<p>hello everyone this is Cole from the American Journal of healthc care strategy and here with me is Julia Julia please introduce yourself yeah absolutely hi everybody my name is Julia Schmidt and I am the administrative fellow with The Advocate Health Midwest Medical Group and I am originally from Wisconsin and uh did my undergraduate degree in neurobiology at the University of Wisconsin Madison and had a couple of uh changes in career has that led me to the world of healthcare administration and so straight from undergrad I went and got my M's in Health Services administration at Xavier University and am now here at Advocate Health as an administrative fellow and um super excited to talk to Cole today [Music] so yeah you have a you have a great career path you've done a few different things that all have kind of are culminating in this Fellowship right now so originally you got your Bachelor's in neurobiology which is a really difficult degree to get can you tell us why you because I was originally working in neurology and so some of them were had studied this and it was terrifying how intense this was so why did you you know choose to pursue this degree and what benefits have you seen from it even though you changed Fields yeah um that's a great question so I have always really been very interested in science like ever since I was a little kid and so I always knew that I wanted to study something around biology and I had originally planned on going some sort of clinical route I looked into genetic counseling and was really interested in that for a while but ultimately kind of realized that that wasn't the right path for me so I kind of bounced around public health and then ended up Landing in healthcare administration so I think that there's honestly been a lot of benefits from having that kind of a degree I mean there were a couple of other people in my program that came from the science world but I can tell you like when it comes to talking with doctors and understanding all of like the medical terminology having conversations with them and and having kind of a just a basic knowledge of medicine it's so much so much more helpful to have those kinds of conversations and really be able to connect the dots and know when you're trying to solve an issue like what diabetes patients need and uh what like a a heart certain heart surgery looks like and my other experiences like I worked in a couple of different research Labs as well as well so I've I've kind of gathered a lot of science knowledge that I definitely can apply a little bit to my time as a fellow in in in the healthcare administration World which is really cool excellent it's great to see that even though there's a change and it's a bit different you're still able to apply that knowledge I think that's wonderful absolutely why did you choose to go to Xavier yeah so I like I said I'm a Wisconsin girl so Midwest at heart and so I really wanted to stay in the midwest we have a lot of really great programs in the Midwest and particularly I was looking at Xavier and uh Minnesota and it really came down to how I I meshed with the the professors and just like the overall structure of the program and it also helped that I got a pretty good scholarship from Xavier as well so that helped in the decision but one of the big things that Drew me to Xavier was the Alumni network they have a really really vast Alumni network and I have already seen it benefit me in multiple ways uh so that was a huge deal for me in choosing to go to Xavier that is excellent I I I think it was a good choice Xavier has some really good connections and uh I know quite a few people who gone there and they've they've really enjoyed it so and the Midwest is such an interesting place we've we've been trying to meet more people from there because I'm from the Northeast and it seems like a wonderful uh place to live people are very kind so I understand why you'd want to stay there so after you got your uh well actually during right during your mha you were the uh chief medical officer uh intern can you explain what that is what that's like that's kind of a unique role I haven't really heard of anything like before yeah absolutely I I had not either which sparked my interest for sure in kind of pursuing that role so what that really entailed was at uh the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and their UC Health brand they have uh a a structure where the chief medical officer has a couple of different departments under him and so his chief of staff was actually my boss and I worked really closely with the project management team that worked with the service lines and then also the performance Improvement team and so a lot of my work revolved around their service lines and uh really rolling out uh a lot of the performance work and improvements and and things like that so it was really cool cuz I got to uh see a lot of different service lines just spread across all the different facilities and really build some skills in project management and uh performance Improvement and also uh got some exposure to a lot of other services as well so it was really cool absolutely that sounds very interesting and then was it challenging to get that uh internship uh you know how how many internships did you apply to what did that look like yeah um I think let me think that was a long time ago I think I applied to probably about three or four internships the Cincinnati area honestly has a very like robust healthc care uh community and so I just plann on applying to the the local organizations and UCC health and Xavier have kind of had this partnership uh over the years and so that was one that was presented to our class and I think it was me and probably 12 of my classmates that applied for it so I felt really grateful to get the opportunity but yeah I I think it was just a couple and it was just your typical kind of application and and interview process nice nice that's really good and also good uh advice for everyone else out there that you don't you didn't have to do anything too crazy to to get the role um yeah so you decided to you know apply for a fellowship actually isn't that part of uh Xavier's program it is yeah so for me I knew like before I went to my grab program that I was going to want to do a residen fellowship just because I was coming straight from undergrad and so personally I really wanted to have that extra year or two to learn and and grow and build skills before I really was put into uh a leadership role kind of full-time and so it is a part of Savior program I think they're like one of seven in the country that requires that third year so like like yes I technically was required to do it but I still did really want to do a a residenc year of fellowship and why did you early on know that that was something that you really wanted to do yeah I mean I think that from what I had heard from other people's experiences it it opens up a lot of doors you have an opportunity to make connections with people and throughout the organization and the industry that you don't necessarily have the opportunity to do just because of the exposure that you get and also I am someone who I really I really like the opportunity to kind of have a cushion as I'm learning and feel comfortable enough to push myself a little bit outside of my comfort zone with not necessarily having to be in an environment where it's going to make