Doctors as leaders: optimising the Australian Health Care System. Who leads, why do they lead, how do they lead?

This project aims to critically examine and understand the leadership landscape amongst medical staff in Australian hospitals. It will compare the current approaches to leadership education within Australian medical specialty colleges. It will seek to answer the questions of whether there is a standardised approach to the training, content and assessment of leadership skills throughout Australian medical specialty colleges, and to what extent these approaches meet an evidence-based standard. The project also aims to examine the motivators and perceived preparedness of doctors entering formal clinical and administrative leadership roles. Finally, the process of selection of medical staff for leadership roles will be examined. These studies will form the foundation for a gap analysis that will guide further research into approaches to leadership upskilling in health care as well as contributing to the business case assessment of prioritising leadership education in medical training.