The General Medical Council (GMC) and Medical Leadership Competency Framework (MLCF) recommend that medical students should be taught about core management and leadership (MLM) topics, such as service evaluation which includes audits and quality improvement projects (QIP). This study, based on an audit cycle, aimed to assess whether medical students receive formal teaching on MLM topics such as audits and whether a student-led society could successfully provide supplementary teaching for MLM topics.

An online teaching session was run by Birmingham Medical Leadership Society (BMLS), led by two medical students with extensive experiences with service evaluation. An anonymous evaluation form was used to measure pre- and post-session understanding of service evaluation. This was done via a 5-point Likert scale to self-rate theoretical and practical knowledge. A statistical analysis was then conducted, including a two-tailed t-test. In attendance were 97 people, most (n=89) were medical students from all year groups and universities from the UK and abroad. 91% of participants completed the form and stated they had never had formal teaching, with 89% having not previously completed an audit/QIP. Self-reported prior knowledge was low (mean 2.3/5), with practical knowledge lower than theoretical (mean 1.9/5 vs 2.9/5). Post-session, participants knowledge statistically significantly (p<0.001) increased by 87% (mean 2.3/5 to 4.3/5) with a greater self-reported increase in practical knowledge compared to theoretical (109%: 56.6%). Most students highlighted they had not received formal teaching on service evaluation as part of their curriculum, despite GMC and MLCF guidance. The study suggests that student-led medical societies can successfully help to deliver and complement teaching on these topics. With various medical students attending from across various institutions in attendance, this demonstrates the importance and interest of students to engage with service evaluation.