Enhancing medical students’ leadership skills through student-selected components

Abstract

Historical context: The importance of effective leadership in the healthcare setting has become increasingly apparent through such high-profile NHS enquiries as the Francis Report into failings at Mid Staffordshire hospitals (Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Enquiry, 2013). These examples of failings in patient safety and care have brought about numerous attempts to improve healthcare quality through leadership and management initiatives.The authors, a team of four medical students under the guidance of an academic tutor, aimed to design additional leadership and management learning resources to complement their university’s current undergraduate medical curriculum as part of this drive to improve patient care and safety.Specifications of Project: A two-year Student Selected Component (SSC), spanning years 4 and 5 of the undergraduate medical course, was created to provide students with the opportunity to develop their medical leadership and management skills.Discussion of Pedagogy/Practice: An action learning approach was employed to enable the authors to take control of their learning and to aid professional development. The flexibility of the university’s SSC model allowed for a variety of activities to be undertaken.Implementation: Self-directed study combined with a seminar series, external speaker events, industry placements and self-development courses formed the basis of the SSC.Evaluation: The authors judged the project’s success through continuation and increased recruitment to the SSC this academic year, and through the positive personal reflections of students having completed the pilot.Lessons Learnt: The six key lessons identified related to: planning, communication, sustainability, pursuing opportunities, self-directed learning and ambition.

Integrating leadership into the undergraduate medical curriculum in the UK: a systematic review

“…There was no evaluation of the training but general feedback from students was positive. Additionally, a Leadership and Management in Medicine society was founded to encourage students to join the SSC 30. Matthews et al created the Birmingham Medical Leadership Society and hosted 16 talks on leadership, with opportunities to have discussions with leaders.…”

“…Another element to explore is the nature of medical leadership teaching. Byrne et al state that a student selected component allows mixed teaching methods and creates an opportunity for personal development as the student engages in one-to-one learning 30. Moreover, it is identified as a good approach to the barrier of crowded medical curricula 10.…”

“…Following the design and implementation of a leadership intervention, the evaluation methods need to be considered. Two of the studies did not report an evaluation strategy in their interventions 27 30. For future implementation, these studies suggested assessing satisfaction and knowledge levels throughout the academic year,30 and evaluating long-term impact with mixed methods 27.…”

“…The nine studies outlined their aims and methods clearly and followed good research practice. Seven studies were graded a score of 4, and two were graded a score of 3 due to not reporting their evaluation methodology 27 30. None were graded 5 as there is no standard approach to evaluating the outcomes of leadership teaching in undergraduate medical curricula.…”

Leadership and management in UK medical school curricula

“…Furthermore, at Barts and the London medical school, students set up a dedicated MLM student society to broaden student engagement and designed a SSC module in MLM which has permitted students who choose to undertake the programme to observe senior leaders and managers and work with them on QIPs. (Byrne et al, 2016). A similar student-led organisation based at Birmingham Medical School used student evaluation data from their MLM workshop and lecture series to put forward a business plan for an intercalated bachelor's degree in MLM.…”