Leadership among the medical staff

El liderazgo en el personal médico

Dear Editor:
Nowadays, and specifically in the health sector, leadership development is critical because it enables physicians to articulate their capacities in order to improve both the administration of the services delivered to the population and the management of personnel working in hospital centers.

Señor editor

En la actualidad, y específicamente en el área de la salud, el desarrollo del liderazgo es determinante, ya que permite articular las distintas capacidades de los médicos para realizar mejoras tanto en la administración del servicio a la población, como en el manejo del personal que conforma los centros hospitalarios.

Letter to the editor

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15446/revfacmed.v69n4.93650

Received: 16/02/2021 Accepted: 15/03/2021

Luz Alexandra Javier-Silva1 Emilio Augusto Rosario-Pacahuala1

1 Universidad Privada del Norte - Department of Humanities - Lima - Peru.

Corresponding author: Luz Alexandra Javier-Silva. Departamento de Humanidades, Universidad Privada del Norte. Lima. Peru.
Email: lualjasigeo@gmail.com.

Dear Editor:

Nowadays, and specifically in the health sector, leadership development is critical because it enables physicians to articulate their capacities in order to improve both the administration of the services delivered to the population and the management of personnel working in hospital centers.

The concept of leadership is often confused with triumph, superiority, a higher standard of living or socioeconomic status, and access to positions of power in organizations. On the contrary, the actual concept entails the development of tasks that guide a group of individuals through the completion of a set of activities designed to meet specific objectives, and this requires the commitment of the entire team. Thus, leaders must motivate, energize, and inspire the team they lead while meeting the needs of each subordinate and empowering them; in other words, leaders are an important agent within the team because they must be able to establish good communication practices among the group members and improve integration capacity.

It is clear that medical professionals work in different settings, including universities1 and health centers, and with a diverse range of individuals from a variety of disciplines. Therefore, leadership among this staff can be defined in three ways: the first is the traditional, in which the leader is the person in charge of organizing the work and exercising authority; the second is leadership comprised of a group of people in charge, in which indications are given by collaborators close to the main leader who are typically selected on the basis of merit or a relationship with the latter; and the third is leadership arising from any person in the (emerging) organization who takes control to solve problems in specific situations but is often not recognized as a leader.2

In this context, the role of the leader should be emphasized, as it is not sufficient to rely on team members’ intentions to maintain direction and avoid the duplication of efforts,3 which is critical because the convergence of capabilities enables the effective performance of any activity in a medical school or as director of a health center, but also activities should be guided by individuals who possess soft skills4 that foster proper interrelationships between colleagues and other team members.

Palabras clave: Liderazgo; Personal de salud; Comunicación (DeCS).

Keywords: Leadership; Health Personnel; Communication (MeSH).

Javier-Silva LA, Rosario-Pacahuala EA. Leadership among the medical staff. Rev. Fac. Med. 2021;69(4):e93650. English. doi: https://doi.org/10.15446/revfacmed.v69n4.93650.

Javier-Silva LA, Rosario-Pacahuala EA. [El liderazgo en el personal médico]. Rev. Fac. Med. 2021;69(4):e93650. English. doi: https://doi.org/10.15446/revfacmed.v69n4.93650.

Conflicts of interest

None stated by the authors.

Funding

None stated by the authors.

Acknowledgments

None stated by the authors.

References

1.Rodríguez-Perón J. M. El trabajo en equipo como competencia transversal del claustro en la docencia médica superior. Revista Cubana de Medicina Militar. 2020 [cited 2020 Dec 23];49(4): e0200597. Available from: https://bit.ly/30LZ5ch.

2.Sánchez-Mendiola M. Liderazgo en medicina: ¿debemos enseñarlo y evaluarlo? Investigación educ. médica. 2015 [cited 2021 Jan 5];4(14):99-107. Available from: https://bit.ly/38G6Kxm.

3.Carrada B. T. Liderazgo médico en sistemas de salud. Diseño de un nuevo modelo de gestión. Rev Mex Patol Clin Med Lab 2003 [cited 2021 Jan 10];50(3):142-56. Avaiable from: https://bit.ly/30POEnW.

4.Martínez-Órdenes JG, Cordova-Señoret L, Vasquez-Vivanco V, Brierley-Vera J, Aguilar-Miranda P. Comparación de dos métodos teórico-prácticos para la adquisición de competencias de liderazgo en la evaluación inicial del paciente grave pediátrico en estudiantes de Pediatría. Investigación en Educación Médica. 2017;6(22):128-9. https://doi.org/f2k6.