Determine the level of experience with the medical field that your students have. The group you are teaching may have many students who have medical related jobs or perhaps only a few will. If you have a class with many students who have little to no experience in the medical field, you may have bring up examples outside of the field in order to bring points home. Every group of students will be different, so think about their needs and how you can bring this lesson to them. A good way to do this is by asking questions before you begin the lesson.
Ask your students what they believe a leader should do in general. For instance you might bring up that leaders try to create and maintain the most ideal workplace. Bring this back to them by asking what they believe in ideal leader in the medical field would be. This is an ideal time to go over what are expected of medical leaders more so than a non-medical leader. Medical leaders have many tasks to balance; not only do they have to worry about their employees but they also have patients, patient's families, billing, medical law and budget concerns to think of whenever they make a decision.
Start going over the types of leaders, comparing some to historical figures if applicable. For instance talk about the difference between a "boss" and a "leader" as well as the connotations and denotations of each word. Ask your students if they would rather work for a boss or a leader.
Talk about leadership models. While there are many types of models most fall into categories such as structural, human resource, political, or inspirational. Discuss the strengths and pitfalls of each and have your students discuss how an extreme of each would act in a medical setting. In the end you should find enough issues to decide that a balance of each is most appropriate. For example, a leader in the medical field who is very "human resource" orientated may do his best to make his patents and employees happy, but may not get the ideal budget results wanted by their superiors if they choose to treat a patient with no insurance. While on the other hand, a leader that is too "budget results" orientated may seem heartless and cold, giving the hospital or practice a bad name. See if your students can remember times where they may have worked for any person that embodied any of the models, have them talk about it to the class. At this time talk about how even the extreme cases might be ideal in certain situations. This is another time to talk about leaders of history, how some were perfect for their day and age but in another would be completely noneffective.
Go over how great leaders can take on stress since the medical field is a very stress-inducing job, especially in Emergency Rooms. Leaders in the medical field, more than others, cannot be able to crack under pressure as a person's life may hang in the balance.
Tell your students a few scenarios of problems and situations that can happen in a medical setting and ask them how they would try to remedy them. Have them base their actions on the leadership models and explain how their methods might help and how they could potentially hinder each situation. Discuss additional team building exercises that may help improve relations between employees and/or patients for examples where this is an issue.