By Melinda Young
When researchers studied how COVID-19 surges affected teamwork, they found something essential and seemingly innocuous: Frontline staff, including care coordinators, wanted face time with their leaders.1
“One thing that really struck me was the importance of leadership,” says Katarzyna Mastalerz, MD, study co-author and an associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
Here is what healthcare workers wanted from their leaders:
• Clear, timely communication. “As described by nurses, communication was intense in the first surge, and that was very helpful,” Mastalerz says. “As the surge continued in May and June of 2020, nurses said communication seemed to drop off, and there was less volume of communication as executives were talking about returning to the new normal. That made people feel abandoned.”
Care coordinators and others on the front lines were dealing with challenges and unknowns, so the fact that communication from executive leadership appeared to taper off was tough for them.
“Care coordinators and pharmacists talked about having to reach outside their own professional groups to get information,” Mastalerz reports. “Nurses got a lot of information about protocols and what was happening with COVID nationally and locally, and care coordinators and pharmacists said, ‘We’re not getting information out of our own groups.’”
Although the care coordinators and pharmacists interviewed by researchers were taken from in-person bedside contact to remote contact, they still were frontline workers who needed information. Without accurate and timely information, they would wonder if leaders even understood the composition and interdependence of interprofessional teams at the bedside.
“Why would one professional group need all of this information, but other groups would need less information?” Mastalerz asks.
Because of these communication discrepancies, care coordinators and pharmacists contacted other groups to figure out how they could take care of patients in a rapidly changing crisis environment.
• Face time with leaders. “There were several instances described where the director of the hospital was on the floor, or maybe the director of nursing was there, and it was encouraging for people,” Mastalerz says. “But these instances were very rare.”
Frontline staff expressed palpable feelings about the lack of leadership visiting the floor, asking them what they needed, and getting their opinions. “Care coordinators and nurses strongly voiced this in various interviews,” Mastalerz notes. “The frontline body was diverse in experiences and skill sets, and they wanted to share their [expertise] and be part of institutional decision-making during COVID.”
For example, one care coordinator told researchers, “We have this huge mixture of people from all walks of nursing who could have potentially assisted in helping [to] not only put our other nurses at ease, but also coming up with ways of how we could have done our job. We weren’t asked. We were just told.”
Another nurse participant suggested leaders shadow them for a day to see how much they are running around: “Just having these people who are making decisions be on the floor with us would be a good place to start.”
Mastalerz and colleagues found frontline workers wanted a leadership presence and attention to their voices. “This really impacted how people felt about their work — and, therefore, their wellness,” she adds.
• Small gestures matter. Leaders could help mitigate staff burnout and moral injury during and after pandemic surges by making small gestures that show camaraderie and empathy for their teams and employees.
“They’re looking for leadership to come down, be there, and ask them how they’re doing,” Mastalerz says. “Small gestures like that can help people trust their organizations more. When communication dropped off, and they didn’t see presence of leadership, they were thinking, ‘Why is that happening? We have these skills sets, so why are our opinions not important?’”
This was a big deal in the moral injury frontline staff sustained. “Study participants are saying leadership has a huge role in helping people feel engaged in their work and helping them be well at their work,” Mastalerz explains.
This applies to all levels of leadership, from executives to middle managers. “Giving respect and listening to other people’s voices and showing them respect for the skill set they have was important,” Mastalerz adds.
REFERENCE
- Jordan SR, Connors SC, Mastalerz KA. Frontline healthcare workers’ perspectives on interprofessional teamwork during COVID-19. J Interprof Educ Pract 2022 Dec;29:100550. doi: 10.1016/j.xjep.2022.100550. Epub 2022 Sep 12.
When researchers studied how COVID-19 surges affected teamwork, they found something essential and seemingly innocuous: Frontline staff, including care coordinators, wanted face time with their leaders.
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