Are We Preparing Medical Students for Their Transition to Clinical Leaders? A National Survey

Leadership is important for organisational teams and patient safety. We aimed to identify leadership behaviours that medical students are developing and consider whether these prepare new graduates to become leaders.

We conducted a mixed methods study using an online questionnaire comprising the Clinical Leadership Survey and additional free-text questions. All New Zealand fifth-year medical students and junior doctors (postgraduate year one) were invited to participate. Our analysis used non-parametric testing and general thematic analysis.

Seventy-five students and 43 doctors participated. Participants neither agreed nor disagreed that they were clinical leaders (3 vs 3, n.s.). Students were less sure they used clinical leadership behaviours than doctors (4 vs 3, p = 0.014), but all were using transformational leadership behaviours in clinical environments (60 vs 63 out of a maximum of 75, n.s.). Thirty percent could not give an example of acting as clinical leaders, but 97% described using leadership-type behaviours. Thematic analysis yielded four clinical leadership themes: advocacy, collaboration, leading the way and individualism.

Undergraduates appear to be developing and practicing transformational leadership behaviours and junior doctors associate leadership with their role. Participants were unaware of several important leadership behaviours, which could be further developed within an explicit structured curriculum.