Exploring the Professional Student Coach Program as an Innovation Developing Leadership Skills in Healthcare Students

This research study focuses on enhancing the Professional Student Coach (PSC) program as an innovation to help students improve their leadership skills. Using Katz’s Skills Leadership Theory to define leadership, this mixed methods study suggests an evidence-based leadership program can increase student self-efficacy and expand their leadership perceptions. Transformative learning theory, student involvement theory, and self-efficacy theory are used to guide the development of this study. Qualitative and quantitative data sources are collected to answer the following research questions: (1) How does participation in a student leadership program affect a coach’s self-efficacy?; (2) How does participation in a student leadership program affect a coach’s perceptions of leadership?; (3) How does participating in a student leadership program affect a coach’s ability to lead groups?; and (4) How do non-coach participants (first-year
ew students) perceive the student leadership program?