like a huge impact if I screw up and so uh that's another thing that I've really enjoyed throughout the fellowship is kind of having that flexibility in in learning from some mistakes but yeah I there's a ton of of benefits from going for a fellowship so a lot of reasons why I knew uh I wanted to do that of course we've heard a lot of of people really in even people who are you know have years of experience they've even gained a lot from the fellowship so it seems like it's a really well-rounded experience how many fellowships did you apply to and then why did you apply to and then choose Advocate Health yeah so my personal situation played a lot of a factor in which uh places I applied to and how many so I just for some context I got married in August so I knew I was I was thank you I knew I was gonna be getting married back in Wisconsin and so for me and my husband were both from Wisconsin and that was really kind of our big goal and also just aligning with where his career was going as well so I really just focused on Wisconsin and and I applied to I think the four organizations that had or that were offering fellowships this year and I mean all of them are are some really wonderful organizations but Advocate Health specifically stuck out to me with its commitment to the community and Health Equity that was a huge huge thing for me in my first interview I remember just beaming I was I could not stop smiling because they were kind of going over some of the initiatives that the organization is was hoping to do they have done some of them now but it was just something that really resonated with me and that was everything that I was looking for is to find a place that my values align and I'm excited to contribute to the work that they're doing and so that was a huge deal for me in choosing Advocate as my fellowship location and so that it's so nice when I hear that I I think Audrey said something similar you know when the values you know mesh there it's so important and I I found that the fellows who do find that where they really feel at home they do tend to do better than some of the fellows who don't so so I think that's excellent what uh how how long is it by the way what did you say did you say it was a year it's a year here and so you're almost done with it then you're you're on the final I'm on the job hunt how how do you feel about that are you going to try try to work for Advocate or are you looking at other areas yes 100% I have absolutely loved it and honestly was just having a conversation with one of our leaders the other day and he said you know Advocate is one of those kinds of of companies that you kind of work for for the rest of your life and I said you know I kind of felt that on the first day that this is probably going to be somewhere that I'm going to be saying for a very long time uh so I have a ton of support for my pre receptor and and all the other leaders in the organization to help me find a role that's really going to fit me in the organization and I'm yeah really looking forward to continue working with Advocate wonderful and and so just to kind of refresh my memory a bit as well is it a rotational Project based what is that looking like yeah so it's a project yeah it's Project based however we do in the Midwest do uh a couple of rotations at the beginning of the fellowship so I'm not exactly sure if the structure will be the same going forward but this year we were able to do a on Monon rotation with HR finance and business development and they that was like our first three months of really just uh giving us some exposure building our knowledge and skills in those areas and honestly that has been hugely helpful for our project work that followed those rotations uh and and really making those connections ahead of time and knowing who we needed to go to for all of those areas to help us uh to support our projects absolutely and what are some uh or one I guess what's one of the your favorite projects that you've worked on yeah so my primary project is honestly super cool so I'm the fellow with the medical group and so my primary project right now is focused on supply chain optimization for all of our 500 plus sites which is just an insane opportunity and so I'm really focused on the supply management part of our supply chain so really like the end users in our clinics and kind of optimizing and making that more efficient that sounds very exciting also very vast uh so I guess you feel pretty prepared to take on what your next role is I do I do and I like I won't lie I have asked my preceptor are there any like gaps that I am missing before I move into this next role and I think that's honestly the beauty of the fellowship is like these next two three months that I'm in it if there were any gaps I could go and learn anything that I needed to to to fill those but my preceptor said that he feels very confident I feel very confident in in the experiences and projects that I've had so far have definitely prepared me for my next role so you know you have really been successful in your projects you have received excellent feedback from your preceptor what recommendations do you have um if you had to be introspective and ask you know why have I been successful what would you tell you know us about why you've been successful and recommendations that you'd have you know for somebody like myself who's just starting off at the beginning of my grad school career that's a great question I think that when it you know grad school and being an administrative fellow are so different and so I think that a huge trait that has really helped me in my success just through this whole process has honestly been to be a adaptable to be able to uh also go outside of your comfort zone a lot of this is not easy stuff and you're interacting with a lot of people who are intimidating and super smart and so I think that those two things have definitely helped me to just kind of push myself and meet new people and and get out there and kind of along those same lines is to really just take advantage of networking and and making connections I have been so successful in my project work and really just finding different experiences throughout my fellowship through making all of those connections and I definitely was not someone who understood the power of networking until I was exposed to it and now I really understand it and am very grateful for the network that I've built and will definitely continue building for example AC is next week so absolutely encourage uh people to go to events and and conferences like that and there's some amazing learning opportunities in in networking opportunities excellent advice and and similar story with myself as well I still don't believe the power of networking even though my current role is only due to networking really I I still don't believe it it's just in a way but it it does make sense when you think about it that can't showcase a lot of these skills unless you're networking with people an excellent advice you've given thank you for joining us I know are you in central time I think in Wisconsin I am yep okay so it's a little bit earlier in the evening for you but still the thank you for joining us and taking this time I really do appreciate it no absolutely thank you so much for having me it was it was really awesome to talk to you and would look look forward to having more conversations in the future</p>