Trailblazing Leadership Education: Assessing the Impact of a Wilderness Medicine Elective on Perceived Leadership Skills

IntroductionPhysicians frequently take on leadership roles in many different healthcare teams and settings. Developing such leadership skills as situational control, resource utilization, and conflict management is a vital part of medical education. Wilderness medicine focuses on the delivery of care in remote environments where situations are often tenuous, resources are scarce, and effective leadership and teamwork are essential. Wilderness medicine education during medical school may provide tools and knowledge to improve leadership ability. This study evaluated the perceived effect of a 1-mo wilderness medicine elective on medical students' leadership skills.MethodsFourth year medical students taking a 1-mo wilderness medicine elective between 2019 and 2023 were asked to take pre- and postcourse surveys evaluating their perceptions of their leadership skills. A different group of students taking an art of medicine through the humanities elective were used as a control group. The results were evaluated for pre- and postsurvey differences as well as between-group differences.Results and ConclusionsSeveral pre- and post-course survey questions aimed at assessing perceived skill improvement in situational control, resource utilization, and conflict management showed statistically significant differences in the students taking the wilderness medicine elective, whereas this was not found in the control group. This suggests that students taking the wilderness medicine course perceived an improvement in their leadership skills after participating in a wilderness medicine course, whereas students taking the art of medicine through the humanities course did not perceive this improvement. This suggests that wilderness medicine education can provide value to medical student education.