Course Description and Competencies

What to Expect

In this course, you will work through five modules of content. These modules are broken into smaller lessons. Throughout the course, you will find readings and a variety of interactive elements. These include knowledge checks and lesson quizzes to help deepen your understanding of the content. Engaging with these activities reinforces new learning. It also complements the knowledge you bring to this area of study. 

Prerequisites:

Interprofessional Communication and Leadership in Healthcare is a prerequisite for this course.

Course Competencies

This course covers the following competencies:

  • The learner adopts strategies to increase resilience and self-care for the nurse in personal and professional situations.
  • The learner differentiates between nursing leadership and management principles across the healthcare environment for quality care delivery.
  • The learner explores a leadership mindset including cultural competence, diversity, equity, and inclusion to positively influence patient care outcomes.
  • The learner applies leadership skills to influence professional practice in a healthcare environment.
  •  The learner creates a personal development plan that fosters professional engagement and personal growth.

Assessment

You will demonstrate competency through one performance-based assessment that includes two tasks. You must achieve a ranking of Competent on the assessment to pass the course.

The assessment provides an opportunity to demonstrate your mastery of the competencies in this course. You may attempt the assessment two times before additional support is necessary. If you require further attempts, please contact your Student Experience Team.

1 performance assessment
3 Competency Units

Course Outline

ModuleUpon completion of this module, you will be able to:
Self-Care
  • Define compassion fatigue and burnout.
  • Identify the practices of mindfulness and meditation to mediate stress and compassion fatigue.
  • Create a personal plan with strategies for greater resilience in the face of ongoing stress.
  • Reflect how stress management can prevent personal burnout.
Principles
  • Compare leadership and team dynamics in a healthcare setting.
  • Describe the level of motivation required to meet specific principles of nursing leadership.
  • Identify strategies that promote effective nursing leadership skills.
  • Determine which energy dynamic you identify with most.
The Leadership Mindset
  • Explore leadership styles and principles that foster diversity, equity, and inclusivity in a variety of healthcare scenarios.
  • Illustrate examples of the effective use of leadership principles and influence in a healthcare setting and examine opportunities to influence outcomes in an intraprofessional healthcare team.
  • Identify effective leadership styles that impact healthcare with cultural competence, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
  • Explain the laws of conversation and how Maslow’s hierarchy of needs should inform communication with others.
  • Examine an emotional event in your life and explain how you can account for both your emotions and the emotions of others while communicating.
Applying Skills
  • Identify intrapersonal leadership skills through professional development and how to apply those skills in any healthcare environment.
  • Define professional nursing leadership qualities necessary for achieving professional nursing goals.
  • Reflect through social and emotional learning (SEL) concepts, the capacity for change, and effective influence in a healthcare environment.
  • Explain how intrapersonal communication and leadership theories relate to nursing leadership.
  • Assess interpersonal communication techniques used in healthcare environments.
A Personal Plan
  • Identify a nursing or healthcare professional mentor to work with to create a personal development plan.
  • Identify personal values and motivators for professional growth as well as self-capacity for change, growth, and development utilizing social and emotional learning (SEL) tools.
  • Create short-term and long-term career goals that are congruent with cultural diversity and leadership in healthcare.
  • Develop awareness of cultural competency, diversity, and inclusivity as it relates to professional contribution, and evaluate biases to identify opportunities for personal and professional development.
  • Demonstrate progression toward goals with consistent contribution and energy.

Key Contacts

Certificate Connect
Check out this online community to take advantage of course resources, including videos and tips from your educators. You can ask and answer questions, provide feedback on your progress, and interact with fellow students. You will find this platform in the Student Resources section of the course. Log on and do some exploring!

Tutor.com
If you need academic support, don’t hesitate to contact Tutor.com. There, you have access to thousands of tutors. And they are available 24/7 from any internet-ready device. You can also benefit from instructional videos, study tools, and other assistance.

Technical Support
If you encounter technical issues, be sure to contact the Help Desk. Just submit a Support Request for assistance.

Program Support
Do you have questions about your account? Student Support has answers. They can help with billing, switching courses, and other requests. You can contact them at (888) 320-0540 or support@academy.wgu.edu.

Accommodations

WGU provides compliant and accessible learning experiences. If you require accommodation, please contact us at the start of the course. You can email disability@academy.wgu.edu.

We are committed to ensuring that all students with disabilities have equal access to WGU's services and materials. We strive to use best practices for accessibility. Our goal is to conform to existing U.S. laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Our learning management system (LMS) platform is Open edX. Open edX’s commitment to accessible content is published in their Website Accessibility Policy.