BMJ Leader最新文献

{"title":"Developing clinical academic pathways in an NHS mental health trust: leadership reflections and lessons.","authors":"Hannah Abigail Armitt, Cathryn Hart","doi":"10.1136/leader-2026-001587","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/leader-2026-001587","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Research-active clinical teams are linked with improved patient outcomes, enhanced service innovation and greater workforce development. Despite these benefits, embedding research within routine clinical roles in NHS mental health services remains challenging and requires coordinated leadership, cultural change and sustained organisational investment. This commentary reflects on the development of a clinical academic pathway within a United Kingdom (UK) mental health trust. Initiated through strategic commitment from the assistant director of research and catalysed by the proactive leadership of a clinical psychologist, the pathway evolved to include multiple professional groups and career stages. We describe the organisational enablers, leadership practices and barriers encountered during its development, including the importance of aligning research with service priorities, distributing leadership roles and protecting time for research activities. The reflections offer transferable lessons for NHS (National Health Service) leaders seeking to embed research within clinical practice and build sustainable clinical academic capacity in mental health services.</p>","PeriodicalId":36677,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Leader","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148537381","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Compassionate and inclusive medical leadership among senior doctors across Somerset NHS Foundation Trust: a mixed-methods analysis.","authors":"Aparna Badagala, Petra Jankowska, Jeremy Smith, Jo Morrison, Anna Baverstock","doi":"10.1136/leader-2025-001458","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/leader-2025-001458","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To explore the motivations, barriers and systemic challenges experienced by senior doctors' engagement with compassionate and inclusive medical leadership (CIML) within Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, and to identify evidence-based strategies to support sustainable leadership development.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>A sequential mixed-methods study integrating quantitative survey data with qualitative thematic analysis and postsurvey facilitated group discussions.</p><p><strong>Setting: </strong>Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, a large integrated healthcare organisation providing acute, community, mental health, learning disability and GP services across Somerset.</p><p><strong>Participants: </strong>Senior doctors including consultants and specialty associate specialist and specialist (SAS)-grade doctors. Participants included 156 survey respondents and 39 participants in postsurvey group discussions.</p><p><strong>Outcome measures: </strong>Identifying leadership challenges, motivations, recruitment barriers and systemic facilitators of CIML engagement. Validation of survey findings through stakeholder discussions grounded in NHS leadership principles.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Of the 692 eligible participants, 156 responded (22.5%) and 39 (5.64%) participated in the postsurvey group discussions. Key barriers to leadership engagement included time constraints (28%), lack of administrative support (20%), poor work-life balance (15%) and non-transparent recruitment practices (35%), echoing national concerns regarding clinician burnout and structural inequities. Qualitative themes reinforced these findings, highlighting cultural and systemic challenges, especially for women and ethnic minority doctors. Stakeholder discussions underscored the need for structured mentorship, protected time and inclusive leadership pathways.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Systemic reforms, including mentorship programmes, transparent recruitment processes, leadership induction and protected time for leadership development, are essential to fostering sustainable and inclusive medical leadership. Engaging senior doctors in co-produced leadership strategies may help strengthen engagement and support more inclusive leadership cultures.</p>","PeriodicalId":36677,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Leader","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148473257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Qualitative investigation into the rural and coastal workforce for allied health professional leaders in England.","authors":"Sophie Jayne Willis, Louise Howe, Aparna Ramachandran, Agnes Nanyonjo, Rebecca Chandler, Tim Hayes, Sally Fowler-Davis, Kate Grafton","doi":"10.1136/leader-2025-001465","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/leader-2025-001465","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Allied Health Professional (AHP) services in England assess, diagnose, treat and rehabilitate patients across a wide range of health and care settings, supporting recovery and daily living. Persistent underinvestment in these services has led to delayed diagnoses, reduced access to rehabilitation and widening health inequalities, particularly in rural and coastal areas.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Interviews were conducted with 132 senior AHP leaders, with analysis informed by international evidence and national workforce literature. The study aimed to identify leadership concerns within services operating in rural and coastal areas of England. Qualitative coding was undertaken, supported by artificial intelligence-enabled analytical tools, to identify key themes.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Six themes were generated from the data: (1) the importance of local leadership; (2) unlocking workforce pipeline development; (3) supportive leadership and organisational culture; (4) expanding access to rural workforce placements; (5) addressing lifestyle and professional viability and (6) strategic recruitment. Together, these themes inform potential solutions and more integrated approaches to improvement planning.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>The study identifies critical systemic barriers to recruitment, retention and leadership across the sector. Inconsistent leadership was associated with poorer service experience and outcomes in rural and coastal communities. These workforce challenges are structural rather than incidental, are potentially preventable and align with priorities set out in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. Recommendations for action are presented.