Why we need to teach leadership skills to medical students: a call to action

Abstract

Health system reform models since the early 1990s have recommended leadership training for medical students, graduates and health workers. Clinicians often have leadership roles thrust on them early in their postgraduate career. Those who are not well trained in leadership and the knowledge that comes with leadership skills may struggle with the role, which can impact patient safety and create unhealthy working environments. While there is some literature published in this area, there appears to be little formal evaluation of the teaching of leadership, with scarcely any discussion about the need to do so in the future. There are clear gaps in the research evidence of how to teach and assess medical leadership teaching. In this paper, three leadership frameworks from Australia, Canada and the UK are compared in terms of leadership capabilities for a global view of medical leadership training opportunities. A literature review of the teaching, assessment and evaluation of leadership education in medical schools in Australia, the UK and America is also discussed and gaps are identified. This paper calls for an education shift to consider practical health system challenges, citing the mounting evidence that health system reform will require the teaching and rigorous evaluation of leadership methods. Opportunities for teaching leadership in the curricula are identified, as well as how to transform leadership education to include knowledge and practice so that students have leadership skills they can use from the time they graduate.

Defining Leadership in Undergraduate Medical Education, Networks, and Instructors: A Scoping Review

“…Health professionals' schools have approached leadership development by applying competency-based educational frameworks (CBE) [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Leadership education in UME has been described in two reviews [24,25].…”

Leadership curricula and assessment in Australian and New Zealand medical schools

“…From an education perspective, McKimm [18] recently noted that 'leadership practice and development … needs to be evidenced based, theory informed and practice driven'. The current authors have recently argued [19] that leadership in practice can only occur for students if the organisational structure and culture of medical schools, hospital services and private practices allows students the opportunity to learn to lead and to practise. From an assessment and evaluation perspective, Lees and Armit [20] recently asserted that 'medical leadership enjoys less respect within the industry, [with] minimal research funding'.…”