In the mind of a medical student or junior doctor, probably one of the most important tasks is to acquire clinical knowledge, skills and attitude in the shortest possible time so that the examination hurdle can be overcome. As far as they are concerned, the health care system may seem to be running on automatic pilot.¹ Things just happen. Is it really as simple as it may sound?

Probably all of us have gone through the stage when we felt management concepts sounded too remote to be relevant to clinical practice. Even if we felt they were relevant, have we got time for them? What are the things that are essential to learn in terms of management?

As we advance through our medical careers, it is inevitable that management skills will come onto the scene in one way or another. Clinically, we talk about patient management. Our discussion may be very clinically orientated and involve strictly therapeutic modalities such as drugs and surgery. However, our management of the individual patient relies more and more on a combination of therapeutic modalities and other arrangements, involving the carers, the community resources, and so on. So it is nothing new when we talk about management issues. Whether one is a clinician in public service or a private practitioner, there are some essential and useful management skills.

Time is something that we all are short of. The basic skills of time management can be taught in a two hour course but need to be put into practice if we are to achieve competence.² The difference between urgency and importance in assessing every professional activity has to be learned.²

Learning the relevant organisational structures can be extremely helpful in understanding how one can respond to challenges, be it internal or external. Clinicians and managers may look at things from different angles. Hence, negotiation skills are crucial in achieving the best possible outcome for the users, our patients.

The principles of appraisal are essential as they have wide applications in daily clinical practice as well as in the running of a clinic in the public or the private sector. A staff appraisal can be a very complicated issue and yet it can be very revealing about how one performs as a clinician. A thorough periodic appraisal can help one to improve clinical and management skills over time. One of the benefits of learning about management skills is that you are most likely to do it as a group. The group may be comprised of colleagues from different backgrounds. This way, you make new friends and new connections. You have managed to learn clinical skills as a student or a junior doctor, are you ready to learn how to manage?