The leadership baseline: Assessing servant leadership and leadership self-efficacy in first-year health professions students

Background: Despite the importance of a collaborative leadership approach for successful interprofessional practice, little is known about the leadership capabilities and attitudes of health professions students at the beginning of their educational program. Purpose: Evaluate the association of self-perceived servant leadership (SL) and leadership self-efficacy (LSE) ability with degree program and demographics of first-semester health professions students. Method: A survey measuring SL and LSE was administered to 1014 students from 17 academic programs enrolled in the first semester of an interprofessional health curriculum. Discussion: 453 students (45%) responded to the survey. No individual academic program differences for either SL or LSE were identified on post-hoc testing. SL and LSE scores were correlated with additional previous leadership roles and previous leadership trainings. Lower socioeconomic status was associated with higher total SL score (p < 0.001). No significant difference in total SL or LSE scores was found with respect to gender, race, sexual orientation, or political ideology. Conclusions: This single-site, cross-sectional evaluation of leadership self-perception identified an exposure-dependent increase in SL and LSE scores with additional leadership experience (both leadership training and leadership roles) along with higher SL scores in students from low socioeconomic status.