Self-assessment is considered to be a major component of learning in public health.1 It provides an opportunity for health professionals to reflect on competency-based strengths and weaknesses in order to identify learning needs and reinforce new skills or behaviors in order to improve performance. The MCH Navigator has been collecting data from our online Self-Assessment for five years and during that time have identified a number of data trends.
With over 10,000 completed assessments in the database, learners have consistently reported high levels of knowledge but low levels of skills across a number of competencies. This translates into MCH professionals having high levels of understanding of a competency but not as much self-efficacy in translating this knowledge into practice. In response to this need, the MCH Navigator has developed a series of implementation briefs that provide specific learning opportunities that focus on how to implement and execute skills associated with the MCH Leadership Competencies. This implementation brief is focused on Competency 9: Developing Others Through Teaching, Coaching and Mentoring.
Start here with real-life examples of teaching, coaching, and mentoring in our MCH Legacy Project.
Teaching, coaching, and mentoring are three primary strategies used to develop others.
Teaching involves designing the learning environment, which includes developing learning objectives and curricula; providing resources and training opportunities; modeling the process of effective learning; and evaluating whether learning occurred.
Coaching provides the guidance and structure needed for people to capably examine their assumptions, set realistic goals, take appropriate actions, and reflect on their actions (and the resulting outcomes or implications).
Mentoring is influencing the career development and professional growth of another by acting as an advocate, teacher, guide, role model, benevolent authority, door opener, resource, cheerful critic, or career enthusiast.2
The Center for Health Leadership and Practice, a Center of the Public Health Institute developed a mentoring guide designed to help readers develop and learn how to implement the skills necessary to enhance a mentoring relationship in a professional context. They developed a framework consisting of four developmental stages, with each stage forming an inherent part of the next3: 1) Building the relationship, 2) Exchanging information and setting goals, 3) Working towards goals/deepening the engagement and 4) Ending the formal mentoring relationship and planning for the future. This implementation brief provides specialized learning opportunities for each step in the model to help learners begin to make the transition from knowledge to practice as it relates to the mentoring process.
View each of the four stages below and corresponding learning opportunities for: 1) Building the relationship, 2) Exchanging information and setting goals, 3) Working towards goals/deepening the engagement and 4) Ending the formal mentoring relationship and planning for the future.
Building the Relationship: establishing trust.
Exchanging Information and Setting Goals: active listening.
Working Towards Goals/Deepening the Engagement: application of new insights and approaches.
Ending the Formal Mentoring Relationship and Planning for the Future: reflecting on accomplishments, challenges and progress towards goals.
References
Developing Others Through Teaching, Coaching and Mentoring: Implementation Brief
Authors: Keisha Watson, Ph.D., MCH Navigator
Reviewers: Faculty and staff of the National Center for Cultural Competence