**Leadership Development in Medicine: More Than Just Titles and Administration**
Leadership development in medicine has conventionally focused on titles and administrative competencies, preparing students for positions in academic or hospital leadership. However, this perspective neglects a vital aspect of medical education: enabling future doctors to comprehend themselves, navigate intricate healthcare systems, and make career choices that resonate with their principles.
**Why Conventional Leadership Development Is Insufficient**
Numerous physicians commence practice only to discover that medicine does not fulfill their expectations from medical school. They frequently encounter unforeseen business hurdles in healthcare, struggle with unfamiliar practice models, and lack mentorship, leading to dissonance and contributing to burnout and dissatisfaction within the profession.
Burnout impacts not only doctors but also patients. As patients, we wish for physicians who are engaged, fulfilled, and passionate about their work. Yet, too often, doctors feel constrained in roles that conflict with their personal values, resulting in a lack of direction and tools to make deliberate choices.
**Introducing LEAD+: A Program Designed to Alter the Course**
To bridge this divide, I established the LEAD+ program. LEAD signifies Leveraging your degree, Embodying your identity, Activating leadership skills to Drive systemic impact. It is not just a leadership program concentrated on management or titles.
LEAD+ focuses on trainees who aim to guide their careers with clarity and intent. The program assists them in examining their identities and values, acquiring knowledge about the business and operational facets of healthcare for informed decision-making, and honing leadership skills and systems thinking. Collaborations with hospital executives and varied physician leaders offer diverse insights.
This program aspires not merely to produce more administrators but to foster happier, more fulfilled doctors—physicians who understand themselves, recognize their choices, and feel empowered to pursue paths that enable them to thrive.
**Happier Doctors, Enhanced Patient Care**
As healthcare shifts toward a more holistic perspective, medical training often overlooks the trainee as a complete individual. Transforming patient care requires preparing doctors to prioritize their well-being, understand the broader dynamics influencing medicine, and act purposefully within complex healthcare landscapes.
LEAD+ goes beyond simply teaching leadership skills; it aims to cultivate physicians who are confident in their career decisions, experiencing reduced burnout and increased satisfaction, and who provide compassionate care because they are committed to the work they’ve chosen. Ultimately, this fosters doctors who are not only skilled but also happy, prosperous, and aligned with the mission of caring for our loved ones.
*Amelie Oshikoya is an internal medicine physician.*