PHTY618 - Leadership, Management and Advocacy for Sports and Exercise Physiotherapists

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Unit rationale, description and aim

Physiotherapists working in sporting or clinical environments are often in multidisciplinary teams and in leadership or management positions and need to have skills and knowledge in how to lead, manage, and mentor members of the team, as well as advocate for services, clients, athletes and team members as required.

In this unit students will learn principles and gain knowledge of leadership, management and advocacy relevant for physiotherapists in the context of sports and or clinical environments. Students will apply this knowledge to design, develop and present a business case for a project such as: advocating for new evidence-based practice services; tendering to work as a physiotherapist for a sporting team; proposing a new sports clinic or clinical service delivery; leading a multidisciplinary team in a high performance sport or clinical setting; or managing medical services for a sporting event or tournament.

The aim of this unit is to equip students with knowledge and skills to lead and manage a team or service within a sports or clinical setting and to advocate for and implement best practice approaches.

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 - Acquire, select and interpret information related to the principles of leadership, management and advocacy relevant for physiotherapists in the context of sports, high performance, active community and clinical environments (GA1, GA2, GA5, GA7, GA8)

LO2 - Critically analyse and synthesise knowledge and skills of leadership, management and advocacy, to design and develop a business case for a project to lead and manage a team or service within a sports, high performance, active community or clinical setting including to advocate for best practice approaches (GA1, GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA6, GA7, GA8, GA9)

LO3 - Apply knowledge and skills in leadership, management, and advocacy to present a business case for a project to lead and manage a team or service within a sports, high performance, active community or clinical setting including to advocate for best practice approaches (GA1, GA2, GA3, GA4, GA5, GA6, GA7, GA8, GA9)

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

GA7 - work both autonomously and collaboratively 

GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information 

GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media 

Content

Topics will include:

Within the context of practice for sports and exercise physiotherapists:

• Legal considerations (e.g. registration, documentation, scope of practice, negligence, indemnity insurance) 
• Leadership principles (including):
• Leadership, theories, models and styles
• Communication for leadership, including cultural awareness and conflict resolution and negotiation
• Ethics, responsibility and codes of conduct
• Professionalism and governance in sport
• Leading change of practice and or initiatives
• Cultural awareness
• Time management and productivity
• Management principles (including):
• Operations management:
• Business planning and project development (e.g. business plan templates)
• Tendering for services
• Responsible utilisation of resources
• Workplace, health and safety
• Risk management and audit
• Continuous quality improvement
• Human Resource Management (including):
• Organisational culture in high performance sport
• Work environment and the multidisciplinary team
• Contracts and enterprise agreements
• Management of staff with respect to prevention of burnout
• Self-management
• Advocacy and Marketing principles, including advocating for player safety and wellbeing
• Finance and Accounting principles (introductory)

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

ACU Online

This unit uses an active learning approach to support students in the exploration of knowledge essential to the discipline.

The overall strategy is a constructive journey from content knowledge to understanding to application. The unit uses online delivery focused on content (e.g. readings, recorded lectures) and developing students' understanding and skills of application (e.g. discussion forums and tutorials). The tutorials take an evidence-informed approach using real-life scenarios to explore and extend knowledge, understanding and skills of leadership, business management and advocacy. By learning to design, develop and present a business case to lead, manage or advocate for a team or service within a sports, high performance, active community or clinical setting, students will implement knowledge gained in this unit in real life scenarios, to enable them to work effectively as a leader, professional, advocate and collaborative practitioner.

Throughout, the strategy that supports student learning will reflect respect for each individual as an independent learner. Students will be expected to take responsibility for their learning and participate actively in all learning activities, including through the online environment.

Students are encouraged to contribute to weekly discussions either synchronously or asynchronously. Students are provided with active learning opportunities to practice and apply their learning in their work environment. Activities encourage students to bring their own examples to demonstrate understanding, application and engage constructively with their peers. Students receive regular and timely feedback on their learning, which includes information on their progress.

Online

This unit is delivered in an online mode. The overall strategy is a constructive journey from content knowledge to understanding to application.

The unit uses online delivery focused on content (e.g. readings, recorded lectures) and developing students' understanding and skills of application (e.g. discussion forums and tutorials). The tutorials take an evidence-informed approach using real-life scenarios to explore and extend knowledge, understanding and skills of leadership, business management and advocacy. By learning to design, develop and present a business case to lead, manage or advocate for a team or service within a sports, high performance, active community or clinical setting, students will implement knowledge gained in this unit in real life scenarios, to enable them to work effectively as a leader, professional, advocate and collaborative practitioner.

Throughout, the strategy that supports student learning will reflect respect for each individual as an independent learner. Students will be expected to take responsibility for their learning and participate actively in all learning activities, including through the online environment.

Assessment strategy and rationale

Online and ACU Online

In order to best enable students to achieve unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes, standards-based assessment is utilised, consistent with University assessment requirements. The assessment strategy in this unit has been designed to support and assess on-the-job learning. The sequence of assessment tasks include:

• Assessment 1: A written task to assess student competency in the designing, development and writing of a business case for a project to lead, manage or advocate for a team or service within a sports, high performance, active community or clinical setting; and
• Assessment 2: An oral presentation, to assess students' ability to communicate a business case for a project to lead, manage or advocate for a team or service within a sports, high performance, active community or clinical setting.

Students must achieve a cumulative grade of at least 50% across all assessments

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Australian Government. (2022) Business. www.business.gov.au.

Forrester, & Griffiths, D. (2011). Essentials of law for medical practitioners. Elsevier. https://acu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/61ACU_INST/qpf7hm/alma991013092686402352

Liebler, & McConnell, C. R. (2017). Management principles for health professionals (Seventh edition.). Jones & Bartlett Learning. https://acu.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/61ACU_INST/13lm7d8/alma991012846689802352