Medical Student Leadership Development through a Business School Partnership Model: A Case Study and Implementation Strategy

Exploring medical students' perspectives of physician leadership

BACKGROUND

Leadership has been recognized as an important competency in medicine. Nevertheless, leadership curricula for Canadian medical students lacks standardization and may not be informed by medical students' perspectives of physician leadership. The purpose of this study was to elicit these perspectives on physician leadership.

METHODS

The present study utilized semi-structured interviews to ascertain the views of medical student participants, including students in their first, second and third years of medical school, on physician leadership. Interview questions were based on 'the 3-C model' of physician leadership, which includes three aspects of leadership, namely character, competence and commitment. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and then coded using thematic analysis.

RESULTS

The medical students of this study provided rich examples of resident and staff physicians demonstrating effective and ineffective leadership. The participants identified the importance of character to effective physician leadership, but some participants also described a feeling of disconnect with the relevance of character at their stage of training. When discussing physician competence, medical students described the importance of both medical expertise and transferable skills. Lastly, the leadership aspect of commitment was identified as being relevant, but medical students cautioned against the potential for physician burnout. The medical student participants' suggestions for improved leadership development included increased experiences with examples of physician leadership, opportunities to engage in leadership and participation in reflection exercises.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, the study participants demonstrated an appreciation for three aspects of leadership; character, competence and commitment. Furthermore, they also provided recommendations for the future design of medical leadership curricula.

Creating Environmental Health Leaders When Educators Are Learning Too

The climate crisis is upon us, already exacting a health cost, with likely acceleration over our lifetimes. Our existing medical curricula do not adequately prepare medical students to deal with climate health nor to be leaders in the public health sphere. Current faculty have themselves not often been exposed to climate health training nor often to leadership training. This affords a unique opportunity for creative implementation of strategies to educate both faculty and students on how leadership skill building can complement the science and policy of climate health.