Lessons in leadership

14 Nov 2019

14 November 2019 

The program, which is available to all clinical managers, is a contemporary training program with online and face-to-face learning opportunities as well as six private coaching sessions for each participant.

St John of God Health Care Group Director Workforce Rita Maguire said giving our leaders the education and support they need will help develop high performing teams across the organisation.

“Many of our clinical managers have excellent clinical skills and good leadership qualities which see them given opportunities to manage and lead teams throughout our hospitals and services,” she said.

“Our Nurse Unit Manager Education Program is designed to reinforce participants’ existing skills and provide training and coaching so they can be effective leaders and build strong teams.

“We are really pleased to be able to offer this program and invest in our emerging leaders, some of whom may one day go on to lead hospitals and services as executives.”

The 12-month program, which is led by Learning and Development Group Manager Kathryn Clews and Adjunct Professor Elaine Pavlos, was recently relaunched based on feedback from previous participants and, importantly, includes the opportunity for coaching.

“Coaching provides personal one-on-one support that gives our managers the opportunity to develop their individual skills to tackle the day-to-day challenges faced when they are transitioning from solely clinical work to management positions,” Elaine said.

The program is offered in WA and Victoria, with NSW participants attending the Victoria workshops.

Creating more opportunities

Over the last two years, St John of God Health Care has reinvigorated the design and delivery of training.

In response to feedback from our caregiver surveys to provide more opportunity to attend training programs, we have recently launched two new online e- learning platforms which offer an extensive range of training and development programs across a wide spectrum:

• MindTools: which is available to all caregivers
• LinkedIn Learning: which is available to all managers

“Empowering caregivers to manage individual learning is important, which is why I am really pleased we are now able to offer these learning platforms,” Rita said.

“Ensuring we have an organisation that is committed to improving the skills and learnings of our caregivers will help us continue to provide excellent patient care.”