Nursing Leadership in the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Contribution of Nursing Leadership during Pandemic
Decision Making
Providing Support and Safe Working Environment
Giving Directions
Timely Communication and Accepting Mistakes
Engaging in Innovative Practices
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The outbreak of global COVID-19 brought a significant challenge to nursing practice that challenged nurse leaders. Apart from the normal priorities, such as ensuring the provision of quality patient care and cost-effective practices, the nurse managers had additional concerns that required maximum attention. They were further committed to creating a working environment that supports and inspire providers to deliver a quality experience to the patients. The focus of the nursing frontrunners was to make sure healthcare practices remained relevant during the pandemic. In order to facilitate and offer reliable care services, nurse leaders were forced to adapt and develop a continuous system driven by effective decision-making. They engaged the patients, their families and practitioners to promote a reliable working experience throughout the period. The managers formulated different ways to enhance the commitment of providers by setting other approaches that motivate the staff members. The aim of the analysis is to explore the contribution of nursing leadership towards resolving the nursing issues to maintain quality patient care during the pandemic.

Contribution of Nursing Leadership during Pandemic

Before the pandemic, most healthcare institutions had a normal working routine and measures to correct uncertainties. However, when COVID-19 emerged, the facilities were caught unaware, and the management had little knowledge to manage the situation. The condition prompted nursing leadership to engage and modify the common trend of nursing practices. The virus overwhelmed the practitioners and required nurse leaders to intervene in ways that ensured the provision of care services remained effective despite the circumstances. To facilitate effective management of healthcare facilities during the COVID-19 period, the managers are involved in decision making, adapting to the condition, supporting others, giving directions, and maintaining ethical awareness. Furthermore, nurse leaders accepted mistakes, involved innovative practices, and timely communication (Aquilia et al., 2020). Engaging in the named practices made it easier for the nurse managers to manage and overcome the challenges caused by the prevalence of the virus. Patients and health professionals had a memorable experience that gave them hope and the belief that despite the current situation, the safety and well-being of each person are guaranteed.

Decision Making

Generally, nurse leaders are tasked with making crucial decisions in the healthcare setting to facilitate the provision of services. In most cases, they rely on pieces of evidence to support their choices during the practice. However, the pandemic situation limited the ability of managers to determine the proof on that they can base their options. The crisis made the frontrunners lack relevant, accurate information to make informed decisions (Aquilia et al., 2020). For instance, in the begging, the details about COVID-19 kept changing, creating indecisiveness. Following the conflicting situation, nurse leaders opted to perform their roles to make the required decision considering the priorities: the sick individuals and their families. Despite the complexity of the circumstances, keeping patients as the key concern was significant for nursing practice. Nurse leaders had to make a rapid choice while balancing the possible risks and associated benefits.

Time of crisis is challenging, and nurse leaders are likely to encounter various conflicting information that interferes with their overall judgment. It is upon the nurse managers to make choices of what to undertake and those to ignore. It is necessary for the charge nurse to remain active and able to shift priorities to facilitate an effective patient experience. To practice such measures, nurse leaders must communicate properly to enable stakeholders to understand the situation’s progress. The practice is vital in promoting patient-centered care and the engagement of providers during the pandemic. The decision to undertake various roles inspired the health professionals.

Providing Support and Safe Working Environment

The pandemic pressure and stress on healthcare workers, making them vulnerable and less active. The demand to maintain quality care in such an environment drained the providers extremely. To recharge their energy, nurse leaders must be physically and emotionally present to motivate the nurses. Managers have the responsibility of inspiring the staff members, especially during COVID-19. The changes in the healthcare system required practitioners to evolve accordingly, both professionally and personally, to cope with the situation. Exhaustion became a major challenge in coping with long work hours (White, 2021). Similarly, staff who encountered several deaths faced serious emotional breakdowns rendering them less productive. Most majors opted to engage team members and discuss the various condition they faced to relieve them of the pressure. In addition, the nurse leaders engaged in other roles to give examples to the providers and encourage them.

In addition, during the COVID-19 crisis practitioners were drained and confused due to overworking and concentrating on different issues. To remain active and committed, they required a safe working environment to enhance their resilience despite the pressure. According to the research work by Sihvola et al. (2022) nurse leaders were responsible for ensuring providers were respected and their opinions considered during decision-making processes. The aspect of engagement made nurses feel at ease, leading to an effective contribution to patient.

