How Can We Raise Awareness of Physician’s Needs in Order to Increase Adherence to Management and Leadership Training?

Christian Voirol, 1– 3 Marie-France Pelland, 2 Julie Lajeunesse, 2 Jean Pelletier, 2 Rejean Duplain, 4 Josee Dubois, 5 Silvy Lachance, 6 Carole Lambert, 5 Julia Sader, 7 Marie-Claude Audetat 2, 7, 8 1Haute Ecole Arc Santé, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Neuchâtel, Switzerland; 2Département de Médecine Familiale et de Médecine d’urgence, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada; 3Département de Psychologie, Faculté des Arts et des Sciences, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada; 4Academic Support, Campus de l’Université de Montréal en Mauricie, Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada; 5Département de Radiologie, Radio-Oncologie et Médecine Nucléaire, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada; 6Département de Médecine, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada; 7Unité de Développement et de Recherche en Éducation Médicale (UDREM), Faculté de Médecine, Université de Genève, Genève, Switzerland; 8Institut Universitaire de Médecine de Famille et de l’Enfance (IuMFE), Faculté de Médecine, Université de Genève, Genève, SwitzerlandCorrespondence: Christian VoirolHE-Arc Santé, HES-SOUniversity of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Espace de l’Europe 11, Neuchâtel, 2000, SuisseTel +41 32 930 2554Fax +41 32 930 1213Email christian.voirol@he-arc.chAbstract: Due to the increasing complexity of medical education and practice, the training of healthcare professionals for leadership and management roles and responsibilities has become increasingly important. But gaps in physician leadership and management skills have been identified across a broad range of organizational and geographic settings. Many clinicians are inadequately prepared to meet their day-to-day clinical leadership responsibilities. Simultaneously, physicians’ leadership and management skills play a central role and yield superior outcomes for patients and health care delivery organizations. Currently, there is a tremendous variability in the amount of time, structure and resources dedicated to leadership/management training for physicians. Physicians who have completed such trainings seem to be pleased with the outcome. However, only a limited number of physicians enroll in these types of trainings. Several reasons can explain this fact, but it seems crucial to investigate what could increase the involvement of medical leaders and managers in these training programs. This paper offers a framework for addressing the barriers to training commitment and for designing initial training interventions for physicians. This framework is rooted in two well-known theoretical models used in social sciences. It aims to promote self-assessed knowledge and expertise amongst physicians about to embrace leader/manager careers. By developing the ability to explore and be curious about one’s own experience and actions, physicians may suddenly open up the possibilities of purposeful learning. The process we describe in this paper may be an essential step in fostering the involvement of physicians in leadership and management training processes. And this is essential to contribute to the advancement of medical discipline.Keywords: insight, self-consciousness, career path, assessment, training commitment, management, physicians, leadership