2021-2026 Strategic Plan

2021-2026

Strategic Plan

The College of Allied Health Sciences (CAHS) at Augusta University is committed to the education of health professionals, to research and discovery that will improve the lives of people across the globe, to service outreach in our communities, and to collaborative interdisciplinary leadership.

This strategic plan aligns with Augusta University’s 2022 Strategic Plan’s five “strategic priorities” of discovery, learning, student success, community and stewardship and its three “interwoven priorities” of innovation, engagement, and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion).

We strive to make a difference. This strategic plan is our guide.

Students walking downtown
Students walking downtown

Team

Education

GOAL #1: Increase student enrollment during 2021 – 2026.

Tactic: Develop new educational programs.

Measure

  • Develop 1-2 new programs.
  • Expand 3-4 existing programs.

Tactic: Provide consistent, extensive recruiting that support programs and develop an increased CAHS online and social media presence to facilitate information distribution for the purpose of increasing enrollment.

Measure

  • Increase overall enrollment by 5%.
  • Number of clicks for the individual programs within CAHS.

GOAL #2: Provide innovative and contemporary education of the highest quality to graduate well-prepared practitioners to improve the health and wellness of the residents of the state, region and nation.

Tactic: Strengthen educational technology support, including simulation; and develop and implement inter-professional opportunities and educational student experiences.

Measure

  • Develop and implement a Graduate Satisfaction Survey.
  • Develop an Employer’s Satisfaction Survey.
  • Measure the graduation rate.
  • Measure of professional licensure rate.
  • Increase all CAHS programs licensure pass rates to at least 95% by 2026.
 

GOAL #3: Develop collaboration and connections through partnerships within the university, community and industry leaders in order to foster innovation.

Tactic: Develop a CAHS Advisory Board comprised of stakeholders and community leaders who provide feedback concerning market needs and graduate preparation.

Measure

  • An initial meeting to develop the mission and objectives of the CAHS Advisory Board.
  • Develop the bylaws for the CAHS Advisory Board.

Tactic: Provide incentives to clinical and community partners

Measure

  • Develop offerings in continuing medical education training and to increase mentoring and presentation opportunities.
  • Recognize our clinical and community partners in the CAHS Scoop via video.
  • Recognition of clinical and community partners in the form of an appreciation event during the Faculty Retreat and CAHS Hooding and Honors Ceremony.

Tactic: Strengthen relationships with community partners, industry leaders and other key stakeholders to facilitate recruitment activities, as well as to enhance community and industry-based learning experiences for educating and training students.

Measure

  • Evaluate the number of new partnerships and their impact on CAHS educational programs.
  • Impressions of partners or clinical preceptors regarding our graduates.
 

GOAL #4: Integrate research activities into the teaching mission.

Tactic: Increase the focus on educational research for faculty, to include research on innovative techniques/methods and best practices of teaching.

Measure

  • Increase the membership to the Academy of Health Sciences Educators in order to provide a robust group of mentors and advisors on SoTL.
  • Implement semester workshops/seminars through the Academy of Health Sciences Educators to increase collaborative efforts among faculty in CAHS on educational research and scholarship.
  • Develop three educational research projects involving CAHS faculty.

Tactic: Incorporate research opportunities into education by expanding and supporting student-oriented research projects and fellowship programs, encourage student participation at national research conferences, and dissemination of student research in peer-reviewed publications.

Measure

  • Train students to understand and interpret educational research.

Team

Research

GOAL #1: Increase extramural funding

Tactic: Increase external funding applications

Measure

  • RO1 applications
  • R21 applications

Tactic: Increase HRSA applications

Measure

  • Number of applications
  • Collaborations with the Nursing College

Tactic: Increase PICORI applications

Measure

  • Number of applications

GOAL #2: Enhance visibility of CAHS research

Tactic: Improve web presence

Measure

  • Video presentations
  • Increased publications – higher impact journals

Tactic: Increased publications – higher impact journals

Measure

  • Presence on Jagwire/Scoop
  • College-wide or department-wide announcements

Tactic: Faculty and student research sharing events

Measure

  • Poster presentations
  • Research retreat
 

GOAL #3: To achieve our goals, we will recognize collaborative research team areas within CAHS through the Scoop and augment efforts to increase the number of collaborative teams across campus (through Jagwire and reaching out directly).

