Crissy Flake, student in the School of Health Sciences, shares about her experience in the Doctor of Health Administration program at Northcentral University. Crissy shares her background and what inspired her to pursue furthering her education as well her goals of changing the architecture of health administration.
Crissy Flake, student in the School of Health Sciences, shares about her experience in the Doctor of Health Administration program at Northcentral University. Crissy shares her background and what inspired her to pursue furthering her education as well her goals of changing the architecture of health administration.
Samantha 0:02
Hello everyone and welcome to emerging trends in higher ed. My name is Samantha Wilcox and I am your moderator for this podcast series. Joining us today is soon to be alumna at MCU Christy flake Christy is a student and our doctor of Health Administration degree program in our School of Health Sciences. Thank you so much for joining us today. Chrissy. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. Absolutely. Now, Christie is going to share a little bit about her experience at MCU. Some of her backgrounds, and we really want to dig into all of that she has and that experience that she brings to the table.
Crissy 0:37
Well, thank you. I came to ncu as part of the entire journey of my education. In my younger years, I had decided that I wanted to be a doctor. And I was thinking more like, pathologists and doing all those fun things. And then life happened. And I suddenly had a family and children. And everything was put on the backburner. And the idea was someday I would go after my education. Then my eldest daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy, and she was part of the 1/3 of those with epilepsy who do not ever receive good seizure control with their medication. And everything was then focused on making sure my daughter was okay. And then we unfortunately lost her. She lost her battle with epilepsy about 10 years ago. And I was trying to figure out how to put my life back together. I had worked within the healthcare industry, almost my entire adult life. My mother and mother in law were both Rn, so we knew the right questions to ask, we knew the right things to ask for during our journey with our daughter. And yet my husband and I, in a very short time had racked up enough and copayment coinsurance uncovered bill uncovered cost shares that we could have bought a house. And for some people, what we pay our our share of cost would have bought somebody a really nice house. And that was in the span of six and a half years that was with people who knew the right things to ask and the right things to say. And so then it was, how do I stop this from happening down the road? How do I fix it for other people? Because if this happens to me, what happens to the person who doesn't know the right things to say or ask or do? And so I really started to say, Okay, what do I do with this experience. And so I had this lifetime of experience, but I never had my college degrees. And so as I started to apply for jobs, it was suddenly we felt this great experience. But the threshold to even get past anybody into the hiring process is you had to have your bachelor's you had to have your masters or so forth. So then I went to school and said, Okay, great, I'll get my bachelor's. And I pursued that relentlessly. And as I started to, you know, the ideas, get my foot in the door with the bachelors. And as I started to get my foot in the door, and was getting my bachelor's, I thought, you know, I want more than that, I want to sit at the table, I want to help really affect decisions, because suddenly, I started to see that bachelor's degrees, got it, and assistants, administrative assistants kind of position. And it's like, I wanted to do more than that. So then as soon as I finished my mouse, my bachelor's, I went to start pursuing my master's degree. And as I started to do my master's degree, it was like, you know, I just don't want to sit at the table, I want to change the architecture of this room, the entire building needs to be changed. healthcare needs a significant overhaul, and continuing the same processes over and over again, is not going to get us anywhere. So I happen to be at the American College of healthcare executives, annual Congress, and I met Dr. Marsha Anderson, who is the Dean of the School of Health Sciences program. And so she and I got to talking and what my goals were, and she kept saying, you need to come here, you need to come to ncu. My school has what you're looking for. And I have actually been looking at another university, and Dr. shatters and kept reaching out to me, not as just a recruitment, but how are you doing as a human being. And that really was a significant factor to me, because it was that touch. It was somebody who cared about me more than just a member, somebody who saw my potential and said, We can help you get where you want to go. So as soon as I finished my master's degree, I told my husband, I'm going to take a few months off, and I'm going to read books that have nothing to do with health care. And then I got this email that said ncu is doing the scholarships that you can apply for and there was one that was a Fulbright scholarship. And I looked at my husband, I said, Well, I'm gonna do this anyway. So I really be remiss if I didn't at least try for it. In so what should have been three months and at least three books was six weeks, so one and a half books. And I started my doctoral journey. I have not regretted it at any point. Yes, there are hard days. That kind of leads me to my overriding motto is I do hard things I live in determination nation, I am so determined to change the world of healthcare. And nothing's going to stop me. I started my program when I was on a Hawaii cruise that had already been booked a couple of years in advance. And so while I'm going with all of my friends to all of these islands in Hawaii, we're doing events. Every time we get back on the ship, I have dinner with them. And then I go back to the room. And I'm working on my papers because I'm not about to tell my professors. By the way, I can't turn on my stuff today. Because I'm on a ship. Instead, I found Starbucks or other Wi Fi hotspots, I've never Island and made sure that I had ability to turn my stuff in.
