As health care systems strive to become high-reliability organizations, they need strong leaders at all levels to deal with the challenges that continually emerge as a result of growing populations, new standards of care, changing government regulations and shifts in access to care. Students should appreciate that they too can be leaders by embracing change to promote shared goals.
The free online module—“Establishing Essential Leadership Behaviors”—is part of the AMA UME Curricular Enrichment Program, which features a robust library of interactive, e-learning modules developed with a micro-learning approach.
Through the AMA UME Curricular Enrichment Program, educators from subscribing medical schools can assign specific elements such as health care business fundamentals and developing leadership skills and receive reports on student progress, track via dashboard, send reminder emails and customize reports. Request a demo.
For medical students looking to hone their skills as leaders, here are some key insights from the lesson.
Leadership shouldn’t be title dependent
There’s a perception that leadership starts at the top. The reality on the ground, however, is that you don’t need to be a manager to be an effective leader.
In fact, some leaders aren't managers at all, but they make their marks by improving patient outcomes, decreasing clinical operational and capital expenditure, boosting efficiency and increasing staff satisfaction. Moreover, they shape organizational culture.
Kimberly Lomis, MD, is the AMA’s vice president for medical education innovations. She said medical students, even as they work their way up the medical training hierarchy, can still make meaningful contributions as leaders.
“For students, some of these leadership traits may feel outside of their role. But students can speak up to raise opportunities to improve outcomes and processes. As they strive to contribute to the care of patients, students are keen observers of the system. They should feel empowered to ask questions about the status quo and raise opportunities for improvements.”
Medical students have a place in shaping the future of medicine through the AMA. For medical students looking to hone their leadership skills, the AMA offers the chance to distinguish yourself through more than 1,000 leadership opportunities and skill building through online training modules, project-based learning and more.
Leaders have these key traits
The module breaks leadership down into six core competencies. The list includes:
- Change management: Builds a shared vision and sustainable, effective changes within an organization.
- Influence and communication: Communicates clearly, encourages open discussion and advocates effectively for key issues.
- Patient centeredness: Respect the values and unique circumstances each patient brings to a clinical interaction.
- Self-management: Maintain professionalism and self-care while embracing feedback to continually improve.
- Systems centeredness: Leverage knowledge of the health care system to improve patient care
- Team management: Foster respect, value diverse views and support every member’s growth within the team.
The module highlights that for effective leaders in health care must display all these traits to be agents of change in clinical care.
Leadership opportunities are abundant
The module highlights that the type of work that can allow someone to grow as a leader in an organization includes work to advance patient safety, drive quality initiatives and improve clinical outcomes.
For medical students, growing as a leader is often done outside formal curriculum of medical school and accomplished through extracurricular activities. Leadership experience can also be a key factor in helping a medical student land a residency position when the time comes. Opportunities to lead in medical school could include projects in your community or working with organizations through your medical school.
