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

Coaching is as an intervention that facilitates another person?s learning, development and performance. Applied to student nurse practice learning, coaching has the potential to promote leadership learning that is student-led, less focused on following the directions of a mentor and more focused on students taking responsibility for identifying their learning goals and objectives. This article provides personal perspectives about how a partnership between four Greater Manchester (GM) universities and its partner practice organisations collaborated to developed, implement and evaluate a coaching approach to student nurse clinical leadership development, peer learning, whilst at the same time increasing practice placement capacity. In this article the GM Synergy Model is introduced. This article focuses on the perspectives of setting up a project team, testing the model prior to its implementation and developing a robust evaluation framework. Coaching as a model for student support and clinical leadership development is transferable to the new NMC Future Nurse: Standards of proficiency for registered nurses with the practice supervisor role complimenting the role of the coach in clinical practice.