Assessment of medical leadership competencies and development needs: First comprehensive study from India

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To assess medical leadership competencies of physicians in India, to analyse the competency gaps, and suggest measures for medical leadership development.

Methods: A survey questionnaire was developed to assess 30 medical leadership competencies at ‘Self-assessed proficiency’ levels (1 very poor to 5 very good), ‘Perceived importance of competency’ levels (1 not important to 5 very important) amongst physicians and perceived need for medical leadership development programmes (MLDPs) to which 540 doctors responded (54%).

Findings: Majority (70%) self-assessed their competencies between ‘Average to Good’. Self-assessed competency levels fell significantly short of the perceived importance of each of the competencies across all demographic variables. Thus, the study demonstrated existence of significant ‘Medical leadership competency gap’. The competencies, which were consistently deficient were in the NHS-MLCF domains of Setting directions, Working with others, and Managing services, with the lowest rated competency being ‘Knowledge of HR, procurement, financial and contracts management’. The variables, which were observed to have significant influence on competency levels included: Formal management training, Speciality and Duration of management/leadership experience. Majority (94.8%) of physicians indicated need for MLDPs at all levels.

Conclusions: This is the first study from India highlights leadership competency gaps amongst physicians and confirms need for MLDPs.

KEYWORDS:

• Healthcare management
• healthcare improvement
• medical leadership
• competencies
• physicians
• leadership gap
• leadership development
• India

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [KG], upon reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kamal Gulati

Dr Kamal Gulati is Consultant at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. He holds PhD in Management. His area of interest is Medical Leadership, Healthcare Management, and Hospital Governance. He has rich experience in health and hospital management.

Chitra Sarkar

Dr Chitra Sarkar is Dean (Research) and Professor of Pathology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. She has guided >10 students of for PhD and >100 for MD in Pathology. She has more than 350 publications and 30 research projects as Principal Investigator to her credit.

Vivek Verma

Dr Vivek Verma holds a PhD degree in Statistics from Gauhati University. He has more than 5 years of working experience in health sector. He has excellent command over running novel softwares viz. R, SPSS, SAS for statistical purposes. He has several publications in public health domain to his credit.

Angel Rajan Singh

Dr Angel Rajan Singh holds a Master degree in Hospital Administration from All India Institute of Medical Sciences. He has more than 15 years of experience in health administration. His areas of interest include Project Management and Hospital Operations.

Shakti Kumar Gupta

Dr Shakti Kumar Gupta is Faculty of Hospital Administration and Medical Superintendent at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. He has written more than 10 books on the topics related to Hospital Administration. He is Programme Director of Healthcare Management Development Programmes and has conducted >15 such programmes.