Orienting new trustees to their role

Since trustees come from various backgrounds, their learning needs reflect both diversity and commonality. Those from the business sector, for example, may be adept at interpreting financial statements yet unable to assess the physician credentialing process. All new trustees, of course, need to become acquainted with the Church's role in health care, the sponsoring group's mission, and current ethical and legal issues in health care. In an actual educational needs assessment for board members with one to three years' service, the need for education was identified in such areas as program planning, quality of care assessment, personnel policies, selection and evaluation of administrators, and third-party payment methods. The administrator, as well as the sponsoring group and the board itself, should encourage new trustees to identify their learning needs and suggest activities to meet those needs. Group discussion, role playing, case studies, and the critical incident approach can be useful in encouraging the learner's active participation. Throughout the educational process, trustees should share responsibility for defining learning goals and for planning, conducting, and evaluating learning activities.