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More than 80 hospitals and health systems, along with more than 38 graduate health management programs participate in the National Council on Administrative Fellowships (NCAF).
NCAF creates an industry-standard in the recruitment of administrative fellows. In doing so, NCAF allows for a uniform and coordinated recruitment process, helps organizations access a national pipeline of the next generation of healthcare industry leaders, and brings fellowship sites and graduate health management programs together to share ideas and best practices.
NCAF provides administrative fellowship sites and graduate programs the tools to help their students when applying for administrative fellowships by creating a uniform coordinated recruitment process, providing access to national industry data, and providing opportunities for fellowship sites to share ideas, best practices, and expectations that allow for the preparation of students for administrative fellowships.
Starting in 2023, NCAF membership consists of two levels: Standard and Council. Membership cycles run from January through December, but you can join at any time throughout the year.
The National Council on Administrative Fellowships began on October 1, 2014. As of January 2023, NCAF is made up of 118 member organizations including both fellowship sites and graduate health management programs. These organizations work collaboratively to continuously improve early-career development opportunities for our next-generation healthcare leaders.
The Give and Take of Healthcare Management Fellowships
Published on December 2, 2022
The National Council on Administrative Fellowships brings tremendous value and impact to the industry. Cornerstones of the program include:
NCAF believes that the healthcare industry will benefit from better coordination across the field in the development and operation of fellowship programs. All members agree to abide by the guidelines of the NCAF Code of Good Practice, which includes upholding uniform application dates.
The Code of Good Practice dates for 2023 are as follows:
– Application Opens: June 9, 2023
– Phone Interviews can begin: September 18, 2023
– Application Closes: September 29, 2023
– Offers can be made any time after the cycle closes (September 29). Applicants have no more than ten (10) calendar days to accept or decline the offer. If a second offer is received, the applicant has 24 hours to decide between the two offers. If the new offer is chosen to hold, the ten (10) calendar day acceptance period starts over.
NCAF members get exclusive access to a centralized application service (NAFCAS) to simplify the application process for fellowship applicants and administrative fellowship sites. NAFCAS is a one-stop-shop for administrative fellowship sites, applicants/students, and faculty/staff.
The NAFCAS 2023-2024 has two application cycles:
• Cycle 1 Applications Opens June 9, 2023
• Cycle 1 Applications Closes September 29, 2023
• Cycle 2 Applications Opens November 20, 2023
• Cycle 2 Applications Close January 30, 2024
Visit the prospective fellow resource center for more information.
NAFCAS is powered by Liaison International
NCHL conducts four annual benchmarking surveys to assess trends, impact, and challenges that exist in the graduate healthcare administrative fellowship area. NCHL reports aggregated responses back to participants and to the broader graduate healthcare management community. Responses provide everyone with important knowledge on the current state of fellowships and help our program members navigate the future of administrative fellowships. 2021 – 2022 results of the NCAF benchmarking surveys have been released to members. The publicly available dashboard can be found here.
NCAF’s agenda is member-centric. The NCAF governance structure is comprised of a Steering Committee and two workgroups, the Benchmarking, Metrics Research Workgroup, and the Emerging Leaders Advancement Workgroup. The Steering Committee and Workgroups are comprised of members from fellowship and leadership development programs and graduate health management programs.
NCAF’s Steering Committee strategically sets the direction of NCAF’S forward trajectory, in alignment with membership goals and to advise the NCHL staff on the evolving Code of Good Practice, membership, long-term strategy, events/meetings/webinars, development, partnerships, research and data collection, and member communication. NCAF is currently reevaluating its subcommittee structure and future plans for 2022 will be shared soon. NCAF’s current subcommittee is featured below.
Chair: Dr. Christopher Louis, Clinical Associate Professor, Boston University School of Public Health
NCAF’s Benchmarking, Metrics, & Research Subcommittee collects comprehensive data from fellowship sites/leadership development programs, fellows/young leaders, graduate health management programs, and applicants/students to analyze and evaluate fellowships/leadership development programs.
Chair: Suzanne Boren, Professor and Director of Academic Programs, University of Missouri School of Medicin
The NCAF Emerging Leaders Advancement Workgroup will continue the work of the NCAF Steering Committee. The workgroup will focus specifically on the oversight of fellows networking opportunities, leadership webinars, and additional educational opportunities for both fellows and graduate students.
Chair: Mina Noohi Mirshafiee, Senior Organizational Effectiveness Consultant, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Planning for the 2023 educational content is underway. 2022 recorded content was made available via email to NCAF members and non-members that registered ahead of time.
Watch previous content from our 2020 series.
In 2023, students, fellows, an emerging leaders will have access to A Guide for the Healthcare Early Careerist.
This podcast will have three series:
Interested in Sponsoring? Learn more about sponsorship levels here.
Contact ncaf@nchl.org with questions.
Podcast episodes will be made available on Spotify and Youtube in the coming year.
In 2023, fellowship sites and fellows will have the opportunity to meet with other sites and fellows to discuss best practices, ask questions, and learn from each other. Calls for fellowship sites will be held twice annually. Fellows of member organizations will have one annual call.
Starting in 2023, NCAF membership consists of two levels: Standard and Council. Standard Membership is $1,250. Council Membership is $5,000. Membership cycles run from January through December. New NCAF Fellowship Sites who join at the Standard Level are charged a one-time administrative fee of $500 to get set-up. This fee is waived for new NCAF Fellowship Sites who join at the Council Level.
NCAF members include administrative fellowship sites and graduate health management programs. Members join as an organization, not on an individual basis.
