Evaluating the Region V Public Health Training Center’s Leadership Institute Using Qualitative Methods
The Region V Public Health Leadership Institute (RVPHLI) was established in 2023, bringing together a cohort of public health and primary care professionals each year across Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Since its inception, the RVPHLI has aimed to help participants build skills in adaptive leadership that facilitate a supportive workplace culture and that create a culture of learning. To assess how the program has affected its first cohort’s leadership skills, project staff from the Region V Public Health Training Center (RVPHTC) led a qualitative evaluation of the program using ripple effects mapping.[1] In this blog post, we discuss the methods and results of this activity, which were recently published in detail in JPHMP.
Ripple effects mapping, or REM, is a method to visualize the impacts of a program using maps generated during the evaluation. This allows participants, in addition to the evaluators, to get a sense of the findings of the evaluation as it’s being conducted, which isn’t typical of many types of evaluation. For the RVPHLI REM evaluation, the goal was to assess how participants’ leadership abilities had changed and also if skill domains beyond leadership had changed over the course of the RVPHLI. The evaluation started with a 10-minute breakout session in which participants were paired up to reflect on their leadership growth and development, which was followed by a 40-minute large group REM exercise during which moderators asked about intended and unintended program impacts, mapping responses as ripples (see image below). A 30-minute small group discussion—in which moderators asked a predetermined list of open-ended discussion questions—took place next, and then the entire large group reconvened for a final 10-minute debrief.
During the REM exercise, seven main ripples (ie, impacts) were discussed: “new approaches/ways of doing things,” “beneficiaries,” “shared experiences between health care and public health,” “identify resources,” “new challenges/shortcomings,” “learned skills,” and “learned processes.” (For definitions of each of these ripples, please see the full JPHMP article.) The evaluation team also used a framework called the community capitals framework—which provides insights into how community resources are used—to examine domains that were impacted by the RVPHLI. The domains of capital (ie, resources) that were affected by the RVPHLI included cultural, social, and human capital; in contrast, natural, financial, built, or political capital did not seem to be affected.
Focus groups were recorded, and transcripts of those recordings were then coded by qualitative analysts. The themes that emerged the most often were “leaders as collaborators,” “new approaches,” “better understanding of individual leadership qualities and skills,” “current challenges,” and “validated existing definitions of leadership.” For the latter, participants mentioned that they weren’t necessarily challenging their existing conceptualizations of leadership but rather affirming what they already knew to be true; they were also getting the opportunity to practice that definition in action. More information about each theme can be found in the full JPHMP article.
Using both REM and focus groups during the evaluation increased the confidence of the evaluators in our results reflecting the reality of the participants, as many of the themes from REM overlapped with the themes that emerged from the focus groups. This assessment also facilitated understanding of the impacts of the program that RVPHLI staff could use to adjust programming while planning for its next iteration. Furthermore, because literature on public health leadership training is rather rare, this assessment could serve as a roadmap or blueprint that other public health or primary care organizations may employ to evaluate similar programs.
Portion of Completed Mind Map from Ripple Effect Mapping (REM) Exercise.
[1] The project team was led by Dr. Harshada Karnik, who has since moved on from the project.
About the Author
- Nikki Weiss, PhD. Nikki Weiss is a biocultural anthropologist specializing in mixed methods research. She completed her undergraduate education in biology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and she earned her master’s and doctorate in anthropology from Ohio State University. Before arriving at CPHS, Nikki worked for the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health – Great Lakes Hub, as well as for the CDC Foundation. Her research interests include health equity and making health care accessible and attainable for all.
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