Other Than DOA, Three Little Words You Never Want to Hear In Healthcare

Or healthcare administration education...

"That's not possible."

"It'll never work."

You may as well wave a red flag at a bull...

This afternoon I spoke with the well-published Dept. Chair at the illustrious institution I've chosen for graduate school.

We're getting along famously until one little thing throws a wrench in the works - the idea of international study. For a first year student. Who wants to do their coursework @#$backwards (the practicum first). In the, ahem, Netherlands.

I'll spare you the gory details for now, but it looks like several things will happen, especially since I am completely and embarrassingly hooked on this program:

1. Ideally my admission will be finalized (so I don't have to reapply) and I'll defer for a year.

2. I can transfer somewhere around 25% of my courses to my most-wanted Master's program, so I'll scope out a few classes at Erasmus in Rotterdam, which, God bless it, just happens to have an internationally ranked Institute of Health Policy and Management.

3. Meanwhile I'll do some awesome research and keep in touch with my Dream Program (which I'll name shortly).

4. I'll learn the ins and outs of the Dutch system, which, according to my soon-to-be Dept. Chair, is a "gold mine" for quality measurement and eldercare, among other high-impact areas of vital import to the US system.

And when faced with a question (in any field), let's make it ok to be curious and respond with these five word phrases:

"What'd you have in mind?"

or

"How would we do that?"