Document Type

Article

Journal Title

Journal of the Endocrine Society

Publication Date

2017

Volume

1

Abstract

Context: There is growing recognition that more physician leaders are needed to navigate the next era of medicine.

Objective: To determine current opinions about leadership training in endocrinology fellowship programs.

Design/Participants: Twenty-seven-question survey addressing various aspects of leadership training to current nationwide fellowship program directors (PDs) and fellowship graduates since 2010.

Intervention: In partnership with the Endocrine Society, the electronic survey was advertised primarily via direct e-mail. It was open from March through July 2016.

Main Outcome Measures: The survey addressed leadership traits, importance of leadership training, preferred timing, and content of leadership training.

Results: Forty-six of 138 PDs (33.3%) and 147 of 1769 graduates (8.3%) completed the survey. Among PDs and graduates, there was strong agreement (>95%) about important leadership characteristics, including job knowledge, character traits, team-builder focus, and professional skills. PDs (64.5%) and graduates (60.8%) favored teaching leadership skills during fellowship, with PDs favoring mentoring/coaching (75.0%), direct observation of staff clinicians (72.5%), and seminars (72.5%). Graduates favored a variety of approaches. Regarding topics to include in a leadership curriculum, PDs responded that communication skills (97.5%), team building (95.0%), professional skills (90.0%), clinic management (87.5%), strategies to impact the delivery of endocrinology care (85.0%), and personality skills (82.5%) were most important. Graduates responded similarly, with >80% agreement for each topic. Finally, most PDs (89%) expressed a desire to incorporate more leadership training into their programs.

Conclusions: Our survey suggests a need for leadership training in endocrinology fellowships. More work is needed to determine how best to meet this need.

ISSN

2472-1972

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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