your understanding of leadership and what it takes to make a difference during uncertainty
• Learn critical skills to identify, manage, and leverage conflict constructively, and deal with disruptive behavior and resistance appropriately
• Sharpen the skills necessary o influence and lead others through change

 MODULE 2: LEADING IN A COMPLEX ENVIRONMENT (3 DAYS)

A Systemic Approach for Far-Reaching Benefit

In this module, you will gain an understanding of the complexity in health care and how physicians can both contribute to and aid in addressing this complexity through operations management.

During this module you will:

• Build an understanding of the vat complexities in health care, and grow capacity to work effectively in health care environment
• Develop multiple strategies to manage complexity, and craft a system of measurable accountability for yourself and others
• Explore how to effectively engage and influence internal and external stakeholders, and build valuable professional partnerships within your organization
• Learn how to utilize operations management principles to manage complexity and deliver results
• Identify a real-time change initiative that you will tackle along with a change team

MODULE 3: LEADING TO IMPLEMENT QUALITY OPERATIONS (3 DAYS)

Mastering the Structure and Function of Excellence

In health care, operations management includes designing and evaluating health care delivery processes, managing variability, managing quality, ensuring and measuring safety in outcomes, budgeting, scheduling and using data effectively. Operations affects the ROI and ROQ of any initiative.

During this module you will:

• Flesh out your change initiative
• Identify ways to rigorously measure the benefits of improvement initiatives and articulate the return on investment and return on quality to health authority administration
• Understand safety incidents from a systems perspective, including the concepts of resilience and reliability
• Describe the implications of unintended variation on system performance and patient outcomes 
• Learn how to introduce organizational change initiatives and evaluate how changes can impact the organization before they are made
• Bring an operational counterpart onto the program with you to benefit from the learning and collaborate with you on the applied business project for your department

MODULE 4: CHANGE INITIATIVES IN HEALTH CARE (1 DAY)

Finale and Graduation

Real change takes time to implement and embed. In this final module, you will have the opportunity to reconnect with your peers and academic leads to bring together the learning from the program and gather feedback about the progress of your team or individual change initiatives.

During this module you will:

• Present the progress of your change initiative
• Gain feedback about the progress of your change initiative and gain fresh ideas for the continuous improvement of your initiative
• Learn about the progress of other initiatives going on within health care in B.C.
• Reflect on the learning you have gained throughout the course of this program
• Build a peer-sharing network you can draw on as you develop in your practice- to hold one another accountable, align initiatives, provide feedback and share new ideas

This program was created by collaboration between B.C. Health Authorities, B.C. Patient Safety Quality Council, Doctors of BC, the UBC Sauder School of Business and the UBC Faculty of Medicine with the aim of achieving scientific integrity, objectivity and balance. It is governed by an Advisory Board, co-Chaired by DOBC and VCHA and tuition for physicians is funded by the SSC and SCC.

The PLP is fully accredited by the Continuing Medical Education Accreditation Committee (CACME) to provide CPD credits for physicians. This activity is an Accredited Group Learning Activity (Section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and approved by UBC CPD. You may claim a maximum of 52 hours (credits are automatically calculated). This one-credit-per-hour Group Learning program meets the certification criteria of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and has been certified by UBC CPD for up to 52 Mainpro+® credits. Each physician should claim only those credits accrued through participation in the activity.