Tactic: Recognize research areas at CAHS

Measure

  • Presence on Scoop
  • Announcements to the college

Tactic: Augment collaborative efforts

Measure

  • Increase numbers of collaborative teams
  • Conducting and attending seminars
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Team

Service

GOAL #1: Expand collaborative partnerships with AU Health and health related community partners of Georgia, and beyond, and increase the impact of allied health related services by leveraging clinical expertise of the CAHS faculty and students.

Tactic: CAHS leadership will work with department chairs to facilitate clinical practice within both the enterprise as well as external communities.

Measure

  • Increase number of faculty and students engaged in community and clinical service by 10%

Tactic: CAHS will conduct a community needs assessment to identify clinical opportunities for collaboration.

Measure

  • Regional community needs assessment completed by end of first year of strategic plan implementation.

Tactic: AUHPA will find and develop viable service opportunities for faculty.

Measure

  • AUHPA will be given a committee charge by end of first year of strategic plan.

GOAL #2: Foster a culture of excellence and professional engagement in clinical care and services.

Tactic: AUHPA will recommend fund allocations for each CAHS program to facilitate faculty and student engagement with their respective professional associations.

Measure

  • Recommendations for fund allocations will occur by the end of the first year of the strategic plan.

Tactic: CAHS leadership will work with department chairs and program directors to identify pathways to state and national service positions.

Measure

  • Each program will identify pathways to state and national service positions by the end of the first year of the strategic plan.
  • Formal pathway established for each program by end of the second year of the strategic plan.
 

GOAL #3: Increase faculty and student engagement in community outreach activities that impact the health and well-being of rural and underserved populations while addressing health disparities.

Tactic: CAHS leadership will encourage service engagement with rural and underserved communities as a standard part of faculty and student growth and development.

Measure

  • 75% of programs will have incorporated a mechanism to encourage service engagement in rural and underserved communities by the end of the second year of the strategic plan.

Tactic: Develop faculty and staff expertise in delivering quality community engagement and outreach through service-learning activities and co- curricular experiences that are culturally competent, measurable, and sustainable.

Measure

  • Hold one workshop per year for faculty and staff development in the area of community engagement and outreach.
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Team

Optimization

 

GOAL #1: To increase our visibility as the states only college of health professions at an academic health center. To become a “household name” in the region for education and preparation for the health professions.

Tactic: To enlist the service of the new Agency of Record for AU, Kivvit. To develop an advertising campaign using multiple media outlets to include: Facebook, Instagram, Programmatic Display, Snap Chat, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Video, Twitter and Linkedin. To include undergraduate and graduate programs. Estimated budget: 60K

Measure

  • Pre Roll Video and Youtube - Target audience reached, video views, and video completions
  • Twitter, Snapchat, Programmatic Display, LinkedIn – link clicks, CPC, site traffic, time on site.
  • Facebook & SEM – clicks on “request for information” and “apply now”.
  • Strong applicant numbers and enrollment numbers.
  • Reassess goal and measures after year one. Especially considering the life-span of multimedia. Possible twice a year program performance.
 

GOAL #2: To better define the evaluation and expectations of CAHS leadership, we will develop and implement an evaluation tool for CAHS administrators (dean, associate/assistant deans, chairs, and business operations director).

Tactic: Select and assign a working group to develop an evaluation tool. The working group will consist of 2 chairs, 2 faculty, 2 staff, and one person from the dean’s office.

Measure

  • Working group has been selected.
  • Working group has met.

Tactic: Draft version of evaluation tool is completed and ready for input from the larger CAHS (faculty and staff, and administrators)

Measure

  • Draft evaluation tool has been completed by the end of January 2022.
  • Draft evaluation tool has been sent for comment to faculty and staff, February 2022.

Tactic: Complete and implement CAHS administrator evaluation tool.

Measure

  • Tool has been completed by May 2022.
  • Tool has been implemented by August 1, 2022.
  • Evaluation of the tool use and the feedback process by January 2023.

GOAL3: To develop an online new employee orientation for faculty and staff with a face-to-face component with the dean and chairs. New employee orientation will be based on the CAHS Faculty Handbook.

