Evidence-based Management in healthcare

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The Dunning Kruger effect

Supporting mangers and leaders in health care is a key touchpoint to improving both the delivery of healthcare and the well-being of the workforce.
The Dunning-Kruger effect is a barrier to helping managers develop as studies find that people, including physicians, have difficulty with self-assessment of their skills in many domains including management skills. This is exacerbated by individuals with the least skill have the most difficulty assessing that skill, "Unskilled and Unaware" (Kruger, Dunning 1999 DOI 10.1037/0022-3514.77.6.1121).

Example plot

Dunning-Kruger example
Source code and data:
The typical finding is two lines that intersect and show that higher performers underestimate themselves and low performers over-estimate themselves.
  • In this example, the two lines are correlated, but the means of each quartile are not the same.
  • Source code (Copyleft: CC BY-NC 4.0).

Plots with real study findings

Managers self-assessment

Dunning-Kruger plot using data from Van Velsor, 1993. DOI

Dunning-Kruger plot using data from Van Velsor, 1993 Source: WikiDoc. File:Van Velsor. Leadership Dunning-Kruger chart. Hman Resource Management 1993.png and xlsx (CC BY-NC 4.0).
 
Collins found a similar plot of physicians' readiness to lead across quartiles of their understanding of the difference between leadership versus management. Their findings suggest that physicians who feel most ready to lead actually have the least understanding of leadership versus managment.

Emergency medicine doctors: self assessment

Badgett and Duran 2017. Plot at DOI: 10.1017/cem.2017.419). Comment on Kadhim-Saleh. Dunning-Kruger and ordering CT-scans. CJEM. 2017 PMID 28673374

References

Aurora Borealis from Coronado Heights, KS
Aurora Borealis from Coronado Heights, KS on Oct 10, 2024.
Salina, KS is 20 miles away on the horizon. CC BY-NC 4.0

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