Understanding of medical leadership from the perspective of medical students at the start of their studies and in their final year – a qualitative focus group study

Background: Physicians have to take on a wide range of leadership responsibilities, management as well as leadership tasks. A purely management-orientated approach is no longer sufficient to be successful as a physician leader in the dynamic healthcare sector. This explorative, qualitative study therefore analyzed the understanding of medical leadership among students in their first-semester and in their final year. Methods: Seven group discussions were conducted with 14 first-semester and 17 final-year students, participating in homogenous cohorts. These group discussions were transcribed verbatim, analyzed using Kuckartz’ content-structuring qualitative content analysis, and compared with international frameworks. Results: A total of 514 text segments were coded which could be assigned to 12 main categories comprising 49 subcategories. The main category “Demonstrating emotional-social competence“ was the most frequently mentioned in both cohorts. Differences emerged between the cohorts regarding the perspectives on personnel development though. While first-semester students emphasized the development of the leaders themselves, final-year students discussed the development of the employees more frequently. Not all aspects of the international frameworks became visible in the students’ understanding. Conclusion: Medical students showed a relatively comprehensive understanding of medical leadership, but not all aspects of recognized frameworks were included in their understanding. Since a cohort-specific perspective on some aspects of medical leadership emerged, this varying need for development could be addressed by a longitudinal curriculum on medical leadership.