Crissy 5:48
I have not taken any break in any class, since I started my program. So as each class ends on a Sunday, and the next one begins Monday, I have rolled from class to class to class because I don't have time to wait, that I healthcare needs people like me, they need people who are going to say, this is not acceptable. This is not right. And this is how we can make things better. So I pursue it relentlessly. So that means when I've been camping, we've been at the Grand Canyon, we've been at the Grand Teton doesn't matter where we are. It's like, Okay, I need to plot out where spots are where I could upload stuff. I don't stop. I give up TV shows if people ask me No, oh, my gosh, did you see the last episode? No. Because I am focused on my degree so that I can help change the world to make it better. It's not about getting some more letters behind my main, it's really about trying to make the world a better place. And this is what I need to get that to have that ability to change the architecture of healthcare. The program here at NC u has been so robust that I have had critical thinking opportunities, not just here, write this paper and go forward, but interactions with other faculty members even in like the School of Nursing, who is part of the health sciences, but kind of a different construct than health administration to sit there and say, Okay, here's an opportunity of what would you do? If you were the executive? What would you do and having those opportunities to roleplay? to really think out? What would be the next step? What have I thought about what Haven't I thought about? And those skill sets have helped me in my current position, where I'm a regional quality improvement and compliance manager for a, I don't know if I can say my company. Well, we help. And we are a PACE program, which is a program for all inclusive care of the elderly. So being able to take those opportunities to say, Well, how would you affect better changes? How would you think about applying other staff members to meet needs of patients? What would you do in those circumstances have directly correlated to what I do in my day in day out job? The Student Advisory Council, oh my gosh, that is it's another opportunity to practice those skills as an upcoming executive. How do you lead the meeting? How do you effectively get people who have competing priorities because it's made up of other students. So now you've got who all is available to attend, who's in what timezone, all of those other little pieces that as an executive, you start thinking about how to make the pieces work together, and find to find ways to communicate with others that may be outside of the norm. That is not just through the ncu emails, it may be setting up zoom meetings, you know, on my own zoom account, those are things that can help facilitate and bridge those conversations so that we can move forward to help make the School of Health Sciences as best as it can be, to encourage others who are not part of the Advisory Council, tell us what's going right, tell us what's going wrong. So that way we can help make the program better, which again, goes right back to my you know, niche of the World Within quality improvement and compliance. And continuing as the next coming executive.
Samantha 9:29
Man, Chris Christie, your experience and your background has really changed. changed the game, in your your passion for this industry. It's inspiring to hear all the things that you've walked through and how you're using kind of that pain and that story to really make some change and improve the system. And again, it just so inspiring. So I know we've talked a little bit about your background, we talked about Your Signature phrase, which I love, and I'm going to repeat it just for anybody who needs it one more time. It's I do hard things. And I live in determination nation. I think that is so cool. I know we talked a little bit about your experience at ncu, and your work on the Student Advisory Council. I do have two more questions if you have a few minutes for me. First, what advice do you have for anyone considering pursuing a graduate degree?
Crissy 10:26
The first thing is, find your passion and stick to it. Because there's going to be hard days, there's going to be days where like, Oh my gosh, I would really like to be out doing XYZ. But what's your WHY? My why is because I need to change healthcare, I am determined not to have the same things happened to my daughter that have happened to other people. How do I improve the equity? How do I improve the quality? How do I improve all of those pieces? So finding your Why? Because those days when you sit back and go, Oh my gosh, this is like just so hard. And I'm so tired of writing papers, and I'm so tired. But what is it you're really going after? And then with ncu because we're not sitting in a classroom every day, you have to be self disciplined. And that is you know, saying, Okay, I have to turn off the TV, I have to, you know, I rely on my family members to help pick up some of the other pieces of the world. So that I can focus on this, if you came into my house, I'll tell you right now, there's piles of laundry everywhere, the house is clean, but the laundry sit, because right now, this is my focus. And you know what, we have iron. So we have steamers can take care of the wrinkles, the rest of them will work out. But this is a temporary situation. And I have a long term plan. So it's one of those embrace the process. Ask for help. But please, you know, be firm on what you want and what you're doing and why you're doing it.
Samantha 11:47
Absolutely. That is some great advice. I am in full support of letting that laundry sit for a while it will always be absolutely. One last question for you today. I'm specifically geared towards the doctor of Health Administration Program, or really graduate school students in general. What would you tell other folks about your MCU experience?
Crissy 12:10
I would say it is it is hands down. The absolute best the faculty have been there. Whether I have a question, I don't understand something. I've reached out to faculty via text messages, phone calls, zoom meetings. They've always been very responsive to me. When if I had a problem with maybe a great amount assignment, I didn't understand why I've been able to have candid conversations, and not argumentative, but really questioning of what did I not facilitate? You know, what, where did I not understand so that I can do better next time to have conversations with some of the best and the brightest in the healthcare industry? across the table to say, you know, what about this? And how about that? And what if we did this, and if we all had a magic wand, what would you do, has been priceless. And then I've had the opportunity that I'm not sure what it's been afforded to me in other schools, to co author papers with faculty members, where they've been very encouraging of that, here's an opportunity, we're looking for somebody to write with us. And I was the one who raised my hand and to be able to team up with these professionals, who then become mentors, and take you to that next step. You don't get that when you've got this great big school and you're one of 1000s into you, because we have this opportunity to actually develop relationships with our instructors because you're connected with them for the duration of the class. And it's on a weekly basis, you're having contact and some of the instructors you have over and over again. It's that opportunity that you would not have elsewhere. And you know, I'm into you for life.
Samantha 14:04
And we are proud to have you. I know your finish line for this part of your story is nearing completion and we are so excited to cheer you on.
Crissy 14:15
Thank you. I am super excited myself. It's so close.
Samantha 14:19
It is so close. So close. We're in the homestretch. But although Yes, Christy, we really appreciate you taking some time with us today and sharing about your experience and your incredible story. Like you're proud of NC We are very proud of you. So continue to push forward and let that laundry sit and finish up that program so we can see you at commencement.
Crissy 14:43
Yes, ma'am. And we all can do hard things. We can all live in determination nation, we just got to make the choice.
Samantha
That is some great advice. All right. Thank you very much. Thanks, Crissy. In the coming weeks, we'll be exploring additional topics with the MC community so be sure to check back for Episode. Till next time, goodbye.