2023-2027
College of Health Strategic Plan
Introducing the College of Health 2027 Strategic Plan
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
We are delighted to share the Idaho State University College of Health (COH) Strategic Plan-2027 This forward facing and comprehensive plan is the thoughtful product of nearly a full academic year of collaborative work by the faculty, staff, students and constituents of the COH. It provides a roadmap for our future endeavors and presents our vision, mission, values, and motto. Our plan clearly describes who we are as a college and where we are going. It closely articulates with the strategic plan for the university while addressing the unique aspects of the College of Health.
Our plan positions the COH as the preeminent College of Health in Idaho and beyond, allowing us to engage the knowledge and expertise of our colleagues while also drawing on the expertise of constituents and partners of the College We strive to be the authors of the future of health science education through the pursuit of excellence and innovation in our teaching, research, clinical practice, and community engagement.
Our work is value-centered and reflective of our commitment to the provision of a high quality, person-centered education that addresses contemporary workforce needs These values include:
Professional Integrity
Community Inclusion
Compassion Agility
Discovery & Innovation
Excellence
We invite you to partner with us as we change the face of health science education and the health and safety of our communities
In Service,
The College of Health at Idaho State University is a diverse, innovative, world-class health college uniquely positioned to deliver innovative approaches in education and research. We are daring and dynamic, creating partnerships and building knowledge to inspire students and advance the health and safety of rural and urban communities We serve a broad range of students seeking a future in health and safety professions that contribute to strong and healthy individuals, families, and communities. This Strategic Plan offers a bold vision and identifies goals and objectives that will help get us there. The Strategic Plan defines our vision, mission, and values and provides a clear direction for how we will navigate within the current environment and into the future
The Strategic Plan helps the College proactively respond to external pressures in a rapidly changing environment that includes funding levels, demographic shifts, and new technology. This Plan helps all our partners know what we are working towards and how instrumental they are throughout the journey This Plan provides a framework for decision-making by having a clear set of priorities and how we align with the other parts of the University The College uses this Plan to maximize our strengths including staff, faculty, and students, and to make intentional decisions about our funding to ensure we make the best use of available resources.
The Strategic Plan outlines five goal areas and a set of ambitious but attainable objectives to charter our path toward becoming the preeminent College of Health in the nation Each College of Health department will support the Strategic Plan with its own Action Plan consisting of action items, initiatives, and detailed efforts to close gaps, build partnerships, and achieve success across the College, the University, the communities we serve, and the nation.
Your College. Your Voice.
For a strategic plan to be effective, it needs to reflect all parts of the organization. The strategic planning process centered around the coordination and collaborative efforts of the Strategic Planning Committee. Committee members came together from every department of the College of Health and brought specialized knowledge and skill sets to provide a well-rounded group with diverse opinions and fresh ideas. The committee represented people from different campuses and online programs to ensure a well-balanced view of challenges and opportunities.
The College of Health Leadership Team and the Strategic Planning Committee members conducted two assessments as a starting point in the planning process. Content from the Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) and Political Environmental Social and Technological (PEST) assessments provided a dynamic and rich understanding of our current environment and challenges. Committee members served as touch points throughout the College to collect and provide input and represent the perspectives of their departments and programs. They helped identify student and alumni representatives, and community and clinical partners willing to provide feedback The Committee used surveys and collaborative platforms to collect ideas, identify values, and pinpoint issues that needed attention throughout the planning process
The range of partners our programs come in contact with is expansive The planning process identified a wide array of strategic partners and crafted intentional opportunities to collect their feedback to shape our direction and ensure we are considering all angles The COH Strategic Plan is closely aligned with the Idaho State University Strategic Plan to support the University’s overarching mission, vision, and values The COH Strategic Plan has many of the same values and goals but goes into greater detail about the health-related goals and strategic objectives that will propel the College forward to be the preeminent College of Health in the nation The COH Strategic Plan is a living document without a set date range, that serves as an anchor as a decision framework, and for other plans within the College to ensure consistent priorities and direction We live in a dynamic time that will require agility and adaptability The College of Health will actively revise our document in response to university priorities and in anticipation of changes in the healthcare and higher education environment
Mission
Empowering students to create healthy and safe communities
Vision
To be the preeminent College of Health in the nation, focused on advancing the health and safety of our communities Motto
Better Health, Better Lives
Values
1. Professional Integrity: We are committed to honesty, trust, and accountability. We do the right thing and demonstrate accountability
2. Community: We promote partnership and teamwork towards collaborative initiatives that embrace cultural humility and strengthen the communities surrounding our program areas.
