Article Text
PDF
Abstract
Background Effective leadership is essential for practising within increasingly complex healthcare systems. It is recognised that early leadership training is key for medical and other healthcare students; however, integration into curricula and providing ‘hands-on’ opportunities can be challenging.
Objective Our study aimed to assess their perspectives and achievements while undertaking a national scholarship programme designed to develop leadership skills for medical, dental and veterinary students.
Methods An online questionnaire was designed based on the clinical leadership framework competencies and distributed to students currently enrolled on the programme. Data were collected on student perspectives and achievements gained during the programme.
Results The survey was distributed to 78 enrolled students. 39 responses were received. The majority of students either agreed or strongly agreed that the programme improved leadership skills across three domains of ‘personal qualities’, ‘working with others’ and ‘managing services’, and over 80% reported that the scheme had enhanced their professional development. Several students reported an academic achievement, including presentation of project work at a national level.
Conclusion Responses indicate that this programme is an effective adjunct to traditional university leadership training. We suggest that extracurricular schemes provide additional educational and practical opportunities to help shape the healthcare leaders of tomorrow.
- leadership assessment
- medical student
- dentist
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Footnotes
Contributors LES, AP and L-JB acted as vice presidents of the Medic Mentor scholarship scheme for one academic year between 2019 and 2020 and equally contributed to the design of this project. AP primarily undertook the data analysis and provided table and figure presentation for the article. L-JB was responsible for coordinating the meetings of the authors, disseminating the questionnaire, drafting and writing the concluding points of the article. LES designed the questionnaire and drafted and provided the final edits to the article.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests The three authors (LES, AP, L-JB) were directly associated with Medic Mentor and acted as vice presidents of the scholarship scheme between 2019 and 2020, when this work was undertaken. They were not direct mentors or responsible for any projects being undertaken by the students. While these were voluntary roles, Medic Mentor rewarded each vice president with a payment of £100 per calendar month. Since this work was undertaken, all three authors have relinquished their roles and are no longer associated with Medic Mentor or the ongoing scholarship programme.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.