Evaluating Leadership Development Competencies of Clinicians to Build Health Equity in America

To achieve more equitable health, health care must be grounded in an understanding of social determinants of health. Clinicians need hands-on, equity-centered training in interdisciplinary settings where they can further develop leadership skills and apply learnings in real-time. The Clinical Scholars program trained five cohorts of health care professionals in 25 leadership development competencies to contribute toward advancing health equity within the organizations and communities where they work. This study describes the self-reported ratings of three dimensions of competencies within four domains.

Data from 169 Fellows were collected at three time-points during the three-year training program using Qualtrics and Research Electronic Data Captrue software. Analysis was conducted in R and included descriptive statistics, fitting a linear mixed-effects model using random intercepts, and paired-sample t tests to assess significance between baseline and endpoint ratings.

We found improved ratings over time for each of the three competency dimensions (knowledge, self-efficacy, use) and significant differences in ratings from baseline to endpoint, by domain (personal, interpersonal, organizational, community, and systems).

These findings support the effectiveness of an equity-centered leadership development curriculum in training health care professionals to address health challenges in their communities and organizations, thereby furthering the broader goal of achieving more equitable health for all.