How to get started in medical leadership
BMJ 2024; 387 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2024-080576 (Published 17 October 2024) Cite this as: BMJ 2024;387:e080576
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Dear Editor
Eddy’s article, (Education, 19 October), is an excellent resource for resident doctors to encourage leadership experience. (This includes local to national leadership opportunities, reading material and courses to improve knowledge, useful for medical students and beyond.) Leadership is a key skill for all doctors. Good Medical Practice as laid out by the GMC states that, whatever their role, doctors must ‘Demonstrate effective team working and leadership.’ While leadership skills are needed at all grades of medical training, they become more important with increasing seniority. Leadership is a skill that can be practised, improved and doctors in senior leadership positions are associated with better organisational performance.
Leadership failures have been implicated in high profile safety cases. The importance of trainees was emphasised in the Mid Staffordshire inquiry, stating ‘Trainees are invaluable eyes and ears in a hospital setting.’
The recent changes to the internal medicine training shortlisting criteria, in which the leadership domain was removed, is therefore jarring in this context. It may discourage future applicants from gaining leadership experience and could have an ongoing effect on the workforce.
Competing interests: No competing interests
Dear Editor
We were pleased to see The BMJ feature a piece entitled How to get started in medical leadership (1). We found several aspects of the article particularly helpful, including: emphasising the rationale for why someone would want to be a clinical leader; articulating tools and routes to developing leadership experience and training – at local, regional, and national levels and across all four UK NHSs; and covering the contributions of Royal Colleges, the NHS Leadership Academy, and the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM).
We were also pleased to see one of BMJ Leader’s most cited and downloaded articles in the suggested reading list: Roger Kline’s piece from just before the pandemic (2) Leadership in the NHS, highlights why majoring on diversity, inclusion, and equity are so central to leading well in healthcare.
We want to ensure The BMJ’s readers are aware of BMJ Leader, an international, peer-reviewed, online-only journal focusing on leadership in health and care. Launched in 2017, BMJ Leader’s overarching purpose is to improve the results and experience delivered by health and care systems for their patients, populations, and workforces. To deliver on this purpose, our aim is to help build better leaders: leaders who are rounded, resilient, and equipped with practical skills and knowledge. Just as importantly, we nurture a community of leaders by improving connectivity and encouraging debate.
BMJ Leader features original research and reviews, interpretations of the evidence base, and reflections and debate by practitioners on the key themes of leadership. BMJ Leader aims to be the place to find and contribute evidence, reflection, and discussion on the many disciplines that drive leadership in health and care. BMJ Leader also features blogs and events, both online topic-based discussion, and in-person, such as the upcoming BMJ Leader Live event on 15 November in Birmingham, UK (3).
Co-owned by the BMJ Group and the FMLM, BMJ Leader works to be relevant across all clinical professions and professional managers, and works to take a more inclusive and global (rather than just a UK or ‘global north’) perspective on leadership. Over the past years, we have diversified our team of editors and fellows to reflect this goal. We have just launched a special interest group on Leading in an African context, and our five strategic priority themes are: Leading for social justice & health equity; Planetary health and sustainability; Digital health; Kindness and human connection in healthcare; and Developing leaders and leadership education.
We hope BMJ Leader can be relevant to all who read The BMJ—not only relevant to those who see themselves as “leaders”. In addition to the formal roles, credentialing and the tracks set out by Eddy et al., we believe health systems are more effective and careers are more rewarding when people – irrespective of role – see themselves as motivated to and capable of leading. Leading better means better for patients, populations and staff, irrespective of roles or the characteristics of any individual health system.
We invite the BMJ’s readers to submit their work to BMJ Leader (4), and to play a reviewer role. We described the crucial role reviewers play in a recent editorial where we seek to expand the range of people who see themselves able to review (5).
Implicit in Eddy et al.’s piece is that getting started in medical leadership involves looking for opportunities and engaging with communities interested in nurturing and supporting good leadership. Developing research and community around leading in health and care systems is at BMJ Leader’s core. We invite you to contribute to this community to advance together the goal of improving health and care systems.
References
1. Eddy, J. et al, How to get started in medical leadership, BMJ 2024;387:e080576
2. Kline, R., Leadership in the NHS, BMJ Leader 2019;3:129-132
3. Conference details available at: https://bmjleaderlive.bmj.com/birmingham/birmingham-programme
4. Instructions for authors available at: https://bmjleader.bmj.com/pages/authors
5. Gemine R. et al, Why reviewers matter: applying a social justice lens in publishing to build a thriving reviewer environment BMJ Leader 2023;7:1-2
Competing interests: I am Editor-in-Chief of the journal BMJ Leader (published by the BMJ Group and co-owned by the BMJ Group and the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management; the authors write collectively all as editors from the BMJ Leader editorial team
Dear Editor
I agree with the authors about the medical leadership opportunities available for students, resident doctors, specialty doctors and consultants to develop their essential leadership skills to survive in the modern medical workplace. However, it is worth noting more generic leadership development is also extremely valuable including resources available from the Institute of Leadership (IoL).
