Health Care Administration

October 6, 2014

Curve Balls and the meaning of life?

Wow…I can’t believe I have kept you all waiting so long in between posts, I guess life can throw you a curve ball every once in a while…well, here is my swing to hit life out of the ball park 🙂

I am currently 39k feet above the earth, flying to Phoenix for my 1st Residency and with my “newer” topic in order, my 10 Strategic Point Paper submitted and about 40 different research articles saved, I believe I am ready.  Bring it on.

My new topic doesn’t “stray” much from the original topic, but I am focusing more now on the Student Veteran and how campuses across the country are putting programs into place to make the transition from military life to civilian/student life more seamless.  What I am going to be researching, however, is the phenomenon of if these campuses are actually putting in place a program that benefits the veteran, or are they failing because of all the “issues” we veterans bring to the campus.  I makes sense when I talk about it in person, because you can then see the passion, the arm and hand gestures that poignantly point out the highs and lows of this topic.  Now…if I can just put that passion into this program…That will be my Home Run 🙂

I have made professional connections with quite a few Ph.D.s who have already done their research on this topic, or very similar and by using the gaps that they have found for future research, I have begun to formulate my research and how I am going to better serve our Veteran population that is utilizing their Post-9/11 GI Bill and bettering themselves for their lives after the military.

“Combat Veterans on College Campuses – Educating our Heroes with healthcare issues.” is my topic, and I will not “dive” into the Psychological aspect of this, but more on the Programs themselves and how Student Veterans are perceiving the effectiveness of these programs.  Also, I will be researching the programs from the Administrator/Directors perspective as well, eventually seeing if the Student Veterans perceptions and the Administrators/Directors vision actually match, giving the Student Veterans a program that will essentially serve as a “buffer” between their experiences and the classroom/campus life.

So, I am sorry for the short post, but I believe that after this residency gets over (on friday), I will have more to blog about and a clearer “direction” to go down…

As for the curve ball?  Just a bit outside…no swing on this one, but I at least got to see what is in store….

Keep swinging for the fences and sooner or later, that home run will happen, and when it does….well, celebrate in your own way, but make sure to celebrate because you have earned it.

Until then,

Lance

August 29, 2014

When life pops your balloon, make sure you have more to inflate and carry on.

Ok, so it has been a couple of days that I have posted some thoughts, and yesterday, I was given multiple opportunities to share them, so here it goes.

As from my last post, I have decided to change my Doctoral pathway from Business Administration to an Ed.D. in Healthcare Administration.  In doing so, my Dissertation topic : Military Veterans and Service Dogs in the Workplace: The New Reality of War, is in jeopardy.  I emailed on the Dissertation chair professors, and the Assistant Dean of the Doctoral Program at GCU, letting him know that I was going to change my path and mentioned my dissertation topic to him.  His reply deflated my balloon in that he didn’t think that that topic wouldn’t satisfy either the DBA or the Ed.D. program requirements for a Doctorate.

Do you hear that?….pphhhhhhshssssssssssss….yes, that was the air being forcefully leaving my Doctoral Balloon.  I was flabbergasted and frantically started wondering what I was going to do.  I have spent more than a month researching that topic, trying to find research that addressed that topic, and after close to a hundred articles, I now have to rethink my direction?  ARGH……

I took yesterday to really step back from this news, think about the new pathways that have been presented to me and decide which one I am going to travel down.  Will I continue anyways with my topic and somehow “spin” it to include Healthcare more instead of employment?  Will I desert the topic all together and try to scramble a new topic, new research and new line of thinking, or will I regroup and still utilize my underutilized Veterans with Service Dogs with their Healthcare obstacles and the options that Hospitals give them.

I have been throwing ideas around my chaotic mind thinking about that very subject and haven’t really found my “direction” for my topic, but I need to “hurry” because I have only 5 weeks until my residency in Phoenix, where I have to have my topic “semi” cemented and my 10 Strategic Points paper developed.  Talk about piling on more stress to my already chaotic life 🙂

I got a wonderful email yesterday from a fellow “Devil Doc” who happens to utilize a Service Dog and did some time on Capitol Hill as a Legislative “Assistant, intern, whatever you call them” to a prominent Senator who happens to be on the Veterans’ Administrative committee for the Senate.  He helped to write and push the Service Dog legislation a few years back, so I really need to utilize his experience and knowledge in both the fields of the Service Dog and the legislation area.

So, after regrouping, I found my “helium” tank and it is time to start inflating my Doctoral Balloon(s) again.  Time to fly high and reestablish my vigor and motivation.

One more thing before I sign off:

Semper Gumby – Always Flexible  was a saying while I was doing time with my Marines that allowed us to take all of the “changes” that occur during military operations, and adapt and deal with them.

Have a Safe and Enjoyable Labor Day…

Devil Doc

August 26, 2014

Life…sometimes it gets in the way, sometimes it shows you the way…

Good morning, and thank you all for either viewing or actually reading these thoughts of mine.

The Doctoral Journey can either be an exciting time, or an excruciating exercise in frustrating ups and downs.  The choice, of course, is always ours to make, but sometimes life gets in the way, and sometimes it actually shows you the way.

I am going through one of those crossroads this week in my journey.  I am not deviating from my doctoral journey, but I am changing course (or actual doctoral concentration) and I am going to change from a Doctorate in Business Administration to an Education Doctorate in Health Care Administration.  My passion has always been to be involved in medicine, one way or the other.  Either treating patients (Navy), or being a leader in a health care setting.  I have done the business side of health care (Contracts and Acquisitions for a Government Health Care IT contract), or the research side (Mayo Clinic) and patient care (Navy), so deviating from that and getting into the business side of things, has really made me miss the actual “hospital” setting.

After I finish this current class in my DBA journey, and attending my first residency in October, I will be changing my Doctoral Journey to Ed.D in Health Care Administration.

I am really excited about this change because my heart and my passion is telling me to make the change.

I guess the result is this:  Listen to your heart, exploit your passions and let life show you the way instead of fighting it and trying to do things your own way.