Project management tools for healthcare education

Health care education inherently requires managing projects, but few educators have the luxury of working with a project manager. In this article, we propose that applying project management theory to education work, and using project management software to organize our work, can improve our efficiency. We outline the approach project managers take to their work, which includes five steps: initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. We apply project management theory to the processes involved with health care education projects, and we describe the typical work that would be done at each step. We introduce readers to project management software, using one free program as an example. We provide examples of how we have used the software successfully. Finally, we provide suggestions for educators to use when selecting project management software.