Resident Leadership in the Era of COVID-19: Harnessing Emotional Intelligence

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health emergency that demands leadership throughout the health care system. Leadership is the ability to guide a team or organization toward a stated goal or objective. In addition to hospital-wide leadership, there is need for leadership at the level of medical teams. Resident leadership is essential to ensure team function and patient care, yet residents are often overlooked as valuable leaders. This Perspective argues that residents can demonstrate leadership during a public health crisis by creating a culture of emotional intelligence in their medical teams. Emotional intelligence has been identified as a critical aspect of leadership and consists of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. In psychiatry, patient interactions depend upon psychiatrists demonstrating a high level of attention to their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as well as those of the patient to communicate in a way that demonstrates both understanding and empathy. In this Perspective, a psychiatry resident uses expertise in emotional intelligence to recommend residents (1) be mindful, (2) ask and listen, (3) establish safety, and (4) unite around a common goal. These practical recommendations can be immediately implemented to increase emotional intelligence on medical teams to improve team function and patient care. Emotional intelligence is valuable at all levels of leadership, so hospital leadership and program directors should also heed these suggestions. While these recommendations are not unique to COVID-19, they are of paramount importance during the pandemic.