Leadership and professionalism are two of the competency areas deemed essential for health administrators. Developing these primary competencies requires not only building a knowledge base of leadership, organizational behavior theory, and professional expectations, but also the capability to appropriately apply this information in practical ways using interpersonal skills such as ability to communicate, creating and sharing a vision, decision making, teamwork, cultural competency, and collaboration. Enhancing the competency level of health administration graduates to apply the leadership and professionalism interpersonal skills in the workplace has proven to be challenging.

The graduate Healthcare Administration program at Seton Hall University redesigned its existing Leadership Institute to further develop student leadership and professionalism competencies by focusing on the practical application of these skills. The core program faculty replaced an existing three-credit Leadership course with an incremental curriculum offered as three, one-credit modules that introduce a broad spectrum of leadership and professionalism skills interspersed throughout the curriculum. Students then practice applying these skills in subsequent courses and programmatic activities where the skill level is assessed and students are provided constructive feedback and concrete suggestions for improvement.

Feedback from initial cohorts of students completing the new Leader ship and Professionalism sequence indicate an increase in the perception of the program's ability to develop leadership and professionalism skills, as measured by the program exit survey. Overall, over 80% of the students rated the new program Leadership and Professionalism curriculum as strong or very strong. In addition, students completing the new course reported an increased self-perception of leadership and professionalism skills based on the ACHE Competency Assessment Tool than students completing the original Leadership Institute.