Evidence suggests physicians should have formal leadership training

Although hospitals seem to look for leaders within their medical staff frequently, many hospitals do not actually offer formal to their medical staff members. For example, as they undergo training, medical residents advance uniformly into positions with more responsibilities. The first-year resident becomes the second-year resident, the second-year resident becomes the third-year resident, and so on. Each of these advancements requires increased management of more junior staff, like residents, although generally no management- or leadership-specific training is ever offered. Valuable skills including how to lead a team, how to handle disruptive behavior, and how to help others develop their own skills are simply not taught.

Physician leadership has been proven to affect the quality of patient care, healthcare system outcomes, and even the finances of the healthcare organization. Hospitals demonstrating highly-rated management and boards of directors tend to provide higher quality patient care with less adverse outcomes. Additionally, effective leadership within an organization has been shown to decrease burnout and increase satisfaction in the workplace. In an industry facing increasing burnout, such a link should be acknowledged.

Medical schools and graduate medical education programs can address this lack of leadership training by modifying curricula to include the development of leadership skills. The Harvard Business Review recommends focusing this training on cultivating interpersonal literacy and systems literacy. Interpersonal literacy involves giving effective feedback as well as nurturing and employing emotional intelligence. Systems literacy helps physicians understand the business side of healthcare, such as insurance infrastructure and patient costs, as well as how to address mistakes and errors. Implementing such training will allow hospitals to continue to improve the training of their physicians, which will, in turn, improve the quality of care that patients receive.

Source: Harvard Business Review