HLSC661 - Facilitative Leadership, Coaching and Mentoring

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Unit rationale, description and aim

Leaders and managers in health care are expected to have a range of skills necessary to meet the challenges involved in leading their staff through a diverse and dynamic workplace environment. These challenges include: ensuring patient safety; managing staff productivity, performance and retention as well as taking lead responsibility for quality improvement and cost efficiencies. Meeting these challenges requires effective skills that guide and shape practice improvement through facilitative processes that promote staff engagement, empowerment and retention, support team cohesion and collaboration and are more likely to result in a safe and high quality healthcare environment. Facilitative leadership, coaching and mentoring is based on mutual respect, trust and value alignment resulting in collective responsibility for patient safety, and fosters innovation in practice by promoting creativity and critical thinking.

This unit aims to prepare students with facilitative leadership, coaching and mentoring skills that are required to build their capacity to apply a systems approach in facilitating, coaching and mentoring staff in working effectively together for the common good in a variety of healthcare settings.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Critically evaluate models/principles or theories of coaching, mentoring and facilitation to demonstrate an understanding of how workplace motivators and demotivators can impact on the health care environment (GA1, GA2);

LO2 - Critically analyse the skills required for effective coaching, mentoring and facilitation that underpin a culture of safety in working together for optimal outcomes (GA1, GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5);

LO3 - Develop and apply advanced knowledge of the key skills and attributes required for effective facilitation, coaching and mentoring within a community of practice that leads to quality improvement in a healthcare setting (GA1, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA6).

Graduate attributes

GA1 - demonstrate respect for the dignity of each individual and for human diversity 

GA2 - recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society 

GA3 - apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA6 - solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account

Content

 Topics will include:

• The theoretic basis for leadership, mentoring and coaching
• Exploring the theoretical basis for coaching, mentoring and facilitation from a leadership perspective
• Coaching, mentoring and facilitation – roles/responsibilities
• Facilitative leadership, coaching, mentoring skills

• Applying systems thinking in facilitative leadership
• Motivation/demotivation
• Knowledge transfer
• Utilising a systems approach to support work-based activities
• Plans, contracts and agreements

• Capacity building
• Developing communities of practice
• Creating a supportive learning environment
• Diversity and inclusivity
• Professional development, career and succession planning

• Evaluation
• Assessing and evaluating organisational culture and change
• Staff engagement and empowerment
• Leadership challenges and opportunities in coaching, mentoring and facilitation

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit utilises an active learning approach whereby students will be supported in the exploration of essential knowledge that will form the foundation for facilitative leadership, coaching and mentoring skill development which students will require if they are to effectively lead and manage staff in a variety of health care settings.

This unit is provided through LEO, the online learning platform, which is utilised for assessment submission and results, online readings, lecture notes and slides. This approach offers flexibility and inclusivity to students. The teaching and learning strategies will support students in meeting the aim, learning outcomes and graduate attributes of the unit and the broader course learning outcomes. Learning and teaching strategies will reflect respect for the individual as an independent learner. Students will be expected to take responsibility for their learning and to participate actively with peers.

Multi-mode

Modes of delivery in this unit include class-based lectures and tutorials while the classroom learning environment provides opportunities for students to collaborate with peers and lecturer in face-to-face mode to reflect on individual values and analyse group values in relation to the role of the leader as coach, mentor and facilitator. Active collaboration with peers through group discussion, debate, role plays and seminar presentations will support students in evaluating group interventionist techniques applicable to coaching, mentoring and facilitating within a community of practice. In developing a community of practice for quality improvement, principles of mutual respect, trust, group diversity and inclusivity are promoted.

Online mode

The learning and teaching strategy for this ‘virtual’ unit is founded on self-directed, self-paced learning supported by regular online interactions with a lecturer and with peers to achieve the learning outcomes. Learning in this mode will be largely asynchronous (‘anywhere, anytime learning’), as well as synchronous, for example, via live webinar scheduled periodically throughout the semester. The unit will include online communication tools including the

Self-directed, self-paced learning will provide opportunity for students to reflect on individual values and analyse organisational and group values in relation to the role of the leader as coach, mentor and facilitator. Virtual collaboration with peers through online discussion and virtual seminar presentations will support students in evaluating group interventionist techniques applicable to coaching, mentoring and facilitating within a community of practice. In developing an online community of practice for quality improvement, principles of mutual respect, trust, group diversity and inclusivity are promoted. 

