House Officers’ Perspective of Leadership in Undergraduate Curriculum: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Objective: To explore the house officers’ perspective about leadership skills and their development during undergraduate training. Methodology: This qualitative study was conducted in September 2019. Two audio-recorded focus groups discussions were conducted with house officers; each comprised of six participants. Purposeful maximum variation sampling was used with equal coverage of gender including low and high scorers based on their academic records. Open-ended questions were asked with short follow-up questions. Verbatim transcription of the entire discussion was done, followed by content analysis. The findings were described using quotes, and illustrations. Member checking and triangulation with the frequency of quotes was used for validation. Results: Leadership skills identified by the study participants were the same as priori themes given in “NHS-Medical Leadership Competency Framework” namely “demonstrating personal qualities” 47 (38.84%) (Self-management, self-awareness, acting with integrity), working with others 37 (30.58%) (Communication skills, teamwork), improving services 16(13.22%) (Empathy, ensuring patient safety), management skills 12(9.92%) (Time management, resource management, managing critical situations) and setting direction 9 (7.44%) (Setting and achieving targets, decision making). The process of leadership development was explored in three dimensions i.e. contributing factors, potential obstacles, and suggested improvements to enhance leadership skills. The most common theme in all these domains was faculty-related followed by environment-related and student-related factors. Conclusion: “Faculty-related factors” was the most emerging theme in contributing factors, potential obstacles as well as in suggested improvements for leadership development.