Abstract

Background: Today’s medical students are tomorrow’s future workforce in the Indian health-care system. Leadership quality among medical students is rarely assessed or discussed during the undergraduate medical course.

Aim and Objective: This study aimed to ascertain the level of perceived leadership quality among 1st-year medical students in an Indian medical college.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted with all 1st-year medical students studying MBBS. We took a convenience sample for this study. A self-report questionnaire-abbreviated self-leadership quality was used to assess the perceived leadership quality. This questionnaire has a total of nine questions or statements that have a 5-point Likert-type response option. Data were presented descriptively and analyzed by one-way analysis of variance.

Results: A total of 87 (58 male and 29 female) 1st-year medical students participated in this study. The highest score was for self-goal setting and the lowest score was for self-reward. There was a significant difference (P < 0.0001) in the variance of a score. The questionnaire showed a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.86 which indicates the questionnaire was having a good internal consistency.

Conclusion: From the experience of this single-center study, it may be concluded that 1st-year medical students are having a high level of perceived leadership quality. Although their goal-setting is the highest quality, self-reward is not practiced by them. Leadership training in the curriculum may help in growing the leadership quality among medical students.

Key words: Leadership; Medical Students; Doctors; Modern Medicine; Health Care