Reflection on creating a coaching approach to student nurse clinical leadership development

Greater Manchester (GM) has signed a devolution agreement with the Government in 2015 to take charge of health and social care spending and decisions in the city region. The Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership is overseeing this devolution and has taken charge of the £6 billion health and social care budget. The rationale for this is to deliver the greatest and fastest possible improvement to the health and wellbeing of the 2.8 million people of GM (Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA, 2018). This would be achieved through building a clinical and financial sustainable model of health and social care. Since the agreement was signed in 2015, GM has seen changes in how care is delivered, which has included amalgamating large hospitals and NHS trusts into even larger organisations.

Four universities in GM (Box 1) provide undergraduate nursing programmes. Equipping GM nursing students with exemplary clinical leadership skills requires the practical component of their educational programme to take place in a supportive clinical environment in which these new nurse leaders can flourish. Firmly embedding clinical leadership development within undergraduate nursing programmes ensures that the GM nursing workforce has the right leadership knowledge, skills and behaviours required to make sound clinical and non-clinical decisions and will empower nurses and strengthen nursing in decades to come. This in turn will provide the optimum conditions for delivering exemplary patient care.