About BERST Academy

Advancing the Educational Mission of Baystate Health

Every year, more than 2,200 future health professionals pass through the hallways, clinics, and research labs of Baystate Health.

Baystate Education and Scholarship of Teaching Academy is the backbone of efforts to ensure that our employees acquire the knowledge and skills to teach their future colleagues and, together, improve the care for our patients and our community.

Mission

What Members Say

A Community of Strength

When I have people who support me it is easier to take risks and innovate. I am always learning new things from this group.”
—Kevin Hinchey,
Chief Education Officer, Faculty

Celebrate the power of education to foster connection, drive change, and improve practice.

Vision

Connect every Baystate employee with the power of education to inspire the best in themselves and their teams.

Values

BERST Academy is a community within Baystate Health and promotes the qualities that Baystate values in its employees across the health system.

Courage and Collaboration

In BERST, we champion innovation to encourage employees to flourish from best practice. By teaching a scholarly approach to education, members learn to ground innovation in evidence and take a healthy and deliberate approach to setbacks.

Customer Focus

Members are invited to cultivate growth by attending evidence-based professional development, with concrete skills designed to build them as patient care providers, leaders, and colleagues.

Ownership

BERST promotes lifelong learning by promoting motivation, reflection, and a growth mindset as grounding perspectives for ongoing personal and professional growth and improved practice.

Valuing Differences

We are an engaged community, connecting diverse and interprofessional employees through shared language and purpose, marked by respect for learning and teaching.