Ärztliche Führung im Krankenhaus. Praktischer Nutzen von ärztlichen Führungs- und Management Kursen aus subjektiver Sicht der Teilnehmenden

Abstract

ObjectivesThe aim of the present study was to evaluate the benefit of Leadership and Management Courses for clinicians, specifically which leadership and management contents are beneficial to their daily clinical work and whether these contents support their individual career. MethodE-mail invitations to participate in the study were sent to all 543 medical doctors of the University Hospital Hanover, Germany, who had taken part in one of the leadership and management courses offered between June 2005 and June 2015. The enquiry was carried out between June 1 and June 30, 2015. 84 e-mail addresses were no longer active; and so, N=459 clinicians actually received the invitation. Of these, 104 participated (22.7%). ResultsThe study included 59 items. Six were free text items, twelve items were closed questions which could be answered by choosing from a drop down menu, and 41 were answered on a Likert scale from 0 (not fitting at all) to 10 (perfect fit). Based on the items answered on a Likert scale, the following scales and mean values were deduced: Job Satisfaction (M=7.44); Leadership (M=7.77); Trust (M=7.22); Striving for Power (M=7,45); negative Affect (M=4,91); Target Achievement Motivation (M=8.19); Communication (M=8.30) and Management (M=6.48). Regression analysis showed that Job- and Team Satisfaction can predict to what extent the participants regard themselves as good leaders. The study participants defined the following topics as very important: leadership and management style, managerial functions, team management, human resources development and project management. Further topics included rhetoric skills, presentation techniques, as well as basic economics such as understanding balance sheets, profit & loss statements and contribution margin calculation. 55% of the course contents were described as being directly applicable to their daily working environment. In the clinicians’ view, the ideal leader acts as a role model (passing on values like respect, appreciation, honesty, openness, fairness, sense of justice, and empathy), someone who motivates his colleagues by giving them a vision, structure and transparency. The participants estimated that they met 60% of these qualifications. 51% of the participants found the course highly beneficial, and 45% rated it as being beneficial. 55% said that the course boosted their career. 96% were willing to attend further leadership and management courses. 98% would recommend the course to their colleagues. ConclusionThe return rate of 22.7%, the subjective benefit of the courses (96%), the willingness to attend such courses (96%) and to recommend them to colleagues (98%) demonstrates that clinicians are highly interested in leadership and management topics. This may be due to the fact that these topics are not part of the training program for medical students or junior doctors. Our findings are in consistent with organisational and psychological research results showing that “soft” psychological factors related to leadership topics are a significant and crucial factor behind the success of organisations and hospitals.