Career ladders provide a path for professional development
When someone asks you what you do for a living, chances are you answer with a one-liner: “I manage the day-to-day activities of a residency/fellowship program.”
If you give a more specific answer, you probably get confused looks and nods of understanding, even though you know the person has no clue what you’re talking about.
Unfortunately, coordinators are often met with those same confused looks when trying to explain what they do to HR, department administrators, and even some program directors.
To add to the confusion, there is no standardized job description for coordinators. The responsibilities assigned to the job vary among institutions—sometimes even within an institution.
With so much variety, it’s not surprising that coordinators often get lumped into the “secretarial” category even though their jobs require administrative and managerial skills. This misperception causes endless frustration for coordinators.
In fact, many respondents from RPA’s 2009 Coordinator Salary Survey sounded off on this issue. When asked what their biggest challenges are, coordinators commented:
- “Educating supervisors and HR on the impact of our jobs, what it entails to remain accredited, and have excellent education for our learners.”
- “Getting administrators to understand that the residency coordinator position should be full-time ... aside from my program director, no one knows what I do ... I can’t get appropriate support or pay.”
- “Coordinators manage the residency program but they are always put in the category of clerical/
secretarial staff, which decreases their pay range considerably. Coordinators need to be placed in a higher job classification.” - “Finding professional development opportunities.”
Although coordinators are still largely misunderstood, some institutions do realize the high level of skill it takes to perform the job successfully. To recognize coordinators, some institutions are creating coordinator career ladders that provide a path for professional development.
The case for career ladders
Career ladders link skill level or experience with salary. As coordinators achieve a specific level of experience, acquire new skills through education or training, and become involved in professional organizations, they move up the ladder and advance to the next job level, typically also getting a bump in pay. (See the sidebar on p. 9 for a sample career ladder.)
Because the coordinator job has evolved over the past decade from clerical to administrative, departments realize they need coordinators with advanced project management and managerial skills to keep the program running smoothly and maintain accreditation, says Jeri L. Whitten, C-TAGME, pediatric program coordinator at West Virginia University, Charleston Division.
Institutions are taking steps to attract coordinators with higher skill levels, such as requiring a degree. Subsequently, institutions must also ensure that these higher-level employees will want to remain in their jobs.
Whereas coordinator advancement was not important several years ago, more coordinators are now seeking professional development opportunities.
“Someone with a degree isn’t going to stay in a job where there is no place to move up,” Whitten explains. “You need something to work toward—a new job level and salary increase.”
Career ladders provide this path for coordinators.
“It is like physicians moving from assistant professor to associate professor. To move up, you have to meet certain criteria and prove excellence,” says Whitten.
Additionally, career ladders are great for professions that are evolving, says Sandra Oliver, RN, PhD, senior director of GME at Scott & White Healthcare in Temple, TX.
Scott & White implemented a four-tier career ladder that ensures coordinators’ efforts are focused on resident education, program management, and professional development.
Because having clear job descriptions for every rung of the career ladder is essential for success, implementing the ladder provides an opportunity to redefine the coordinator’s role in the institution.
“In the past, program coordinators may have had a very important job making sure that food was at every single event,” Oliver says. “Now, we want to make sure that the program administrators are dealing with curriculum and administrative issues.”
Start with a foundation of research
A career ladder should clearly define job classifications, the responsibility of each job category, and what it takes to move up the ladder.
To develop a career ladder, you will most likely need to get support from and collaborate with HR, the GME office administrators, and department administrators. Convince these stakeholders to adopt your cause by backing it up with research. “Do your homework. Show that this is on the radar of other institutions,” Whitten says.
Provide examples of coordinator career ladders and evidence that the coordinator’s job is no longer secretarial.
Consider doing the following when gathering materials to make your case:
- Examine job descriptions from other institutions, especially those that delineate different job categories for coordinators. Hunt for sample job descriptions on coordinator association websites or in the career sections of hospital websites. “Compare what different hospitals require and what the responsibilities assigned to the coordinators are,” Whitten says. Save time searching by having job descriptions sent directly to your inbox. Several job search sites have an alert system that will send you an e-mail whenever jobs are posted that match specific keywords. You can also set up Google Alerts for terms such as “residency coordinator” or “residency program administrator”; when those keywords appear in popular articles, you’ll receive an e-mail alert.
- Survey coordinators at other institutions via your coordinator associations or other e-mail listservs.
- Think outside of the box when looking for examples to prove that coordinators are administrators and need professional development to support their responsibilities, Whitten says. Include descriptions of sessions covering professional development from sources such as the ACGME, specialty association conferences, and HCPro’s Annual Residency Program Management Workshop.
After gathering information from the field, look at the career ladders in your own institution.
“We looked within our own system at the career ladders and paths for allied health [professionals] and nurses,” Oliver says.
Collaborate to iron out the details
Whitten, who is leading the initiative at her institution to create coordinator career paths, suggests bringing the stakeholders together and presenting your research on why a career ladder is needed.
HR, GME administrators, the designated institutional official, and coordinators should all be at the table. Program directors are another important voice to include.
“The program director needs to get involved to verify the fact that coordinators’ duties aren’t clerical anymore,” Whitten says.
Review the job descriptions that you have collected and pull out the items that are relevant to coordinators at your institution. Modify the list to add any necessary institution-specific items. Categorize job functions and qualifications based on your research.
As you develop professional levels for coordinators, ensure that:
- Progression from one step to the next is logical and attainable
- Knowledge, skills, and training needed are clearly distinguished for each level
- Compensation aligns with added responsibilities and qualifications
Make sure your requirements are attainable. For example, to reach the second tier at Scott & White, coordinators must become certified by the National Board for Certification of Training Program Administrators (TAGME).
“There was some pushback that certification wasn’t available for every specialty. Instead, we tell our coordinators to get involved with TAGME to develop the certification for those specialties,” Oliver says, adding that coordinators from Scott & White helped develop the certification for ophthalmology and diagnostic radiology.
Grandfather in current coordinators for some requirements. For example, if a coordinator now needs a bachelor’s degree to move up, you may waive that requirement for current coordinators without the degree.
Although you can expect pushback from some coordinators (some people just don’t like change), the majority should be on board, especially if they were involved in the development process.
“Having the different levels shows that we respect the efforts coordinators have done and that they have additional contributions to make,” Oliver says.
Sample coordinator career ladder
The following is a sample coordinator career ladder that distinguishes three job levels. These levels are based on job responsibilities, authority, decision-making, and experience rather than on the number of residents in the program or whether the coordinator supervises others.
Level 1: Residency program coordinator
Entry-level coordinators must have an associate’s or bachelor’s degree and preferably also have some administrative experience.
Level 2: Senior residency program coordinator
The coordinator has gained all of the knowledge and skills necessary to manage the day-to-day operation of a residency program. To become a senior residency program coordinator, the coordinator must:
- Have five years’ experience as a coordinator
- Achieve TAGME certification
- Participate in an internal review and site visit
- Be responsible for the daily management of the residency program
- Attend a minimum of two professional development conferences
Level 3: Academic program manager
The coordinator has excelled at managing the program and has proven his or her knowledge of residency program administration and ACGME requirements. To move from senior residency coordinator to academic program manager, the coordinator must:
- Have 10 years’ experience as a coordinator
- Achieve TAGME certification (recertification)
- Be responsible for the day-to-day management of the residency program
- Participate in at least five professional development activities, such as publications; abstracts; presentations at state, regional, or national meetings; or state, regional, or national committee participation
- [Add other responsibilities as pertinent to your institution, such as overseeing medical students]
Source: Adapted from Jeri L. Whitten, MS, C-TAGME.