Leadership Skills and their Associated Factors among Pharmacy Students at Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Background: Leadership is a vital attribute for the predictive quality of care in healthcare organizations. Leadership has an effective role in improving clinical outcomes, pharmacy practice, and patient satisfaction. However, limited studies have been done on leadership among pharmacy students in Makkah. The current study was conducted to describe the leadership skills and their associated factors among pharmacy students at Umm Al-Qura University (UQU), Makkah.

Methods: An analytical cross-sectional study was done. A multi-stage stratified random sampling technique was used. Stratification considered the gender, educational program (Pharm-D or B-Pharm), and educational year. A standardized data collection sheet was used and asked about personal, sociodemographic data, the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ), Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence (SSREI) scale, Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS).

Descriptive statistics were done. Inferential statistics were done using the Student’s t-test and ANOVA for comparing between means. Pearson’s product-moment correlations were also calculated. Multilinear regression models were constructed to determine the leadership predictors.

Results: A total of 400 pharmacy students participated in the study. Pharmacy students had high overall leadership competencies; the mean overall score of ALQ was 57.98 ±7.47. The highest leadership category score was for the internalized moral skills (15.04 ±2.43). Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that the predictors of the overall authentic leadership skills were high EI score (B= 0.4; 95% CI: 0.37-0.44) and absence of depression (B= -1.48; 95% CI: - 2.51, - 0.46). Depression was also negatively associated with self-awareness, internalized moral domains. Marital status, physical activity and father education also associated with different leadership domains.

Conclusion: The predictors of the total authentic leadership skills were the overall EI domain score and absence of depression. Training on both leadership skills, and emotional intelligence is essential. Management of depression and encouraging physical activities are needed for better leadership skills. These efforts may result in the development of highly qualified health care personnel.