Sample NCM PhD Course Syllabus Revision 06/2015

MW 504 Leadership in Critical Decision-Making

(3 Credits)

Course Description:

This course will help the student understand how to think through decisions, removing biases and other decision-making traps, and instituting decision-making steps, resulting in effective health-care leadership.

Course Objectives:

The student will be able to:

  1. Identify well thought-out decisions
  2. Direct groups towards good decision-making
  3. Have tools for keeping conflict constructive
  4. Identify a cognitive bias
  5. Know how to ask the right questions
  6. Institute vigilant decision-making
  7. Identify the cultural, structural and institutional influences on decision-making
  8. Possess a stronger ability to learn from their mistakes

Course Requirements:

1. Lectures and Reflections:

Art of Critical Decision-Making, Michael A. Roberto, DBA, Harvard Business School, Teaching at Bryant University. Listen to all 24 lecture, taking notes as you go along for a good start on your academic paper.

2. Reading:

In addition to the lectures, the student is expected to read 1000 pages from the course bibliography or preceptor approved books. The 1000 pages of reading are to be taken from the Bibliography below. For each book you read you will list the author, book name, place of publication, publisher, year, pages read, and one paragraph annotation describing the book.

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3. Academic Paper: The student will write a 10-12 page research paper with a bibliography. The research for this paper should come from the lectures and the readings in the bibliography, and any other sources that shed light on the chosen topic. This paper should reflect your own leadership style and the style of those you have learned from. Choose one from the following leadership and critical decision-making concerns in maternal child health care:

  1. Care of the high risk maternity patient
  2. Starting a birth center or midwifery practice
  3. Passing legislation to improve maternal-child health
  4. Dealing with injustice and/or crime in the course of care
  5. Helping student-midwives correct errors in judgment
  6. Dealing with outside persecution and/or corruption

The following will be the criteria your preceptor will utilize to evaluate your work:

  1. Did the student choose an appropriate topic?
  2. Did the student research the topic widely?
  3. Did the student consider varying positions within the scholarship?
  4. Was the student accurate in the analysis of the research?
  5. Did the student discern points of similarity within the research?
  6. How did the student handle positions they disagreed with?
  7. Did the student avoid filling the paper with personal opinion?
  8. Was the student clear in the presentation?
  9. Did the student utilize appropriate grammar, spelling, etc, for graduate work?
  10. Are you more or less interested in the topic having read the student’s paper?

4. Special Project:

Choose one of the options below:

a. The student shall undertake a leadership training offered by their faith tradition

b. The student shall undertake a leadership training from a non-faith-based organization, such as:

Soroptimists

American Business Women’s Association

Women in Business

YWCA

Chamber of Commerce

Team Builders

Dale Carnegie

Skill Path

Community Colleges

Libraries

Course Grading:

  1. Lectures and Reflections25%
  2. Readings25%
  3. Academic Paper 30%
  4. Special Project20%

Total: 100%

Bibliography

Jones-Devitt, Stella, and Smith, Liz, Critical Thinking in Health and Social Care, Sage Publications, LTd, 2007

Jasper, Melanie, and Jumma, Mansour, Effective Healthcare Leadership, Wiley-Blackwell, 2005

Ament, Lynette, Professional Issues in Midwifery, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2006

Facione, Noreen, Facione, Peter, Critical Thinking and Clinical Reasoning in the Health Sciences: An International Multidisciplinary Teaching Anthology, California Academic Press, 2008

Gambrill, Elaine, Critical Thinking in Clinical Practice: Improving the Quality of Judgements and Decisions, Wiley Publisher, 2006

Kouzes, James, and Posner, Barry, The Leadership Challenge Workbook, Pfeiffer:
Workbook Edition, 2003

Groake, Leo and Tindale, Christopher, Good Reasoning Matters!: A Constructive Approach to Critical Thinking, Oxford University Press, 2004

Faser, Sandy, and Mathews, Sarah The Critical Practitioner in Social Work and Health Care, Sage Publications LTD, 2007

Gruenberg, Bonnie, Birth Emergency Skills Training: Manual for Out-Of-Hospital Midwives, Birth Guru Publications, 2008

Hansen-Turton, Tine, and Sherman, Susan, Ferquesen, Bernice, Conversations With Leaders: Frank Talk From Nurses (and Others) on the Front Line of Leadership, Sigma Theta Tau, International, 2007

Maxwell, John, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You, Thomas Nelson, 2007

Maxwell, John, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Workbook, Thomas Nelson, 2007

Maxwell, John, Develop the Leader Within You, Thomas Nelson, 2005

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