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In August, nearly 100 IU medical students spent a Saturday learning how to lead at Leadership Day 2007, a conference created by the Medical Student Council to give students tools they need to become effective leaders.
“More than just treating disease, medicine can be a powerful tool to transform individual lives and entire communities,” explains Student Council President Michael Veronesi, who has helped coordinate Leadership Day for the last three years. He wants medical students to realize the incredible opportunity they will one day have to make an impact on society as physician-leaders.
Such programs are important training, believes Stephen Bogdewic, PhD, executive associate dean for faculty affairs, “because it’s hard for any physician to escape leadership.
“When you go out in the real world there’s no curriculum for leadership,” he says. “You see things you want to make better, and if you have some amount of leadership training, you can affect change. The leadership training we offer gives our learners an advantage when they embark on jobs after leaving here.”
Leadership training is not part of the formal medical school curriculum, but according to Bogdewic, there is a growing trend among medical schools to offer it.
At IU, the Medical Student Council has placed an increased emphasis on leadership and has sponsored non-mandatory leadership training events in various formats since 2000. Bogdewic and other IUSM administrators, in partnership with the Medical Student Council, are currently looking at how leadership development can become a formal part of the curriculum for all students. Currently, Dr. Richard Gunderman, M.D., PhD, associate professor of radiology, pediatrics, medical education, philosophy, liberal arts, and philanthropy, teaches a leadership-in-medicine elective for fourth-year students.
Other medical organizations touting the importance of leadership training include the American Medical Student Association, which offers a leadership training resource kit aimed at future primary care doctors, and the American Medical Association Foundation, which sponsors a leadership award program for students, residents, fellows, and young physicians. Selected applicants attend the AMA’s annual National Advocacy Conference.
“Leaders always look at the end goals, and that’s what we teach our students,” says Bogdewic. “If you are assigned to a committee, you have the option of serving your term without adding much or you can ask yourself ‘What do I want to have helped make happen by the time I walk away from here.’”
Veronesi adds, “Some people might think that having advanced academic training, like a medical degree, automatically makes a person a good leader. But that’s not necessarily always true. My hope is that conference participants walked away with the appreciation that being a good leader might entail more than being a good doctor. Through effective leadership, we can not only positively impact our patients’ lives but we can dramatically change and improve the face of medicine in so many ways.”
Visit the Medical Student Council’s new website.