As a Fellow of this excellent organisation, I can highly recommend the e-learning platform to get accredited by external experts in areas such as collaboration, vision and resilience. These can be completed in parallel to local and regional networking via FMLM and Welsh Leadership Fellowships.
Wes Streeting MP has mentioned developing a register for NHS managers to enhance excellence of our managerial colleagues and this is essential to help enhance services jointly. One aspect of medical leadership, I found common across all specialties when discussing leadership development and better services and outcomes for our patients is the leader’s persistence in trying to achieve those high-level aims.
Competing interests: No competing interests
Take the lead - Additional medical leadership development opportunities and resources
Dear Editor
We thank Eddy and colleagues for their Practice Pointer[1] on a critical topic: getting started in medical leadership, recognised as essential in postgraduate medical training.[2] However, there were two important omissions we would like to highlight:
(i) The Healthcare Leadership Academy (HLA) and its Scholars Programme, and
(ii) Free online resources from the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM)’s Trainee Steering Group.
Founded in 2016, the HLA Scholars Programme is a year-long, funded leadership development programme to nurture and empower tomorrow’s healthcare leaders, mapped to the NHS Leadership Framework.[3] The programme can be undertaken in parallel to studies or work, and explores the Leader as… Communicator, Manager, Follower, Negotiator, Philosopher, and Entrepreneur and Innovator. The Programme has evolved over time, beginning with a London-based cohort through to the present day, where multiple hybrid and virtual cohorts thrive in the UK and internationally. Comprehensive asynchronous, multimodal e-learning complements the mandatory cohort contact days. Over the course of the year, Scholars develop, manage, and deliver a project of their choosing relating to healthcare leadership – with projects shaped by peer and cohort director feedback alongside the skills and knowledge developed through the Programme. In tandem, Scholars devise and launch a campaign to complement their project and submit end-of-year reports for assessment. A mentorship programme is available to provide additional focussed support.
As new Scholars, we were recently welcomed into the HLA community. We use ‘community’ deliberately, for the HLA embodies a Community of Practice united by a passion for healthcare leadership, developing skills, celebrating diversity and empowering all to reach their potential. Peer learning, community engagement, coaching, and mentorship are core to the Programme. Furthermore, past Scholars are integral to the delivery of the Programme, as organisers, mentors, and cohort directors. Moreover, current and past Scholars from different cohorts interact regularly and support and learn from one another through the HLA community messaging platform, community weekends, conferences, and other events. Programme alumni are eligible for additional development opportunities such as funding for further study and paid work.
For us, a key benefit is the diversity of Scholars with which we learn with and from. Scholars come from a wide range of professional backgrounds and interests, career stages, and countries. We have particularly benefited from the interdisciplinary learning afforded by the diversity of the wider HLA community. Generous funding from Medics.Academy and partners removes financial barriers to participation in the Programme.
Additionally, we wish to highlight free resources from the FMLM’s Trainee Steering Group, a diverse committee of enthusiastic resident leaders from across the UK, specialties, and training grades. In particular, the suite of ‘how to guides’ (such as how to chair a meeting, how to network, and how to run a successful conference);[4] the repository of leadership opportunities curated by region and country;[5] and the ‘Leadership development passport’ to document evidence and reflections and map leadership development to recognised standards.[6]
We encourage aspiring healthcare leaders to explore these online resources and apply to join the supportive HLA community.
Footnote: Views expressed are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of their employers or the organisations mentioned. The Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management website is undergoing development so links may change.
References
1. Eddy D, Daniels J, Gamble J, Cowan M, Suntharalingam J. How to get started in medical leadership. BMJ. 2024; 387 :e080576. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2024-080576
2. General Medical Council. Generic professional capabilities framework. 2017. Available from: https://www.gmc-uk.org/education/standards-guidance-and-curricula/standa... [accessed 06/11/2024]
3. The Healthcare Leadership Academy. The Healthcare Leadership Academy Scholars Programme. The Healthcare Leadership Academy. 2024. https://www.thehealthcareleadership.academy/join-the-programme [accessed 06/11/2024]
4. FMLM Trainee Steering Group. How to guides for trainees. Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management. 2024. https://www.fmlm.ac.uk/resource/how-guides-trainees [accessed 06/11/2024]
5. FMLM Trainee Steering Group. Leadership development opportunities for trainees. Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management. 2024. https://www.fmlm.ac.uk/resource/leadership-development-opportunities-tra... [accessed 06/11/2024]
6. FMLM Trainee Steering Group. Leadership development passport. Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management. 2019. Available from: https://www.fmlm.ac.uk/sites/default/files/content/resources/attachments... [accessed 06/11/2024]
Competing interests: Both authors are current HLA Scholars. L(J)C is the current Chair of the FMLM’s Trainee Steering Group and delivers the HEIW Generic Curriculum Leadership and Team-working study day course.