</p>","PeriodicalId":36677,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Leader","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148449647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Gender, racial and ethnic diversity in US academic paediatric faculty: trends over 55 years.","authors":"Darshana Seeburruth, Amal Khan, Jeffrey Ding, Sobhan Mardan, Damien Noone, Faisal Khosa","doi":"10.1136/leader-2025-001450","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/leader-2025-001450","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Despite the US population becoming increasingly diverse, gender and racial/ethnic disparities in academic paediatrics persist, limiting the provision of culturally effective care. Recent policy changes, including the US Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action, risk further exacerbating these disparities and impeding progress towards a more diverse healthcare workforce.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>To examine trends in gender and race/ethnicity in academic paediatrics over 55 years, with a focus on identifying areas where representation remains limited.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A retrospective analysis of publicly available data from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) from 1966 to 2021 was conducted. Data on paediatric faculty members, categorised by gender, race and ethnicity, were analysed. Poisson regression models estimated annual growth rates and assessed trends in gender and racial/ethnic representation across academic ranks and department chairs.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The paediatric workforce grew at an annual rate of 4.80% from 1966 to 2021. With a significantly higher growth rate compared with men (3.56%), women (6.43%) became the majority in the workforce by 2021. Racial/ethnic minoritised groups also showed significant growth. However, disparities persist in senior academic ranks and leadership positions, with men and White individuals still holding the majority of professor roles and department chair positions.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Despite progress in gender and racial/ethnic representation in academic paediatrics, disparities remain, especially in senior ranks and leadership roles. These findings highlight the ongoing need for efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in paediatric academic medicine, especially in light of recent policy changes that may impede such initiatives.</p>","PeriodicalId":36677,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Leader","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148449723","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Norwegian clinical dashboard: updated and expanded versions may lead to further Nordic collaboration.","authors":"Ole Tjomsland, Christian Thoresen, Tor Ingebrigtsen, Jens W Jensen, Henrik Møller, Jan C Frich, Eldar Søreide, Eva Stensland","doi":"10.1136/leader-2026-001581","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/leader-2026-001581","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36677,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Leader","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148438034","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Productivity starts with people.","authors":"Laura Jane Yearsley, Richard Wylde, Barbara Cramond, Jennifer Carroll, Helen Bevan, Karen Hampson","doi":"10.1136/leader-2026-001651","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/leader-2026-001651","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36677,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Leader","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148438259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of staff-engagement campaigns in large healthcare organisations: a focus group study.","authors":"Richard James, Jenny Lewis, Laura Stroud","doi":"10.1136/leader-2025-001387","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/leader-2025-001387","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Healthcare organisations work better with an engaged workforce, and engagement campaigns offer a way to create this. Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT), one of the UK's largest Trusts, provides an example of a staff-engagement campaign, having employed participative methods to gather staff ideas and engage with the workforce directly. Research into how participative methods directly impact staff engagement is poorly understood. Accordingly, this study aims to use the example from LTHT to understand how staff engagement campaigns employing participative methods can directly impact staff engagement in large healthcare organisations.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Scenario-based focus groups were carried out across five different organisational units, purposively selected to encourage a diverse range of opinions and experiences. The data from these was transcribed, coded and analysed using constructivist reflective thematic analysis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Three themes were developed around: (1) the impact of the concept; (2) the impact of participation and (3) the impact of outputs. The latter was divided into two further subthemes: (a) closing the loop and (b) demonstrating cause and effect.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Healthcare leaders are operating in an increasingly challenging environment, with growing demands being placed on an increasingly stretched and potentially disengaged workforce. Staff engagement campaigns offer a means of engaging this workforce and as a consequence, improving organisational performance. Participative methods such as crowdsourcing are well suited to positively impacting staff engagement. However, this impact may not be realised unless work is done before the campaign to encourage participation, and work is done after the campaign to acknowledge contributions, put forward a plan of action and provide targeted updates on progress. If organisations are able to conduct a single campaign successfully, subsequent campaigns may increase engagement still further, across the whole organisation, and crucially, among those staff groups that are least engaged.