Medical leadership and management are essential in providing high-quality, cost-effective care. Now more than ever, the need for leadership development to strengthen healthcare experts’ skills and competencies and improve care quality is emphasised.
Medical leadership and management are increasingly considered an inherent part of being a medical professional, regardless of your career stage. However, teaching medical leadership management is not part of daily activities for various reasons.
This is primarily true for starting doctors, who are unfortunately placed at the nexus of leaving behind medical school MLM involvement, learning a new job every four months, and figuring out their chosen career path. Usually, trusts fail to emphasise MLM as a valuable asset for medical doctors and do not provide enough exposure to MLM learning or opportunities. This results from the scarcity of MLM roles, which are almost commonly targeted at post-Foundation trainees; however, one needs to start engagement earlier in medical training to be effective.
What is following or shadowing, in a medical context?
The act of following or shadowing as it is also known in the medical industry, is where an individual closely follows a leader (both clinical and non-clinical) over a more extended period. The assumption is that the junior learns from the activities in a master-apprentice relationship through interpersonal relationships and the creation of standards, values, and behaviour.
Therefore, direct observations of behaviours and the reason for them happening can be reviewed using this technique. Several studies show following teaches students skills and competencies appropriate to the training.
In addition, following several leaders allows you to discover new leadership styles, improve your communication skills and understand your organisation’s vision, mission, and goals.
How do you organise shadowing at your trust? Here is a 3-stage plan to help you carry it out.
1) Determine a list of medical personnel you would like to learn from
The first and most vital step is to identify the primary purpose of following. What is your reason for going into it?
Do you want to learn about the business aspect of running a hospital, improve communication skills by listening to negotiations involving several stakeholders, consider a career in management, or perhaps some combination of all these factors?
Knowing your reason for following and what you want to achieve will lead to a more informative and valuable experience. Also, you’re to identify people to follow who could provide the experience you are looking for.
2) Compose an outreach plan
Once you have identified who you would love to follow, the next step is to reach out to them. Your first goal should be to build some rapport and initiate a dialogue and then later build up to requesting a following experience.
3) How to make the most of your experience
Once you have finally organised a few days following different middle and senior managers, you’ll need to adequately prepare to make the most of the experience and maintain professionalism.
Logistically, ensure you get any calendar invites to virtual meetings you will be attending, set up video conferencing on your trusty laptop, and send a message a day before to ensure everyone is expecting you. You have all the correct permissions to attend virtual and in-person meetings.
On the day, make sure to go before the planned time to set up, and it is always good to buy your host a coffee or drink in the morning as a gesture of appreciation. During the day, take note of the content of the discussions and the communication skills displayed by attendees.
Conclusion
After your experience following in the footsteps and being in the company of those you wish to learn from, it is polite to follow up with a message of thanks and maintain a relationship with them in the future, as they will be a perfect network and resource in the long run.
To find out more about how you can set about obtaining Medical Leadership and Management experience, get in touch with an organisation who specialises in coaching for doctors, medical leadership coaching and doctor mentoring.