Tomorrow’s Leaders, Today: leadership and management in the undergraduate curriculum

In recent years, we have seen increasing interest in the clinical leadership of health services, and a relentlessness drive to grow tomorrow’s senior operational leaders from the clinical professions. Not only is this a high political priority,1 but evidence demonstrates higher quality outcomes—for healthcare organisations and patients—where clinicians are engaged in the leadership task.2 As a result, there have been concerted efforts to raise the profile of leadership development in medical education and training. This has proved particularly challenging in undergraduate medical education, where there exists a degree of ambivalence about the place of leadership and management within an already crowded curriculum. Numerous frameworks, guidance documents and initiatives have attempted to resolve uncertainties about the content, delivery and timing of different interventions, but there remains wide variation of practice and curricular emphasis across UK medical schools.3 Following engagement with students, medical schools and other stakeholders, a working group has been convened under the auspices of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management (FMLM) to address some of the identified challenges. The Tomorrow’s Leaders, Today group, including representation from the Medical School’s Council, Health Education England and the NHS Leadership Academy, is made up of educationalists, academics, students and clinicians. Its purpose is to support, steer and align activities aimed at embedding leadership and management development in the undergraduate medical curriculum across UK …