The effect of a clinical leadership and management course on residents' knowledge of clinical leadership competencies in the Department of Internal Medicine and General Surgery of Hazrat-e Rasul-e Akram (PBUH) Hospital in 2021

Abstract

Introduction: Today, the growing need for efficient medical leaders has been highlighted due to the complexity of health care systems, rising costs, and attention to patient-centered care. Therefore, it is essential to design and implement curricula related to the development of the leadership skills of medical students. This study aims to investigate the effect of clinical leadership and management courses on residents' knowledge of clinical leadership competencies in the Department of Internal Medicine and General Surgery. Methods: The present research is a preexperimental study with a one-group pretest and posttest that is conducted on residents of the Department of Internal Medicine and General Surgery of Iran University of Medical Sciences. The Dick and Carey nine-step instructional design model was used to design, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of the course. After translating and verifying validity and reliability, the self-assessment of clinical leadership competencies questionnaire of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and Academy of Medical Royal Colleges was used as a data collection method in this study. The results were analyzed using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistical test, parametric independent t test, and paired-sample t test. Results: In the present study, the content validity index and content validity ratio of the self-assessment questionnaire of clinical leadership competencies of the residents were confirmed. The reliability of the questionnaire was also verified by Cronbach's alpha of 0.956. Moreover, after instruction, the mean scores of each dimension of clinical leadership competencies increased significantly so that the mean scores of "clinical leadership competencies" of 43 participants increased from 131/14 in the pretest to 151/186 in the posttest, and the significant value of the paired t test was less than 0.001, which implies that the instructional intervention had a significant impact on improving the scores of "clinical leadership competencies" of residents. Conclusion: Considering the effect of holding leadership courses on promoting clinical leadership competencies and responding to the instructional needs of individuals in this field, it is necessary that curriculum planners specifically address strengthening the curriculum of residents concerning the subject matter of leadership.