Coaching: An Essential Skill for Nurses (6 Hours)

To wrap up my 46 hours of clinical time for NURS 4405, I decided to take a 6 hour course on coaching. Coaching is an interesting topic. It is a specific leadership technique that nurses need to know. The objectives of this course were to:
"Identify the importance and value of coaching.
Distinguish coaching from mentoring, therapy, precepting and training.
Identify the basic components and the purposes of a coaching contract.
Create strategies for helping staff embrace change.
Describe the characteristics of a great coach.
Identify the ways in which coaching affects the bottom line as well as quality of care"
The idea of coaching is a very interesting one. The course presented statistics that showed companies that incorporated coaching into their management had an increase in productivity, quality, organizational strength, customer service, etc.. Coaching is defined as "a sustained learning strategy to help people enhance their skills, change their perspectives, behave differently and achieve their goals." People who coach need to have a certain set of skills. These skills and attributes include listening, confident, trustworthy and intelligent. Coaches will have barriers to overcome in order to reach their goals. One technique to achieve the unit's overall goal is to set interim goals or mini goals to reach along the way. Coaches offer encouragement and advice to support the staff on their way to the goal. Coaches are leaders who guide the team through the process. This course gave some great advice for goal setting including prioritizing and the importance of commitment. It also gave tips on handling resistance. One of the greatest tips it gave was for nurses to anticipate resistance. It is much better to be proactive then reactive in the face of resistance. The last chapter of this course talked about the leadership qualities found in a coach. I loved this quote, "Two of the leadership competencies that effective coach/managers will display are “modeling the way” and “encouraging the heart.” " If a coach can follow those competencies, then the rest will fall into place.

Overall this course was great! I learned a lot about leadership skills needed in coaching. This clinical experience has been great as I have gained knowledge about what it takes to be a leader in nursing. These CE credits were a great resource for me to come up with my 46 hours of clinical time. I am motivated and inspired to develop my own leadership skills after taking these classes.