3. Inclusion: We value and welcome our differences. We trust the unique experiences and perspectives of others to ensure accessibility and improve our holistic approach and efforts.
4. Compassion: We use thoughtful approaches that embody kindness and caring in the development and delivery of our programs and services.
5. Agility: We are comfortable and flexible in evolving environments. We embrace change and are ready to grow and adapt to meet student needs and regulatory requirements.
6. Discovery and Innovation: We explore our curiosity and seek innovative solutions to problems in the spirit of lifelong learning.
7. Excellence: We are dedicated and passionate, continuously striving to be better and know more. We pursue excellence in our combined efforts and advocate for the greater good.
Strategic Planning Terms
Actions – The steps that must be taken, or activities that must be performed and by whom Actions will be part of the Action Plan by Departments tied to the Strategic Objective
Current Environment – The current environment statements share information on the challenges we face and where opportunities exist, providing insights as to why each strategic objective was developed
Goal – A desired end result to be achieved by specific efforts organized by objectives Goals should be realistic and achievable in a relatively short period of time at which point, we will set new goals or establish a new or modified focus to guide our efforts
Initiatives – An initiative is a level of effort intended to solve a problem Initiatives will be part of the Action Plan by Departments tied to a Strategic Objective
Mission Statement – Clearly states our purpose and why we exist Our mission statement aligns employees, partners, and community members with what we are doing and why
Performance Measures and Metrics – A quantifiable indicator used to assess how well we are achieving our objectives. Performance measures will be tied to department-level initiatives.
Projects – Planned efforts requiring time, resources, and deliverables to achieve an objective with milestones and stages along the way, carried out by departments through an action plan.
Strategic Objectives – Strategic objectives serve as milestone achievements or incremental accomplishments to move us from the current environment toward the goal.
Strategic Planning - A deliberative approach to guide decisions and actions, shared with employees and partners. Strategic plans set forth the mission, vision, values, goals, objectives, and performance expectations for our organization.
Tactics – Tactics are the short-term adaptive actions and reactions used to accomplish objectives. Tactics demonstrate “how” objectives are accomplished. Tactics will be part of the Action Plan by Departments tied to a Strategic Objective.
Values – Values or core values are our fundamental, unwavering beliefs. Our values guide the decision-making process, and workplace behavior, and can serve as a lens or filter when evaluating potential strategies and tactics.
Vision Statement – A vision statement is an aspirational description of what we want our college to achieve or accomplish in the future It serves as a destination after all accomplishments have been completed
Goal Areas
The planning process, including the SWOT and PEST analyses, identified five goal areas centered around who we are and where we’re headed Each of the goal areas is framed in a forward-reaching direction, focused on actions The goal areas have strategic objectives that identify the achievements that will help us fulfill the goal statements This structure along with the initiatives identified by each department’s Action Plans will allow us to channel our energies in a specific direction to accomplish our objectives The circular graphic denotes the dynamism of academic goals with multiple goals engaged at once and to a varying extent as the strategic plan unfolds This graphic demonstrates the interconnectedness of our plan
Each goal area contains a goal statement, a description of the current environment that includes issues, challenges and opportunities, and a set of strategic objectives that will lead us to successfully reaching the stated goal.
1. Learning
Create access to outstanding instruction health and safety related professions thr part-time, and face-to-face programming.
Current Environment:
Students have many options available to ready whether it is their first career or the pursuit of advancement opportunities within a chosen pr students navigate the landscape to pursue hig flexibility and a well-rounded and dynamic lear student population is diverse in age, social and economic resources, and geographic location, and they have varying degrees in ability or desire to attend traditional classroom instruction. Students may encounter financial hardships and may have a perception that higher education is out of reach or unnecessary Furthermore, adult learners need to balance multiple demands for their time and resources, adding stress to the overarching learning environment to ensure successful learning. Students will thrive when they have an outstanding student experience centered around high-quality instruction delivered by experienced, dedicated faculty with a vested interest in their success who relate to and understand the challenges they may face
Strategic Objectives:
1.1 Broaden students’ experiences with collaborative teaching techniques and enhance their exposure to interprofessional education and forward-thinking concepts to maximize team-centered learning.
