Integrating Leadership into a Practice Management Curriculum for Dental Students

Curriculum evaluations by recent graduates of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine suggested the need for additional coursework in practice management. Given the complex challenges facing practitioners, the course design was expanded beyond the suggested practice management to include leadership theory and skills. Students were able to distinguish and assess their level of various leadership skills at the end of the course. The course received an overall rating of 4.23 on a scale of I (poor) to 5 (excellent), with 84 percent of responding students indicating that their interest-specifically in the areas of clinical efficiency, practice management, reducing medical errors, communication, business, team building, leadership, and access to care was enhanced. The responding students assessed their current leadership skills overall at 3.84. They assessed themselves best at "Integrity" (4.48) and worst at "Managing Conflict" (3.12). They felt that "Ability to Build Trust with Others" is the most beneficial skill for a dentist, while "Ability to Influence" is the least beneficial. Eighty-eight percent of students responding indicated that it is "Very Likely" they will continue to practice developing their leadership skills. Qualitative feedback was overwhelmingly positive and indicated that students found the course life-altering and highly valued its breadth of topics.