Abstract
BackgroundFor the purpose of providing excellent patient care, residents need to be strong, effective leaders. The lack of clinical leadership is alarming given the detrimental effects on patient safety. The objective of the study was to assess whether a leadership training addressing transactional and transformational leadership enhances leadership skills in residents.MethodsA volunteer sample of 57 residents from postgraduate year one to four was recruited across a range of medical specialties. The residents took part in an interventional controlled trial. The four-week IMPACT leadership training provided specific strategies for leadership in the clinical environment, addressing transactional (e.g. active control, contingent reward) and transformational leadership skills (e.g. appreciation, inspirational motivation).Transactional and transformational leadership skill performance was rated (1) on the Performance Scale by an external evaluator blinded to the study design and (2) self-assessed transformational and transactional leadership skills. Both measures contained items of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, with higher scores indicating greater leadership skills.ResultsBoth scores were significantly different between the IMPACT group and the control group. In the IMPACT group, the Performance Scale increased 15% in transactional leadership skill performance (2.10 to 2.86) (intervention effect, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.40 to 1.13; p < .001, eta2 = 0.31) and 14% in transformational leadership skill performance (2.26 to 2.94) (intervention effect, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.27 to 1.09; p < .001, eta2 = 0.22). The self-assessed transactional skills revealed a 4% increase (3.83 to 4.03) (intervention effect, 0.20; 95% CI, 0.08 to 0.33; p < .001, eta2 = 0.18) and a 6% increase in transformational leadership skills (3.54 to 3.86) (intervention effect, 0.31; 95% CI, 0.02 to 0.40; p< .001, eta2 = 0.53).Discussion and conclusionsThese findings support the use of the transactional and transformational leadership framework for graduate leadership training. Future studies should incorporate time-latent post-tests, evaluating the stability of the behavioral performance increase.
Highlights
There is currently a consensus that young physicians are in need of training in how to be effective leaders[1,2,3,4,5]
In the IMPACT group, the Performance Scale increased 15% in transactional leadership skill performance (2.10 to 2.86) and 14% in transformational leadership skill performance (2.26 to 2.94)
Taking into account that a comprehensive set of leadership skills is necessary to meet the complex demands of daily clinical practice[5], we based our training on the Full Range Leadership Model[22]
Summary
There is currently a consensus that young physicians are in need of training in how to be effective leaders[1,2,3,4,5]. Medical residents take on various leadership responsibilities in their daily clinical work. They negotiate care plans, teach medical trainees, balance diverging perspectives in multiprofessional teams, while providing effective, safe delivery of care[5, 6]. Residents’ leadership skills are not facilitated enough [5] This is surprising, given the body of evidence that highlights the association between effective leadership and the improvement of medical care in fields such as teamwork[7,8,9], communication[3] and patient safety[10, 11]. The objective of the study was to assess whether a leadership training addressing transactional and transformational leadership enhances leadership skills in residents
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