The impact of an educational intervention on physician leadership competencies among rural and remote primary care doctors in Aceh, Indonesia.

PURPOSE: This study aims to examine how an educational intervention, using the lens of the LEADS framework, can influence the development of primary care doctors' leadership skills in Aceh, Indonesia. In order to persevere in the face of inadequate resources and infrastructure, particularly in rural and remote settings of low- and middle-income countries, physicians require strong leadership skills. However, there is a lack of information on leadership development in these settings. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: This study applied an educational intervention consisting of a two-day workshop. The authors evaluated the impact of the workshop on participants' knowledge and skill by combining quantitative pre- and post-intervention questionnaires (based on Levels 1 and 2 of Kirkpatrick's model) with qualitative post-intervention in-depth interviews, using a phenomenological approach and thematic analysis. FINDINGS: The workshop yielded positive results, as evidenced by participants' increased confidence to apply and use the information and skills acquired during the workshop. Critical success factors were as follows: participants were curiosity-driven; the use of multiple learning methodologies that attracted participants; and the use of authentic scenarios as a critical feature of the program. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The intervention may offer a preliminary model for improving physician leadership skills in rural and remote settings by incorporating multiple teaching approaches and considering local cultural norms.

Investigating physician leadership competencies in rural and remote areas of the province of Aceh, Indonesia.

BACKGROUNDS: Globally, the most rural healthcare systems are lagging behind those of urban healthcare systems. Especially in rural and remote areas, the essential resources to provide principal health services are inadequate. It is purported that physicians have an important role in healthcare systems. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of studies on physician leadership development in Asia, especially on how to enhance physician leadership competencies in rural and remote low-resource settings. This study aimed to investigate doctors' perceptions of existing and needed physician leadership competencies based on their experiences in primary care settings in low-resource rural and remote areas are in Indonesia. METHODS: We performed a qualitative study with a phenomenological approach. Eighteen primary care doctors, who worked in rural and remote areas of Aceh, Indonesia, purposively selected, were interviewed. Prior to the interview, participants were asked to select the top-five skills they deemed most essential for their work based on the five domains of the 'Lead Self', 'Engage Others', 'Achieve Results', 'Develop Coalitions' and 'Systems Transformation' (LEADS) framework. We then performed a thematic analysis of the interview transcripts. RESULTS: We identified the following qualities a good physician leader in low-resource rural and remote settings should possess: (1) cultural sensitivity skills; (2) a strong character that includes courage and determination; and (3) creativity and flexibility skills. CONCLUSIONS: Local cultural and infrastructural factors create a need for several different competencies within the LEADS framework. A profound amount of cultural sensitivity was considered the most important in addition to the ability to be resilient, versatile and ready for creative problem-solving.

Primary care doctors' perceived needs for physician leadership development in rural and remote settings of Aceh province, Indonesia.

BACKGROUND: Globally, rural/remote health systems fall short of optimal performance. Lack of infrastructure, resources, health professionals and cultural barriers affect the leadership in these settings. Given those challenges, doctors serving disadvantaged communities must develop their leadership skills. While high-income countries already had learning programmes for rural/remote areas, low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), such as Indonesia, are lagging behind. Through the lens of the LEADS framework, we examined the skills doctors perceived as most essential to support their performance in rural/remote areas. METHODS: We conducted a quantitative study, including descriptive statistics. Participants were 255 rural/remote primary care doctors. RESULTS: We discovered that communicating effectively, building trust, facilitating collaboration, making connections and creating coalitions among diverse groups were most essential in rural/remote communities. When rural/remote primary care doctors serve in such cultures, may need to prioritise harmony within the community and social order values. CONCLUSIONS: We noted that there is a need for culture-based leadership training in rural or remote settings of Indonesia as LMIC. In our view, if future doctors receive proper leadership training that focuses on being competent rural physicians, they will be better prepared and equipped with the skills that rural practice in a specific culture requires.

Will ChatGPT's Free Language Editing Service Level the Playing Field in Science Communication?: Insights from a Collaborative Project with Non-native English Scholars.

ChatGPT has been widely heralded as a way to level the playing field in scientific communication through its free language editing service. However, such claims lack systematic evidence. A writing scholar (LL) and six non-native English scholars researching health professions education collaborated on this Writer's Craft to fill this gap. Our overarching aim was to provide experiential evidence about ChatGPT's performance as a language editor and writing coach. We implemented three cycles of a systematic procedure, describing how we developed our prompts, selected text for editing, incrementally prompted to refine ChatGPT's responses, and analyzed the quality of its language edits and explanations. From this experience, we offer five insights, and we conclude that the optimism about ChatGPT's capacity to level the playing field for non-native English writers should be tempered. In the writer's craft section we offer simple tips to improve your writing in one of three areas: Energy, Clarity and Persuasiveness. Each entry focuses on a key writing feature or strategy, illustrates how it commonly goes wrong, teaches the grammatical underpinnings necessary to understand it and offers suggestions to wield it effectively. We encourage readers to share comments on or suggestions for this section on Twitter, using the hashtag: #how'syourwriting?