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Hospitals need highly trained and competent managers to be responsible for the strategic development, overall operation and service provision. The identification and confirmation of core management competency requirements is a fundamental first step towards developing the competent management workforce for sustainable hospital service provision. This paper reports on the finding of a recent study focusing on identifying managerial competencies required by middle and senior-level managers in the public hospitals in Iran.

The qualitative research design included position description analysis and focus group discussions with middle and senior-level public hospital managers in Iran. When analysing the identified knowledge, skills and attitudes, the validated MCAP framework was used to guide the grouping of them into associating management competencies.

The study identified 11 to 13 key tasks required by middle and senior-level managers and confirmed that the position descriptions used by current Iranian hospitals might not truly reflect the actual core responsibilities of the management positions. The study also confirmed seven core managerial competencies required to perform these tasks effectively. These core competencies included evidence-informed decision-making; operations, administration and resource management; knowledge of healthcare environment and the organisation; interpersonal, communication qualities and relationship management; leading people and organisation; enabling and managing change and professionalism.

Competencies were identified based on managers' perceptions. Views and experiences of other stakeholders were not captured.

The seven core management competency identified in the current study provides a clear direction of competency development among senior and middle-level managers working at the Iranian public hospitals. The study also confirms that position descriptions do not reflect the actual responsibilities of current hospital managers, which are in need to urgent review.

This is the first study that has identified the core managerial competencies required by middle and senior-level hospital managers in Iran.

The purpose of this study is to identify components of contributing conditions to strengthen leadership and management capacity in the health system.

A systematic search was undertaken in databases including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and local resources of Scientific Information Database and Magiran in January 2020. Two independent researchers checked the research process, screening of articles and quality assessment. The quality of the studies was assessed by JBI critical appraisal tools for qualitative studies. The components of the dimensions of health system management and leadership capacity were categorized according to the WHO conceptual framework using a content analysis approach.

A total of 17 articles were included in this study. In total, 16 categories of components include human resource information system (n = 5); criteria, plans and procedures for selection and appointment (n = 5); development of education system (n = 11); skills (n = 39); knowledge (n = 8); attitudes (n = 6); behaviors (n = 10); resource and critical management system (n = 7); performance and processes management (n = 3); operational planning for critical systems (n = 4); establish control systems (n = 2); inputs and outputs of organizations (n = 2); accountability and responsibility to customers and stakeholders (n = 4); legal authority and requirements to play the role of managers (n = 9); external and internal environment management (n = 7); establish a system of appreciation and encouragement (n = 6). Each of these categories also contains subcategories.

Identifying prerequisite conditions are necessary for building leadership and management capacity in health systems. Therefore, extracted components provide a simple but coherent framework that can be adapted or modified for use in local situations. The components have a variety of uses, including mapping current activities, needs assessment, planning leadership and management development strategies and monitoring and evaluation.

Insufficient physical activity leads to an increase in chronic diseases. Skills-based health education methods are supposed to be more successful than traditional methods to promote healthy behaviors. Skills-based health education is an approach to create healthy lifestyles and skills using participatory methods. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of skill-based education method on physical activities of female adolescents.

This was an experimental study on 80 female public high school students aged 12-14 years old in Tehran. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: experimental group of 40 girls who were educated using “Skills-based education method,” and control group of 40 girls who were educated by lecture as a routine educational method for health promotion. Data were collected using a valid and reliable questionnaire to assess physical activity-related knowledge, attitudes and behavior. Data were gathered three times; before, immediately after (Phase 1) and two months after educational intervention (Phase 2). Data analysis was performed using SPSS 20.

Intra-group comparison demonstrated that both educational methods can increase knowledge, attitude and behavior of the students after intervention comparing to before intervention (RMANOVA; p<0.05). However, the comparison between groups demonstrated a significant higher increase of knowledge (t-test; p<0.01 and p<0.0; phase 1 and 2, respectively), and behavior (t-test; p<0.01 and p=0.002; phase 1 and 2, respectively) but not attitude (p=0.083 and p=0.125, phase 1 and 2, respectively) among the students participated in the experimental “skilled based health education” group rather than the control “lecture” group.

Skill-based health education comparing to routine lecture-based education creates deep and long lasting knowledge and behavior and is highly recommended for promoting physical activity and other health-related knowledge and among adolescents.