Developing leadership competencies among medical trainees: five-year experience at the Cleveland Clinic with a chief residents' training course.
OBJECTIVE
Challenges in healthcare demand great leadership. In response, leadership training programs have been developed within academic medical centers, business schools, and healthcare organizations; however, we are unaware of any well-developed programs for physicians-in-training.


METHODS
To address this gap, we developed a two-day leadership development course for chief residents (CRs) at the Cleveland Clinic, framed around the concept of emotional intelligence. This paper describes our five-year experience with the CRs leadership program.


RESULTS
Since inception, 105 CRs took the course; 81 (77%) completed before-and-after evaluations. Participants indicated that they had relatively little prior knowledge of the concepts that were presented and that the workshop greatly enhanced their familiarity with leadership competencies. Qualitative analysis of open-ended responses indicated that attendees valued the training, especially in conflict resolution and teamwork, and indicated specific action plans for applying these skills. Furthermore, the workshop spurred some participants to express plans to learn more about leadership competencies.


CONCLUSIONS
This study extends prior experience in offering an emotional intelligence-based leadership workshop for CRs. Though the program is novel, further research is needed to more fully understand the impact of leadership training for CRs and for the institutions and patients they serve.
Professor of Pathology, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA, and; Vice Chair for Education, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.
Carol F
CF
Farver
Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work and Family Studies, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN, USA.
Susan
S
Smalling
Professor and Chairman, Education Institute, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA, and; Jean Wall Bennett Professor and Samson Global Leadership Academy Endowed Chair, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA stollej@ccf.org.
James K
JK
Stoller
D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D004493:Education / Q000379:methods*; D004501:Education, Medical; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D009820:Ohio; D010820:Physicians
chief residents; course; emotional intelligence; leadership