1.2 Engage students and faculty through immersive learning opportunities and exchanges involving local to global environments.
1.3 Create and deliver supplemental opportunities for students, faculty, and professionals to come together to learn and experience diverse perspectives on emerging trends and approaches.
1.4 Develop ongoing research projects for undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students to work together for teaching, mentoring, and attaining advanced knowledge to improve job placement opportunities.
1.5 Instill a passion in our graduates as they enter the workforce to become skilled and talented thought leaders and change agents to create safe and healthy organizations.
1.6 Evaluate student and graduate perceptions of their educational experiences to inform programmatic strategies and revisions.
1.7 Capture student, faculty, and staff success stories to highlight progressive learning, scholarship, and professional outcomes.
1.8 Formulate new approaches for instructional delivery to include engaging online and hybrid options to meet the changing needs of ISU’s student populations.
1.9 Optimize professional and educational networks to ensure faculty have access to advanced pedagogical resources.
2. Innovating
Engage in the discovery of new intellec pedagogy, research, and clinical approa of healthcare and health education
Current Environment:
Communities across Idaho, the US, and w with innovative approaches to achieve hea a diverse public The ever-changing enviro and serious health issues to the forefront those with chronic or acute conditions living in frontier, rural, suburban, and urban areas The healthcare landscape is riddled with obstacles such as insufficient insurance coverage, lack of access to world-class healthcare, workforce shortages, and social, economic, and language barriers and bias that can hinder otherwise healthy communities. As a premier college dedicated to discovery and innovation, we are committed to developing and evaluating emerging practices and creating new tools and techniques to improve clinical approaches and support healthier communities
Strategic Objectives:
2 1 Develop pathways and resources to support sustainable innovative research and creative discovery.
2.2 Anticipate future trends and encourage new ideas, approaches, and technologies to enhance strategic collaborations in service, research, and healthcare and safety education.
2.3 Provide funding for future-focused and innovative pedagogical and clinical approaches.
2.4 Create opportunities for student and community engagement via funded or non-funded research and scholarship activities and processes.
2 5 Strengthen collaboration between the College of Health and the Office of Research
2 6 Increase faculty’s research expertise and statistical support, and protect the necessary time required to seek and secure funding and manage creative research initiatives.
2.7 Design conduits and support the development of new intellectual property.
2.8 Support and showcase published works of faculty and students to spotlight innovative initiatives.
2.9 Implement transparent, consistent processes and capacity support for administrative activities.
3. Partnering
Enhance and grow relationships within Division, University, local community, s beyond
Current Environment:
The College of Health covers a wide port programs, departments, clinics, and rese and staff comprise more than 170 people than 4,000 students at the undergraduate levels Our programs and clinics provide services and resources to countless community members and organizations throughout the country The large reach of our College and the University, the specialized nature of our programs, and wide geographically located students and faculty can contribute to unintended silos. Keeping up with community-based initiatives led by different work units and academic programs is challenging in our resource-constrained environment
Lack of priority funding impacts the ability to strategically fund higher education initiatives. This exacerbates funding shortfalls which prevent the education of adequate numbers of healthcare professionals As a result, our healthcare systems remain significantly understaffed across a wide spectrum of healthcare disciplines. There is often an unlevel playing field related to clinical site placements for students, sometimes involving financial incentives from other schools and greater competition for limited openings Navigating service provider systems with workforce limitations, and alumni networks to secure support for student clinical rotations, practicums, and internships requires building awareness of the mutual benefits of working with COH students Local and national communities may not know how to maximize the resources available via ISU and how partnering with our programs can yield unique and long-standing relationships to achieve shared objectives We need to seek out and foster new international partnerships and cultivate existing relationships within the local community, the state of Idaho, and beyond.
Strategic Objectives:
3 1 Maximize Internal partnerships across professions, clinics, and degree levels to promote interprofessional collaboration.
3.2 Develop a greater understanding of the perceptions of the COH by external partners throughout regional communities.
3.3 Create opportunities to highlight the community and rural-based services and benefits provided by COH clinics and programs.