Assessment strategy and rationale

In order to pass this unit, students are expected to submit three graded assessment tasks. In addition, students must achieve a cumulative grade of at least 50% across all assessments. In order to reward students for engagement and performance, a final graded result will be awarded. 

The assessment strategy used allows for the progressive development of knowledge and skills necessary for the student to be able to apply coaching, mentoring and facilitation strategies based on theoretical principles that can lead to quality improvement/s in a healthcare setting. These are skills required by all leaders and managers who have responsibility for staff management and development within the health industry. The assessment tasks for this unit are designed for the student to demonstrate their achievement of each learning outcome

Multi-mode

The ability to promote staff development, engagement and empowerment, to manage organisational inertia and resistance to change in the creation of conditions of mutual, respect, trust and learning among staff leading to quality improvement in the workplace will be demonstrated by (i): providing a written reflection on the role of the leader as coach, mentor and facilitator and the impact of such leadership skill on quality improvement within a healthcare environment; (ii) analysing case studies to collaboratively compare and contrast various roles associated with each concept (coach, mentor, facilitator) in a healthcare environment, which can be presented in group seminar or role play format; and (iii) to apply their knowledge and skill in facilitating, mentoring and/or coaching staff to develop a facilitation, coaching or mentoring plan or agreement that incorporates an evaluation process.

Overview of assessments

Multi-mode;

Online mode 

The ability to promote staff development, engagement and empowerment, to manage organisational inertia and resistance to change in the creation of conditions of mutual, respect, trust and learning among staff leading to quality improvement in the workplace will be demonstrated by (i): providing a written reflection on the role of the leader as coach, mentor and facilitator and the impact of such leadership skill on quality improvement within a healthcare environment; (ii) analysing case studies to collaboratively compare and contrast various roles associated with each concept (coach, mentor, facilitator) in a healthcare environment, which can be presented in group seminar or role play format; and (iii) to apply their knowledge and skill in facilitating, mentoring and/or coaching staff to develop a facilitation, coaching or mentoring plan or agreement that incorporates an evaluation process.  

 Online mode

The ability to promote staff development, engagement and empowerment, to manage organisational inertia and resistance to change in the creation of conditions of mutual, respect, trust and learning among staff leading to quality improvement in the workplace will be demonstrated by (i): providing a written reflection on the role of the leader as coach, mentor and facilitator and the impact of such leadership skill on quality improvement within a healthcare environment; (ii) analysing case studies to collaboratively compare and contrast various roles associated with each concept (coach, mentor, facilitator) in a healthcare environment, which can be presented in online group discussion/ presentation format; and (iii) to apply their knowledge and skill in facilitating, mentoring and/or coaching staff to develop a facilitation, coaching or mentoring plan or agreement that incorporates an evaluation process.  

Representative texts and references

Gopee, N. (2015). Mentoring and supervision in healthcare (3rd ed.). Los Angeles, London: Sage

Jakubec, S., Parboosingh, J., Colvin, B. (2014). Introducing a multimedia course to enhance health professionals' skills to facilitate communities of practice: Experiences of the first cohort of course participants. Journal of Health Organization and Management, 28(4), 477 – 494.

Kilgallon, K., & Thompson, J. (2012). Mentoring in nursing and healthcare: A practical approach. Oxford, U.K.; John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. Available from: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/acu/detail.action?docID=867625.

Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2016). Leadership: Theory, application & skill development (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Manley, K., & Titche, A. (2016). Facilitation skills: The catalyst for increased effectiveness in consultant practice and clinical system leadership. Educational Action Research, 5(1), 1 - 24.

Schwarz, R. (2016). The Skilled Facilitator: A Comprehensive Resource for Consultants, Facilitators, Coaches, and Trainers. (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Jossey-Bass.

Wardale, D. (2013). Towards a model of effective group facilitation. Leadership and Organizational          Development, 34(2), 112 – 129.