Submission Guidelines
Accelerate is U of U Health’s community of practice where faculty, staff and trainees share practical insights, learn from each other’s experiences, and share the impact of their work.
We publish content within four key domains, support development of multiple article and media types, and welcome a diverse interprofessional community of health care professionals and community partners as contributors, all for a single purpose: Advance Health.
Have something to contribute? Read on for details on how to submit.
We focus on four primary domains: Equity, Improvement, Leadership and Resilience. Many of our articles cover several domains at once. We use tagging to ensure all content is easy to find.
Not sure where your idea fits? Ask us. We’re happy to help.
Inequity in care delivery, outcomes, and employment is a feature of the American health care system. In order to move forward, achieving health equity must be a strategic priority. We must create processes and cultures that foster inclusivity and intentionally address privilege. We share content that increases awareness of lived experiences, demonstrates strategies to address disparities and builds an inclusive culture of belonging.
Content Examples
- Commit to Confronting Microaggressions that are Affecting Your Learners - by Reena Tam and Margie Diaz-Ochu
- How to Respond with Compassion When Someone is Hurt by Racism - by Trinh Mai and Jean Whitlock
- Someone to Look To - By Liam Clark (storytelling)
It’s not enough to get better faster as an organization—we have to speak the same language and share the same methods in order to effectively spread and sustain change. To this end, we have adopted the SQUIRE guidelines to improve health care quality, safety, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, timeliness, cost, efficiency, and equity of health care. We share instructional content, case studies that demonstrate improvement methodology, and practical lessons learned from real-life improvement.
Content Examples
- The Five Elements of Patient Experience - by Mari Ransco et al
- How the Burn Trauma ICU Eliminated Central Line Infections - by Brad Wiggins et al
- To Improve, Be Patient and “Care a Whole Awful Lot” - by Riann Robbins
Health care transformation requires leadership skills from everyone on the team—not just those with formal authority. Transformation requires interdependent work and teamwork on the fly–called “teaming.” It requires complex problem solving to tackle the adaptive challenges found in modern medicine. It requires coping with change and complexity. And most of all, it requires a high degree of emotional intelligence—self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skill. Accelerate shares leadership stories, practical application of management theory, and real-life lessons for growth and change.
Content Examples
- Leadership is Harder Than It Looks—Here Are Two Ways to Make it Easier - by Shegi Thomas
- We Are Surrounded by Genius - by Rob Kistler
- Four Leadership Lessons Medical School Didn’t Teach Me - by Stephanie Klein
In order to improve health care we have to be able to thrive in complexity. The impact of burnout in health care is immense, from personal effects like depression, substance abuse, and even suicide, to professional effects such as decreased quality of care and depersonalization of patients. Accelerate works in partnership with the Resiliency Center to provide a forum for social connection. We share instructional content that reinforces finding meaning in our work, share stories that build personal connection, and provide practical individual- and system-based strategies to address this enormous challenge.
Content Examples
- Neuroplasticity: How to Use Your Brain’s Malleability to Improve Your Well-being - by Megan Call
- Assess Your Stress—Where Are You on the Stress Continuum? - by Jean Whitlock
- Change Up Your Morning Safety Huddle to Promote Resilience - by David Sandweiss
Our content is aimed at building community through story. We feature a diverse range of article and media types driven by narrative, including book reviews, case studies, first person perspectives, formal instructional, podcasts, how-to's, and videos. You do not need to determine an article type before submitting your idea, but please take some time to familiarize yourself with the type of content we publish before reaching out to us. If your idea is a good fit, a member of our editorial team will work with you to determine which article type best suits your purposes. Perhaps a type of content that we’ve never featured will emerge!
- U of U Health Employees – All faculty (adjunct included), staff and trainees from U of U Health Sciences, Hospitals and Clinics, and U of U Medical Group are encouraged to submit.
- Community Groups – not for profit organizations, medical societies, foundations and other Utah businesses who engage in improvement efforts that impact our patients.
- Collaborators – All regional affiliate partners and health care professionals who engage in formal collaboration efforts to improve care delivery with U of U Health faculty, staff and trainees are encouraged to submit.
Our contributors engage in positive relationships by:
- Including and welcoming all.
- Understanding peoples’ differences.
- Lifting others up instead of tearing them down.
- Collaborating before conflict.
- Empathizing with concerns of others.
Our contributors exhibit good judgement/expertise by:
- Demonstrating subject matter expertise.
- Contributing positively to their profession.
- Expressing authentic opinions and ideas that are sought after by others.
- Not engaging in conflicts of interest; disclosing any information pertinent to upholding the standards of trust.
- Not engaging in behavior (publicly or privately) that adversely affects the safety and well-being of others.
- Gracefully accepting constructive feedback.
- Ensuring content/ideas aren’t plagiarized; verifying sources/references as accurate.
Our contributors demonstrate consistency by:
- Walking the talk; doing what they say they are going to do.
- Exhibiting professionalism.
- Exercising respect in speech, writing, and actions.
- Focusing on what is best for the community/organization instead of personal agendas.
Read more about our Community Standards of Trust here.
Submit your idea now by sending an email to Shayma Salih, our learning community coordinator. Our editorial team works through submitted ideas as quickly as we can.
Here’s what to include in your email:
- Full name and contact information
- Contributor type (employee/community group/collaborator)
- Co-contributor name(s)
- Description of your article idea in 100 words or less (Answering these questions will get you on the right track: What title would you give your potential article? What is your goal for contributing to Accelerate? How will your concept benefit our staff, faculty, trainees, or patients? What do you want people to know or do after reading this article?)
