As academic institutions increasingly emphasize leadership roles among healthcare researchers, it’s critical to understand what makes leadership development programs effective. Our study, spanning evaluations from January 2000 to January 2023 across major databases such as MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO, aimed to synthesize existing evidence to determine the impact of these programs.

We employed rigorous methods, including meta-analysis and meta-aggregation, and used both the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI) and the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Checklist for Qualitative Studies to ensure the reliability of our findings. Out of 48 studies evaluated, 22 were deemed high-reliability, providing a solid basis for our conclusions.

Our findings show that effective leadership programs are often characterized by active learning components like coaching, project work, and mentoring, which are crucial for fostering significant organizational outcomes. Interestingly, the success of these programs is less about the specific educational content and more about how the learning is structured and implemented. Programs that blend internal expertise with occasional external input tend to perform better, although further research is needed to explore this dynamic fully.

Improving the quality and design of program evaluations can lead to a deeper understanding of how best to develop leadership qualities among healthcare researchers, a key factor in enhancing institutional and healthcare outcomes.

Read more at: Leadership development programmes in healthcare research: a systematic review, meta-analysis
and meta-aggregation