sentiment is also found in Athletic Training literature as surveyed Athletic Trainers
from different settings agree that leadership skills should be displayed by all recent
graduates and that practitioners’ leadership skills should increase throughout their
career (Kutz, 2010b).
Within healthcare, one definition of clinical leadership that parallels
Northouse’s definition is “the act of any person or group to influence others to
improve patient care” (Van Hoff, Bisognano, Reinersten, & Meehan, 2012, p. 869).
The definitions of leadership within Athletic Training literature are varied as well, but
follow the theme of influence. “The ability to influence others toward the
achievement of goals” is used by Rankin and Ingersoll (2006, p. 5), while Kutz
(2010a) defines leadership as “the ability to facilitate and influence superiors, peers,
and subordinates to make recognizable strides toward shared or unshared visions” (p.
58).
Leadership and managerial competencies overlap and a successful
organization cannot be efficient and effective without both (Comer, Haden, Taylor, &
Thomas, 2002). Kotter (2001) describes managerial skills as the ability to organize
“complexity” and leadership skills are those used to orchestrate “change.” Managing
complexity and directing change are both vitally important in health care
organizations, thus Blumenthal et al. (2012) defined the term “clinical leadership” as
the “ability to serve as both a manager and a leader of diverse teams in pursuit of
maximally effective patient care” (p. 514). Indeed, leadership skill sets identified by
Physical Therapy and Athletic Training professions reflect both managerial and