Unit rationale, description and aim

This unit is designed for physiotherapists working in sporting or clinical environments who may currently hold leadership or managerial positions or aspire to do so. They would therefore require skills and knowledge to further their understanding of leadership principles, management processes and business processes. Physiotherapists should be able to mentor junior team members and advocate for services for clients, teams and athletes as required.

For completion of this unit, students are required to be working in or have worked in the sporting/ clinical environment, to draw on their experiences. Students will draw on their previous clinical experience and the content from PHTY618 to design, develop and present a business case for a project which may be in the form of 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 and/ 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.

2025 10

Campus offering

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  • Term Mode
  • ACU Term 1Online Unscheduled

Prerequisites

Nil

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.

Acquire, select and interpret information related ...

Learning Outcome 01

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
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC3, GC4, GC5, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11

Critically analyse and synthesise knowledge and sk...

Learning Outcome 02

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
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC3, GC4, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC11, GC12

Apply knowledge and skills in leadership, manageme...

Learning Outcome 03

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
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC2, GC3, GC4, GC5, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC10, GC11, GC12

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)

Assessment strategy and rationale

ACU Online and 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: 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.
  • Assessment 2: 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


In order to ensure students have achieved each learning outcome, to pass this unit, a student must attain a minimum of 50% in each of the assessment tasks.

Overview of assessments

Assessment Task 1 Oral presentation: Requires st...

Assessment Task 1

Oral presentation:

Requires students to demonstrate critical thinking and communication skills in presenting (pitching) 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.

Weighting

40%

Learning Outcomes LO2, LO3
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC2, GC3, GC4, GC5, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC12

Assessment Task 2 Written task: Requires students...

Assessment Task 2

Written task:

Requires students to demonstrate their ability to design, develop and write 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.

Weighting

60%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC2, GC3, GC4, GC6, GC7, GC8, GC9, GC10, GC12

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). Content delivery takes 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 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). Content delivery and discussion forums consider 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.

Representative texts and references

Representative texts and references

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

Forrester, & Griffiths, D. (2011). Essentials of law for medical practitioners. Elsevier.

Liebler, & McConnell, C. R. (2017). Management principles for health professionals (7th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Chinn E, Dealy J, Stepien J, Negin C, Le D, Knott K, Quesnel M, Mori B. (2021) Physiotherapists' Perspectives on Professional Practice Leadership Models: Key Features to Enhance Physiotherapy Practice. Physiotherapy Canada; 27;74(3):287-296. doi: 10.3138/ptc-2020-0103

McGowan, E., & Stokes, E. (2019). Leadership in physiotherapy: experiences of leaders of physiotherapy professional organisations. BMJ Leader, leader-2019.

McKeever, J., & Brown, T. (2019). What are the client, organisational and employee-related outcomes of high quality leadership in the allied health professions?: A scoping review. Asia Pacific Journal of Health Management14(2), 19-30.

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