The curricula of most US medical schools provide little or no opportunity for medical students to study leadership.  Physicians are trained to view medicine in terms of the physician-patient relationship, yet many of the greatest opportunities to treat disease and promote health lie in the organizational and social contexts of healthcare. 
The future of medicine and the patients we serve depends on cultivating responsible and effective physician leaders.  This course introduces the key traits and skills of effective leaders and provides an opportunity to study these broader contexts of healthcare.

During the course, we will evaluate the involvement of the Indiana University School of Medicine’s faculty in providing patient care in healthcare settings from which medical students and residents are excluded.  What are the benefits and costs of minimizing the amount of education that takes place in a hospital or clinic?  On balance, does the participation of medical students and residents improve or detract from the quality and efficiency of healthcare?  Do physicians, and in particular, medical school faculty members, have a responsibility to include learners in their clinical work?  Working as a group, students will devise a plan to address these questions, assign tasks to different group members (literature search, interviews with Clarian and IUSM administrators, manuscript preparation, etc.), and prepare presentations as well as a white paper on the topic, which will be submitted for publication.

To gain a basic understanding of the traits and skills of leaders, students will read three texts on leadership. One takes at broad look at the traits of effective leaders, “The Leadership Challenge” by Kouzes and Posner. The other two, “The Endurance” by Caroline Alexander and Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains (a biography of renowned physician and educator Paul Farmer), are accounts of exemplary leaders. We will discuss each of these readings and review student progress on the course project in class meetings.  The course will generally meet in the Riley Hospital Radiology conference room on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 12:00 to 2:00 pm, although there are a few exceptions as noted on the course calendar. Although formal class meetings do not represent an extensive time commitment, it is expected that each student will spend significant time outside of class, preparing for the class through reading and particularly through making progress toward the final project and presentations.

Grading will be determined by the instructor based on the following criteria: Attendance (10%), Participation in class discussions (20%), Presentation (40%), and Contribution to the final manuscript (30%).  Each student’s contribution to the final white paper manuscript will be graded separately, and it will be important for students to work together as group members to complete the research and writing. Students will need to earn at least 70% of the possible points to pass the course.