title: Leadership and followership in the healthcare workplace: exploring medical trainees' experiences through narrative inquiry.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore medical trainees' experiences of leadership and followership in the interprofessional healthcare workplace.
  
  
  METHODS
  A qualitative approach using narrative interviewing techniques in 11 group and 19 individual interviews with UK medical trainees.
  
  
  METHODS
  Multisite study across four UK health boards.
  
  
  METHODS
  Through maximum variation sampling, 65 medical trainees were recruited from a range of specialties and at various stages of training. Participants shared stories about their experiences of leadership and followership in the healthcare workplace.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were analysed using thematic and narrative analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We identified 171 personal incident narratives about leadership and followership. Participants most often narrated experiences from the position of follower. Their narratives illustrated many factors that facilitate or inhibit developing leadership identities; that traditional medical and interprofessional hierarchies persist within the healthcare workplace; and that wider healthcare systems can act as barriers to distributed leadership practices.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This paper provides new understandings of the multiple ways in which leadership and followership is experienced in the healthcare workplace and sets out recommendations for future leadership educational practices and research.
authors.affiliation: Medical Education Institute, School of Medicine, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
authors.forename: Lisi J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Gordon
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences, HealthPEER (Health Professions Education and Education Research), Monash University, Clayton Campus, Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Charlotte E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Rees
authors.affiliation: Medical Education Institute, School of Medicine, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
authors.forename: Jean S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Ker
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical and Dental Education (DMDE), School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cleland
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D033262:Narration; D036301:Qualitative Research; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: MEDICAL EDUCATION & TRAINING; QUALITATIVE RESEARCH