Necessity of Leadership Development in Allied Health Education Programs

A Peer Reviewed Publication of the College of Allied Health & Nursing at Nova Southeastern University Dedicated to allied health professional practice and education http://ijahsp.nova.edu Vol. 2 No. 2 ISSN 1540-580X Necessity of Leadership Development in Allied Health Education Programs Matthew R. Kutz, M.S., M.Ed., ATC, CSCS Palm Beach Atlantic University United States Citation: Kutz, MR., Necessity of leadership development in allied health education. The Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice. April 2004.Vol. 2 Num. 2. INTRODUCTION Why should educational programs teach leadership, and why should universities and colleges who offer allied health care programs be concerned with training future clinicians to be leaders? Leadership development is a topic wrought with passion among business professionals and educators alike. Leadership is something everybody needs and it remains vague and ambiguous. Leadership is a mystical, almost ethereal, quality that you cannot define, yet know when you see. Advancing the allied health care professions and the members of the allied health care community is proving to be difficult without the necessary leadership skills. More and more clinicians and students are looking to and expecting educational programs to help in their leadership development. Success and promotion of the allied health sciences and the individual practitioners from various disciplines depends highly on leadership ability. In allied health care, like many other organizations, the way leadership is taught, passed on and evaluated is critical. Leadership development is an important issue that every organization and every institution must address to ensure survival. It is no secret that strong intentional leadership is highly valued in our society. This value raises the question all organizations ask, how is leadership developed? Is leadership developed through mentoring, curricular activities, co-curricular, extra-curricular, didactic education, or the proverbial “school of hard knocks?” These and similar questions must be answered if leadership development within our educational programs is to be successful. WHAT TO TEACH? A survey of the popular literature reveals a consensus that leadership skills and abilities can be learned and developed, while many agree that some people have natural leadership ability while many aspects of leadership can be learned through skill development, competencies and experience. How people come to learn leadership is of key consequence in leadership development. Densten and Gray5 state that, “teachers face many challenges in designing programs to enhance the leadership capabilities of their students.” Educators face many obstacles and confounding variables when designing practical leadership experiences and implementing pragmatic instructional methods. Organizational leaders everywhere (church, corporate, educational, health care) must ask, how is leadership learned best? Are there leadership competencies that are “universal” and what are they, and what leadership competencies are discipline specific? Within the context of allied health educators and professionals must investigate the same questions. Once each discipline determines what to teach, then how to teach it becomes relevant. INSTRUCTION METHODS, WHERE TO BEGIN? Traditionally there are three sources of how people learn to lead; the first is “trial and error”, the second “observation of others” and lastly, “education."3 Closely related to these “three sources” other longitudinal studies found three categories of how managers learn to manage: 1) job experience and assignments; 2) relationships; and 3) formal education/training3. Implementing these three instructional methods is critical for successful leadership development. Through clinical education and © The Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice, 2004 Necessity of Leadership Development in Allied Health Education Programs 2 clinical experiences much of allied health care education already includes these two sources, “trial and error” and “observations of other.” It is the “educational” method of leadership development where the struggles begin. One other potentially significant issue observed in the literature is the difference between “observations of others” and “relationships”, identified by Brown.3 While these two have similarities, intrinsic in the terminology are key differences. Many leadership development programs include an aspect of mentoring, but does that mentoring include developing relationship or are they merely observation. Although not explicitly stated, it is apparent from other of Brown’s3 statements such as, “people learn to respond to who and what we are,” and “leading is a dynamic process of human interaction,” and “what was missing from this context [leadership development] was attention to people” that her idea of relationship is more than mere “observation,” taga-long or watch-and-do. Leadership development involves aspects of relationship between mentor and student that requires intentional investment of time and resources. Ideally one manages work and leads people.3 Cress, Astin, Zimmerman-Oster, and Burkhardt4 state that, “many educational institutions only give minimal attention to developing student leaders in terms of specific leadership programs and/or curricula.” There is no shortage of opinions on leadership, the literature is replete with differing opinions and findings of how leadership is defined, instructed, identified and evaluated. Other authors suggest that leadership development is “sporadic”, “haphazard” and “illogical”; and that the word leadership is a “nebulous” term1. For example, students commonly perceived to have leadership skills tend to “shine” by being less shy, better students (i.e., grasping concepts and application of knowledge), motivated, and articulate. These students are dubbed to have “leadership potential” and as a result have higher expectations placed on them. This typically is the extent of our leadership preparation or education. These students’ failure or success is now dependent on their effort in light of these new or higher expectations. Leadership is initially recognized by the instructor, and depending on the disposition of the instructor may or may not be facilitated. This can only mean that if leadership is to be taught then those in faculty and instructor positions, must increase and fine tune their own leadership ability, activity, and awareness! Leadership development within Allied Health education is often coincidental and left to extra-curricular and co-curricular activities, such as clinical rotations/education, clinical observations, and peer teaching experiences. INTENTIONAL LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Those competencies that do exist in Allied Health education (within specific disciplines) typically address management, organizational and administration skills, and lack identification and instruction of leader (...truncated)