Competencies to Guide a Leadership Curriculum for Family Medicine Chief Residents

Chief resident leadership competencies are neither clear nor standardized. The goal of this project was to identify specific leadership skills for chief residents and to develop a self-assessment tool.

Chief residents from 10 family medicine residencies participated in focus groups to identify leadership skills required to be an effective chief resident. The ideas generated by participants were grouped into 10 competencies and a self-assessment tool was developed. The tool has been used to help chief residents self-assess their leadership strengths and weaknesses, and to identify teaching priorities for biannual leadership workshops.

The self-assessment instrument was completed by 83 chief residents over 5 years. Mean ratings range from 3.19 to 3.57 on a 5-point scale (low to high competency). The self-ratings of residents starting their chief year compared to residents at the end of their chief year showed an increase in 9 of the 10 competencies.

The leadership competencies are a useful tool to identify training priorities and to help chief residents or other leaders within a residency program identify skills for further development.