LAUSR

Background Increasingly, physicians serve as leaders in varying roles, but often with minimal dedicated leadership training. Existing pediatric residency competencies may not provide a complete description of all leadership skills that should be valued. Objective We sought to identify a set of high-value leadership skills and evaluate current training in these skills in pediatric residency programs. Methods A modified Delphi process that incorporated multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional input was used to identify and define a list of core leadership skills. After reaching consensus, we conducted a national survey of pediatric residency program directors. Programs were asked to rate the perceived importance of each identified leadership skill and the presence of dedicated teaching of these skills during residency. Skills identified as extremely or quite important by e90% of respondents were classified as high-value. Results The modified Delphi process generated 16 core leadership skills to evaluate. A total of 67/204 residency programs (33%) completed the survey. 13 of the 16 leadership skills were rated extremely or quite important by e75% of programs. Six skills met criteria to be considered high-value: managing time effectively (97.0% of programs ranked extremely/quite important), receiving feedback (97.0%), communicating effectively through speaking (97.0%), embodying professionalism (95.5%), demonstrating emotional intelligence (92.5%), and addressing conflict (92.5%). Only 19.4% (13/67) of responding programs reported providing dedicated teaching time for all 6 of the essential skills. The most commonly reported modality for teaching leadership skills was didactic sessions (92.5% of programs). Conclusions Despite a high degree of national agreement among program directors about the importance of specific leadership skills, few pediatric residency programs dedicate time to teaching residents about these skills. We identified a set of high-value leadership skills that could serve as the foundation for developing a common pediatric residency leadership curriculum.