Tactic: Investigate and Identify internal and/or external players for developing the online platform. Reach out to IT/HR/Legal.

Measure

  • A list of internal and/or external potential players.

Tactic: Select internal and/or external potential players. Budget: 20K

Measure

  • Meet with internal and/or external players to brainstorm a plan to develop an online new employee orientation program with face-to-face meetings.
  • Draft online plan is completed and vetted with CAHS administrators.

Tactic: In cooperation with internal and/or external players, construct the CAHS new online employee orientation tool by January 2023

Measure

  • New online tool is ready for testing by faculty and staff.
  • Launch new online faculty/staff CAHS orientation tool, supplemented with face-to-face meetings with the dean and chairs.
  • Evaluation of the tool.
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Team

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

 

GOAL #1: Create an environment that is welcoming of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Tactic: Establish a College level DEI Committee to develop and promote activities that foster DEI

Measure

  • Establish membership representation and structure, mission and charge(s); form the committee. Membership should include 1 Faculty Council Representative, 1 Research Council Representative, 1 AUHPA Representative, 1 administrative representative, a representative from each department, and student representation. Membership should include a mix of faculty, staff, students and administrators.
  • Committee develops a multi-year plan that includes assessment of need, proposed budget, activity planning, and outcomes assessment.

Tactic: Enhance internal and external messaging to highlight DEI within CAHS

Measure

  • Create a “Spotlight on CAHS” social media series that highlights 2-3 individuals, groups or activities that relate to DEI in some way. Update content 3x annually. Publish on web site and CAHS/program social media accounts. Monitor to ensure that all departments/programs are represented over the year.
  • Replicate the “Spotlight on CAHS” series within AU community through dissemination of features via The Scoop and JagNews, as well as any available opportunities via the Office of Diversity & Inclusion, the Department of Multicultural Student Engagement or any of the multicultural student groups.

Tactic: Promote a culture of collaboration within our community that builds upon the unique strengths of CAHS faculty, staff and students.

Measure

  • Identify the number of college committees and work groups that include diverse individuals and perspectives on an annual basis.
 

GOAL #2: Increase diversity of students, faculty and staff within CAHS

Tactic: Increase student applicant and student diversity to better reflect Georgia demographics

Measure

  • Establish a comprehensive list of current student recruitment activities at the program, department and college level and explore outcomes in terms of recruiting diverse applicants; leverage current activities when able.
  • Develop 3-5 informational programs with high schools and undergraduate institutions (e.g. A.R. Johnson Health Science & Engineering Magnet School and Richmond County Technical Career Magnet School) to support awareness of health professions and of AU/CAHS programs.
  • Collect racial and gender diversity data from applicant pool from Admissions on an annual basis to monitor outcomes of recruitment activities.
  • Develop recruiting materials and identify recruiting personnel who reflect the diversity within the college.
  • Identify and analyze current research and make evidence based recommendations regarding use of standardized testing in the admissions process.

Tactic: Increase staff and faculty diversity to better reflect targeted student demographics.

Measure

  • Identify best practices for recruitment of diverse applicants to faculty and staff positions. Incorporate best practices into recruitment processes.
  • Identify best practices to support new faculty and staff from underrepresented communities in current roles and professional development. Implement 1-2 identified practices.
 

GOAL #3: Provide ongoing training/education to support DEI.

Tactic: Develop and implement a survey across all CAHS constituency groups to identify current activities, areas of perceived need and areas of interest

Measure

  • Survey is developed and implemented by the second year of the strategic plan.
  • Results are analyzed and disseminated to CAHS community

Tactic: Review of literature/evidence to identify best practices to support a culture of DEI

Measure

  • Responsible parties are identified; review is completed.
  • Results are analyzed and disseminated to the CAHS community

Tactic: The college, departments and programs incorporate survey results and best practices into training/education activities.

Measure

  • 1-2 activities occur annually within CAHS
  • Outcomes of all training/educational activities to support DEI are assessed
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Let's make something great together

The College of Allied Health Sciences at Augusta University trains and educates today’s health care professionals: the therapists, technicians, administrators, managers and assistants who are the backbone of our country’s health care workforce.

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