Foundations in Surgical and Dental Leadership

Effective leadership is crucial for the success of surgical and dental teams, ensuring that team members embody the values of inclusivity, integrity, innovation, respect and professionalism as outlined by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. To foster these values, leadership must support team members and promote exemplary conduct and practices.

The Foundations in Surgical and Dental Leadership (FSL and FDL) programmes mark a pivotal step forward in cultivating leadership skills within surgical and dental teams, which are essential for achieving clinical excellence. As the only College to offer such programmes linked to the General Medical Council’s Generic Professional Capabilities framework, RCSEd aligns with its vision for 2022–2027 “to be the most welcoming, inclusive, and innovative surgical college in the world”.

Given the growing interest in leadership development within the surgical and dental professions, these programmes uniquely address curriculum and professional development requirements for all Members and Fellows. 

Course learning outcomes

• Define your purpose as a leader within your service.
• Evaluate your impact on others.
• Plan practical reflection, coaching and feedback.
• Manage your behaviour under stress.
• Assess your conflict management style and develop strategies.
• Plan to develop and maintain resilience.
• Experiment with (and learn from) new workplace behaviours.
• Map your learning to:
• RCSEd Code of Conduct.
• GMC Generic Professional Capabilities.
• GMC Good Medical Practice.

Katie Hurst, Past Chair of the RCSEd Trainees Committee and a delegate on FSL, describes her experience of the course.

As a General Surgery ST6, I have tried to grasp leadership opportunities that have come my way. My desire to make positive change and be part of a team that can make a difference has led me from MedSoc President through to RCSEd Trainee representative on Council. Along this journey, I feel I have learned a lot of leadership skills – some developed from my personality, others by trial and error. A medical career comes with leadership as a necessity, yet I often wonder why everyone knows that extremely rare eponymous syndrome but are struggling to name key leadership capabilities. 

Last year, I enrolled on the RCSEd Foundations in Surgical Leadership course. I was eager to learn how to improve for the future but also to evidence leadership for my ARCP. The course runs in three distinct parts: a pre-course module with excellent videos and completion of a workbook (learning log); an online meeting with fellow course delegates and faculty; and some post-course reflection/future actions. 

The module itself was fantastic – it was engaging, easy to use and, importantly, work/mum friendly. Completing it in my own time, I could re-watch videos, think about concepts before completing the log, and appreciate the importance of each concept and how I could take it forward.

For me, however, the live online session was invaluable. Each delegate was asked to contribute in turn. From this, I not only learned a lot about myself but also about how differently others think and deal with situations. In our careers, we work with so many people that it is easy to believe everyone thinks the same way you do, but having a safe space for discussion opened my eyes to such a variety of personalities and thoughts. 

A second area I found fascinating was the completion of various personality questionnaires. I have engaged with such tools before but have not superimposed the results on to situations or thought about how my weaknesses could be qualities. The learning log facilitated this along with fantastic feedback from the course faculty. 

Although a ‘virtual’ course, it was great to meet 11 other like-minded people through the portal and subsequently online. The course was a perfect mix of open, in-person discussion and written coursework, completed from the comfort of my home while on maternity leave with my eight-week-old baby. 

There are many key elements to leadership that I had not appreciated before, and I am so thankful that I can take these with me when I return to work after maternity leave. As medics, we require leadership skills daily – making it all the more important to embrace such learning opportunities.