3 4 Build an understanding among our elected officials of what our COH graduates can do for the state and what they need to be successful.
3.5 Improve the sustainability and reliability of site placements for students.
3.6 Expand networks and facilitate intellectual exchange between COH and global communities.
4. Leading
Lead in the design of responsive prog delivery to attract students, and invest increase student access, retention, an
Current Environment:
Numbers of students seeking degrees fro institutions across the country have decr Adult learners who consider returning to competing demands for their time and re across the country to attend school Wor g increased wages have amplified employment options for those who do not hold college degrees The cost of tuition and rapid inflation also contributes to declining enrollment. Many prospective students consider entering trade-based professions instead of pursuing an academic path State-level funding does not prioritize higher education institutions, resulting in lean programs and competing demands on our limited staffing resources
Although many of these challenges are not unique to ISU or the COH, there are opportunities to increase the visibility and exposure of our faculty and staff's specializations, diverse expertise, and unique program offerings Expanding our marketing strategies and gaining visibility for our state-of-the-art research and clinical education programs, can increase the student recruitment pool beyond local communities and regions to maximize exposure throughout the country This will stimulate programmatic wellness to grow enrollment, cultivate greater applicant diversity, and improve tuition-based funding streams
Strategic Objectives:
4.1 Design and optimize accessible and adaptable programs to produce graduates with the required credentials to provide essential services and support to communities.
4.2 Generate a culture and structures to support new ideas for growth and funding.
4.3 Recruit for and promote the diverse academic options of online, hybrid, and face-to-face programs.
4.4 Promote national, regional, and local presence and visibility.
4.5 Prioritize retention and create support structures to facilitate graduation.
4.6 Leverage faculty expertise to support continuing education to diversify revenue streams.
4.7 Optimize and leverage programmatic state-of-the-art facilities, technology, faculty, and capabilities.
5. Achieving
Cultivate and sustain a supportive culture empowered to succeed and Current Environment:
Economic upheaval in the country du cost of living creates financial pressu higher education institutions in a diffi factors have severely limited the abili institutions to provide competitive sa to fill vacancies when people leave fo employees experience compressed salaries due to the competitive salaries required to recruit new employees Staff and faculty who remain loyal to the institution, are stretched thin and must take on greater responsibilities year after year. Existing funding streams are stagnant, creating the need to explore and maximize new revenue sources
Strategic Objectives:
5.1 Evaluate and improve the essential components of employee satisfaction.
5.2 Create systems that empower leadership accountability, trustworthiness, and excellence.
5.3 Enhance access, increase awareness, and shared responsibility in the management of funds.
5.4 Ensure a workplace environment that is inclusive, participatory, and encourages employee engagement at all levels.
5.5 Maximize employee growth through learning and professional development opportunities.
5.6 Align College of Health resources and collaboration to meet the growing needs and diversity of individual programs.
5.7 Identify new opportunities to expand and generate additional revenue to succeed in a highly competitive environment.
Measuring Our Success
Our College of Health Strategic Plan outlines five bold and ambitious goals and a set of integrated strategic objectives, to move us toward attaining these goals It’s important to evaluate our progress and performance as we implement actions Each department or program within the College will develop an Action Plan for how it supports the COH Strategic Plan with specific projects, initiatives, efforts, and programs Action Plans will be mapped to the strategic objectives most closely aligned with the units’ capabilities We encourage and support inter-department and college and University-wide initiatives to maximize collaboration whenever possible
The College of Health is determined to keep the Strategic Plan current and relevant with ongoing updates and improvements as needed One method for ensuring our plan is making a real difference is to establish performance measures to help us gauge our progress and determine how far we’ve come in achieving our objectives Departments or programs will identify performance measures related to the objectives they align with, establish a baseline, and identify desirable benchmark capabilities
The College of Health will form a Strategic Planning Steering Committee (SPSC) to oversee and guide the performance measuring process The SPSC will establish regular reporting intervals to evaluate our progress and determine if we need to adjust our approach, funding, and focus The SPSC will have members representing the disciplines of the college, our partners, and the dean’s office They will meet semi-annually or as needed to review the implementation status of our Action Plans and progress toward the benchmark capabilities The baseline performance measures should be considered as tools and our progress will be available on a visual dashboard to ensure transparency for all our partners
