Advancing leadership in Australasian emergency medicine: Taking stock and looking ahead

Written By Clare Skinner

June 2021

Emergency Medicine Australasia - Wiley Online Library

With Dr A Rixon, A Prof S Wilson, Dr S Judkins, Dr J Bonning, Dr P White

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Since 2018, the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine has collaborated with the Swinburne University of Technology on a research project to understand and enhance the leadership capacity of emergency physicians, beginning with Australasian Directors of Emergency Medicine (DEMs). Over the last 3 years, this research programme has revealed the complexity of leadership in emergency medicine, illuminating the strengths and limitations of extant research and suggesting promising new directions for emergency medicine leadership and leadership development research. This programme has also shed new light on the knowledge, skills and abilities that DEMs need to develop to catalyse change in the systems where DEMs practice both medicine and leadership. We propose that an approach to leadership development that reflects the diversity of DEMs' leadership challenges and the complexity of leadership in emergency medicine would go a long way to enhancing the sophistication, effectiveness and impact of the leadership in emergency medicine.

Clare Skinner

Dr Clare Skinner is a specialist emergency physician with interests in leadership, advocacy, workplace culture, quality and safety, clinical redesign and health system reform. Her current areas of focus include transformation of the emergency department workforce, improving care of people with mental health symptoms, building positive culture in hospitals, and fostering diversity and inclusion in health services. Clare works as a clinician, manager and educator. She is a frequent contributor to academic journals, mainstream media and medical blogs on topics related to hospital practice and culture. Clare is a regular speaker at emergency medicine and leadership conferences and seminars. She was selected in the Top 50 Public Sector Women NSW in 2018.

https://clareskinner.com
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