Giving Directions

The pandemic situation created confusion in the healthcare system. Nurses and other stakeholders lacked the necessary focus to bring a positive patient experience. Nurse leaders took the initiative to provide clear direction on changes and what is expected from each team member. Managers listened actively to the professionals and used their concerns to address the challenges hindering their commitment (Simon, 2021). Having a sense of direction is a recipe for confidence because practitioners clearly know what they are doing. The practice is essential since it eliminates the aspect of confusion and overlapping of roles in the facility.

Furthermore, the pressure created by COVID-19 in the healthcare system made nurses work in demanding conditions, leaving them with limited time to consider ethical practices, especially in matters that require effective decision-making. The difficult context caused emotional stress leading to poor professional judgment. They required someone to remind them of the directives of the profession. Similarly, the virus prompted several ethical dilemmas since practitioners had conflicting information and lacked informed evidence to make a decision. The situation improved the distress level of the nurses, making them less attentive in their work environment. Nurse leaders took the initiative to show direction and remind the providers about the health morals to guide their practices in the midst of pandemic (Markey et al., 2021). Nurse leaders played a significant role in ensuring practitioners remained relevant to offer quality care services.

Timely Communication and Accepting Mistakes

Following a lack of literature and pieces of evidence from which practitioners could draw a conclusion from the best alternative to withstand the changing and conflicting information was timely communication. According to Manzano and Vose (2021), timely and frequent communication played a significant role in promoting proper clarification of issues amongst the providers. Nurse managers were able to effectively address various concerns hence making the practitioners have price details to use in their practices.

During the pandemic, the healthcare system experienced a rapidly changing environment with incomplete information to make an informed decision. The condition made it difficult for nurse leaders to make coordinated choices leading to mistakes. Despite the wrong judgment, the managers accepted to own the resulting impacts to ensure they gear torward the nursing practices. For instance, nurse leaders developed measures that restrict visitation but later changed them following the negative consequences associated with them (Guenser-Onstot, 2022). After realizing the outcomes, charge nurses had to deal with the circumstances and move on with their operations without giving much weight to the past blunders.

Engaging in Innovative Practices

The desperation to overcome challenges brought by the pandemic in the healthcare sector prompted nurse leaders to try different ways to facilitate care delivery in a safer manner to the patients. They advocated for the usage of telehealth services such as video calls to allow sick and dying patients to say goodbye to their loved ones in areas where they were isolated (Raso, 2020). Furthermore, implementing the technology increased the ability of health providers to reach a large number of patients remotely. Incorporating such development became a significant role of the nurse managers, especially in encouraging the professionals to apply the system.

Conclusion

The pandemic created new challenges that became a severe issue for the healthcare system. Since there were no resources and pieces of literature about COVID-19, the facilities relied on the nursing leadership to facilitate the patient care practices. Nursing management is an essential area that has a significant influence on the outcome of healthcare services. Based on the analysis above, nurse managers have fundamental roles to play. They are the key driver of care delivery and their participation enhances the commitment and productivity of other health professionals. Despite the effect of incomplete information during the period, nurse leaders remained proactive and accepted the mistakes they made as a result. According to the various encounters they faced, the managers learned crucial lessons that will enable them to be agile in the future. Furthermore, the exposure has allowed them to comprehend the need for good leadership in the setting which is important for their management.

References

Aquilia, A., Grimley, K., Jacobs, B., Kosturko, M., Mansfield, J., Mathers, C., Parniawski, P., Wood, L., & Niederhauser, V. (2020). Nursing leadership during COVID-19: Enhancing patient, family and workforce experience.Patient Experience Journal, 7(2), 136-143.

Guenser-Onstot, J. (2022). A look back on leadership lessons from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and what we can learn for the future.JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 52(4), 197-199.

Manzano, W., & Vose, C. B. (2021). When nurses lead, health follows.Nursing Management, 52(12), 36.

Markey, K., Ventura, C. A. A., Donnell, C. O., & Doody, O. (2021). Cultivating ethical leadership in the recovery of COVID‐19.Journal of Nursing Management, 29(2), 351-355.

Raso, R. (2020). Leadership in a pandemic: Pressing the reset button.Nursing Management, 51(7), 6.

Sihvola, S., Kvist, T., & Nurmeksela, A. (2022). Nurse leaders’ resilience and their role in supporting nurses’ resilience during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A scoping review.Journal of Nursing Management.

Simon, E. (2021). Leadership in pandemic.Medsurg Nursing, 30(5), 349-352.

White, J. H. (2021). A phenomenological study of nurse managers’ and assistant nurse managers’ experiences during the COVID‐19 pandemic in the United States.Journal of Nursing Management, 29(6), 1525-1534.

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