</p>","PeriodicalId":36677,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Leader","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148424652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Continuity of care matters to GPs: implications for leadership and workforce planning.","authors":"Catharina Savelkoul, Ethan Phillips, Joan Madia, Sophie Park, Stavros Petrou, Simon de Lusigan, Jonathan Taylor, Catia Nicodemo","doi":"10.1136/leader-2025-001478","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/leader-2025-001478","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>BackgroundGeneral practice in the UK faces workforce shortages and declining morale. Understanding which aspects make general practice a rewarding career is important for informing retention strategies and promoting professional satisfaction at practice level.</p><p><strong>Aim: </strong>To identify which aspects of working as a general practitioner (GP) are most rewarding and how these relate to demographic and practice characteristics. Additionally, to provide practical recommendations for practice leaders and policymakers on how these aspects can be supported and sustained.</p><p><strong>Design and setting: </strong>A national cross-sectional web-based survey of practising GPs in the UK conducted between July and October 2025.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>An online questionnaire invited GPs to describe, in free text, what they found most rewarding about their career. Responses (n=955) were analysed inductively using thematic analysis in NVivo V.15. Coding reliability was assessed by dual independent coding. Frequencies of key themes were summarised and explored across demographic and professional characteristics.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Continuity of care was the dominant theme, cited by almost half of GPs (45%), followed by mentions of variety or breadth of practice (26%) and flexibility or work-life balance (27%).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Continuity of care emerged as the most frequently cited source of professional reward for GPs in this sample, complementing earlier work that highlights continuity as the aspect patients also value most in general practice. The erosion of longitudinal patient continuity under current access-focused models of care delivery may therefore carry consequences beyond patient health outcomes and satisfaction, potentially also affecting workforce retention. Re-establishing continuity within modern primary care need not mean reverting to older models, but embedding relationship-based care as a core priority.</p>","PeriodicalId":36677,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Leader","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148424416","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Gendered patterns of professional misidentification among doctors in the NHS: a quantitative study.","authors":"Hina Hafiz","doi":"10.1136/leader-2025-001480","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/leader-2025-001480","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To quantify gendered patterns of professional misidentification among hospital doctors.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>An anonymised cross-sectional survey of hospital doctors was conducted in February 2025 at Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, a UK district general hospital. Respondents reported the frequency, source and type of misidentification, alongside perceived impact on workflow. Responses were analysed by gender using Fisher's exact test.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>52 doctors responded (32 female, 20 male). All female respondents reported misidentification at least once (vs 75.0% of men, p=0.006) and were more often misidentified weekly to daily (81.2% vs 25.0%, p<0.001). All women reported being mistaken for nurses (vs 30.0%, p<0.001) and misidentified downward (vs 50.0%, p<0.001); men were more often misidentified upward (65.0% vs 25.0%, p=0.008). Elevating nicknames were more often directed at men (60.0% vs 18.8%, p=0.003). Misidentification disrupted workflow at least sometimes for 40.6% of women versus 5.0% of men (p=0.008).</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>In this single-centre cohort, misidentification showed consistent, statistically significant gendered patterns-women downward, men upward-suggesting a broader pattern warranting investigation in larger, multicentre studies. Visible role-labelling, inclusive communication training and leadership modelling merit consideration and future evaluation.</p>","PeriodicalId":36677,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Leader","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148424622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Leveraging medical students' pre-matriculation and medical school experiences in leadership education and development.","authors":"Erin S Barry, Joshua D Hartzell, Sherri Rudinsky, Leslie Vojta, Ryan Day, Rebekah Cole","doi":"10.1136/leader-2025-001410","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/leader-2025-001410","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>WHAT IS THE EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGE?: Medical students enter training with diverse leadership experiences from clinical roles, advocacy, teaching, military service and organisational involvement. However, leadership education in medical schools often adopts a one-size-fits-all approach that reflects a deficit-based model, treating students as novices rather than building on their prior experience. As a result, leadership development is frequently disconnected from students' lived experiences and lacks structured opportunities for growth. WHAT ARE THE PROPOSED SOLUTIONS?: Drawing on interviews with 17 medical students, we propose an asset-based, developmentally tiered approach to leadership education. Key strategies include early leadership mapping through self-assessment, longitudinal mentorship and coaching and embedding leadership practice within the curriculum. These approaches support individualised development by aligning opportunities with students' prior experiences and current roles. WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS TO A WIDER GLOBAL AUDIENCE?: This approach is adaptable across diverse educational settings and resource levels. It recognises varied leadership pathways, supports personalised development and better prepares students to meet the collaborative and complex demands of healthcare systems. WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?: Future efforts should focus on implementing leadership mapping tools, integrating structured mentorship and feedback and evaluating outcomes to build an evidence base for asset-based leadership development in medical education.</p>","PeriodicalId":36677,"journal":{"name":"BMJ Leader","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2026-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148413097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}