When Staff Crave Normalcy - Emerging Nurse Leader

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

Not another variant – I just want this to be over. This is what nurses are telling their leaders this week. While leaders are cautiously optimistic that the Omicron variant will respond to the vaccine and will not be as deadly as the Delta variant, we do not yet know. Living in this state of change and ambiguity has become very challenging for healthcare staff. What initially looked like a sprint with COVID has turned into a very long marathon with no clear end in sight.

Gallup researchers survey employees around the world about the qualities they look for in their leaders. Stability has been one of the top four for over 30 years. Yet today, stability and normalcy are difficult in our turbulent environment. In most healthcare environments:

The staff is still wearing masks and PPE.
Social distancing rules are still in place.
Visitation is still restricted.
Meetings are still being held remotely.
Holiday parties are still being restricted.
Travel restrictions and live conference attendance rules have not changed.
Team rituals have not resumed.

So how can leaders promote normalcy in an environment that is anything but ordinary? The following are five things leaders can do today to encourage normalcy:

Don’t be a manufacturer of chaos – some leaders thrive in chaos and change, making things worse. Don’t be one of them. Often these leaders are masking insecurity. If everything is in a state of swirl, it is harder to be held accountable. They create chaos by failing to attend to what matters most during a crisis, including caring for their staff, being transparent in their communication, and focusing on quality and safe patient care. They have great ideas, no follow-through, and staff never know what is real and what is not. In these situations – it is the leader who is the drama king or queen.
Be transparent in your communication – IHI researchers recently recommended that leaders should be clear with staff that there is no clear playbook in COVID-19 “No one has ever gone through before what we are dealing with now – we need to get through this as a team.” This means that the evidence keeps changing, and so do policies and practices. We work from the best information that we have today.
Demonstrate normalcy in your behavior and routines – there is much that is not in a leader’s control today but how you show up, what you say, and how you behave is in your circle of influence. If the leader stays balanced and carries out their routines, such as leader rounding, the staff will feel safer.
Be much more Yoda and a lot less Superman – many nurses are experiencing issues in their personal lives that are incredibly challenging and beyond the help of the leader or even the organization. Recognize there will be things that you can’t fix – make peace with that and plan to be a good listener.
Don’t make any promises that you can’t directly control – you may be asked by staff about what will happen if Omicron is found not to be responsive to the vaccine. Staff wants a level of certainty around these issues that you can’t promise, so don’t. Reiterate that everyone is doing their best, but there are some unknown unknowns.

At this point, nurse leaders need to find the right balance of providing normalcy at the moment while giving followers hope and inspiration for the future. This is not easy and you are heroes for doing this work.

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