Do as I do: Teaching evidence-based management in Ukraine

The Ministry of Health (MOH) of Ukraine is moving towards decentralization of health services management. This requires strategies oriented towards prevention, and shifting of health managers' attitude from passive receivers of central orders to active managers finding innovative solutions. To support MOH, within USAID-funded Together for Health project, the JSI Research and Training Institute (JSI), in conjunction with the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the National Medical Academy for Post-Graduate Education (NMAPE) in Kyiv, developed a health management training curriculum using the HSPH case-based learning technique, which is new to Ukraine. Key to the curriculum's success was the use of real Ukrainian examples of successful health managers negotiating positive change in a bureaucratic system with limited resources. Cases were researched and written by Ukrainian professors at NMAPE and taught by the NMAPE faculty in a three-day workshop with high-level health care managers enrolled as students. Initial coaching of the NMAPE faculty was done by faculty from HSPH and staff from JSI, through a series of workshops with the goal of promoting a sustainable program at the end of less than two years. The success of the debut workshop prompted NMAPE senior management to commit to expanding the use of cases throughout the Academy by developing a teaching textbook approved by MOH. Expanding the case method management teaching will help Ukrainian managers to take an active role in management, supporting decentralization of the current system.