How physicians acquire leadership competencies: A systematic review

Abstract

Background: Health systems around the world have their own unique challenges. Today, competence in clinical leadership is often seen as more important than clinical competence. Given the important role of physicians in health systems, how do they acquire clinical leadership competencies? In this research, valid scientific articles were reviewed for insight. Methods: In this research, databases including Science Direct, ProQuest, PubMed, SCOPUS, and Emerald, as well as Google Scholar, the Scientific Information Database, and Magiran for Iranian articles were searched for valid evidence-based English and Persian articles published between 2010 and 2018 using combination of keywords such as "physician," "leadership," and "competency" singly and in combination with the terms "AND" and "OR" as research strategy. Studies that focused on "physicians leadership competency" were selected. Search results were limited to the years 2010-2018. After reviewing the papers, 18 relevant articles were selected. Results: In the first phase, 350 articles were selected and after careful examination, 18 papers were approved at the final stage. It was found that education and leadership development courses are the most important factor for enhancing managerial competencies for physicians. It should be noted that the researchers found that in Iran research on competence in clinical leadership has also been less relevant than others. Conclusion: It is imperative that managers and planners of medical curricula design courses to develop management skills for physicians. In the post-graduate period, for physicians’ continuing education, courses that address applied management and leadership should be identified and included in the continuing education curricula to address the real needs of the country’s health systems. Leadership development programs can also be useful as projects to be modeled with the help of the world’s top medical universities.