Clinical leadership development in the NHS - a study in urgent and emergency care (UEC).

Purpose: This paper explores why clinicians in an emergency department (ED) become leaders, their experiences of leadership and their future developmental needs. It focuses on emerging leaders, middle management, and senior management whilst addressing the knowledge gap in identifying the training needs of clinical leadership in urgent and emergency care (UEC).

Design/methodology/approach: This study utilised both surveys (n = 36) and semi-structured interviews (n = 12). Qualitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, whilst qualitative data were analysed using a thematic approach, drawing on a conceptual framework based on the inter-related concepts of culture, professional identity and leadership development. This paper focuses on the third concept and offers insights into the journey and challenges faced in making the transition from clinician to leader.

Findings: The findings revealed that most clinical leaders received insufficient training to prepare them to be leaders in UEC.

Research limitations/implications: This study was originally intended for a single English Acute Trust, rendering the data limiting, as an interpretivist study. The fact that three Trusts were used for the semi-structured interviews helped with the triangulation of data.

Practical implications: The paper proposes an original leadership development framework for UEC to support leaders who are often excellent clinicians, to be equally brilliant and appropriately empowered leaders.

Originality/value: A more individual-centric focus on clinical leadership development is advocated, offering an original leadership development framework to support leadership development and contributing to the wider literature on education.