Are We Preparing Medical Students for Their Transition to Clinical Leaders? A National Survey
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Are We Preparing Medical Students for Their Transition to Clinical Leaders? A National Survey Tracey Barnes 1,2
&
Tzu-Chieh Wendy Yu 1
&
Craig S. Webster 1
Accepted: 12 October 2020 # International Association of Medical Science Educators 2020
Abstract Introduction Leadership is important for organisational teams and patient safety. We aimed to identify leadership behaviours that medical students are developing and consider whether these prepare new graduates to become leaders. Methods We conducted a mixed methods study using an online questionnaire comprising the Clinical Leadership Survey and additional free-text questions. All New Zealand fifth-year medical students and junior doctors (postgraduate year one) were invited to participate. Our analysis used non-parametric testing and general thematic analysis. Results Seventy-five students and 43 doctors participated. Participants neither agreed nor disagreed that they were clinical leaders (3 vs 3, n.s.). Students were less sure they used clinical leadership behaviours than doctors (4 vs 3, p = 0.014), but all were using transformational leadership behaviours in clinical environments (60 vs 63 out of a maximum of 75, n.s.). Thirty percent could not give an example of acting as clinical leaders, but 97% described using leadership-type behaviours. Thematic analysis yielded four clinical leadership themes: advocacy, collaboration, leading the way and individualism. Discussion Undergraduates appear to be developing and practicing transformational leadership behaviours and junior doctors associate leadership with their role. Participants were unaware of several important leadership behaviours, which could be further developed within an explicit structured curriculum. Keywords Undergraduate education . Medical students . Postgraduate education . Junior doctors . Clinical leadership . Preparedness
Introduction Clinical leadership describes the ability of healthcare staff to undertake roles that use their expertise and skills to further the core values of the health profession and ensure that the needs of the patient remain the central focus [1, 2]. Leadership skills should be distributed across all levels of an organisation and employed by those most appropriate to the situation, regardless of position or profession [3]. Leadership is key to the functioning of teams and nurtures a patient safety culture that
* Tracey Barnes [email protected] 1
Centre for Medical and Health Sciences Education, School of Medicine, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92-019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
2
Department of General Surgery, Dunedin Hospital, Dunedin, New Zealand
promotes high-quality, safe and compassionate clinical care and helps to transform healthcare services [4–6]. Doctors at all levels manage themselves and their time, staff, patients, facilities and resources [7]. However, research on leadership in healthcare, specifically the transition from medical student or junior doctor to clinical leader, is limited. A recent review of this area h
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