In today's diverse health care industry, working in teams is critical when trying to find solutions to complex problems. Recently, three students at Drexel University's College of Nursing and Health Professions were given a unique opportunity to collaborate. 

 

Romina Berger ‘18, Nick Mahoney ‘17 and Elizabeth Miller ‘18, students from Health Services Administration, were selected to compete in a case study competition sponsored by Cigna, a global leader in providing health services. Michelle Sahl, PhD, associate professor and associate director of Student Professional Development, explained, "The competition's short case study described a hypothetical scenario that focused on limited health care dollars available for health care organizations’ many competing needs. This is an all-too-familiar challenge for most hospitals as rising expenditures confront the imperative for containment."

 

Along with the students from CNHP, the teams were comprised of a mixture of students from Drexel's LeBow College of Business and Dornsife School of Public Health. Each participant was selected for their high level of presentation skills and leadership abilities. In order to participate, all students were required to be either juniors or seniors in their respective college. 

 

Berger described the experience. "We were each split into groups of four. Then we were presented with several problems and a budget to fix them with," she explained. "I've never done a case study like this before and I had never met anyone from my group."

 

Each group was given fifty minutes to go through the case study and an hour to figure out ways to overcome the challenges they were faced with. At the end of the case study, the groups would show their findings to several current Cigna Operations Leadership Program Associates, along with LeBow faculty. 

 

"I think being able to work together as a team under a time crunch was the biggest take away," Mahoney said. "It was valuable being able to find a way to come together and find ways to address what we viewed as the most pressing concerns."

 

All three CNHP students would go on to finish among the top three groups in the competition. 

 

To learn more about the Health Services Administration program visit our site.