Visibility and Gratitude - Emerging Nurse Leader

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

It is Christmas week and things are not good in many hospitals in our country right now. Staff is exhausted and overwhelmed with the surge of COVID patients. At the same time, many of the public continue to believe that the virus is either no more serious than the flu or a hoax. I recently had a nurse manager ask me what she should do now when things seem so out of control. I advised her that the two most important things that leaders can do in a crisis are to be visible and express gratitude to the staff for their work.

Many nurse leaders are telling me that they still spent hours in planning meetings each week. While planning is essential, leadership visibility during crisis times is important to reduce rumors and communicate what is known. Without information, the staff fills the vacuum with stories and half-truths. Nurse leaders need to be visibly present in their units to support their teams. Ask the staff how they are doing and what you can do to help them right now. During times like this, nurse leaders must think about their staff’s health and well-being as they ask them to work overtime or make decisions about the use and provision of protective equipment. When nurses are fatigued, it can impact their immune system making them more likely to contract the virus. Nurse leaders need to be the guardians of the health of the staff. You will only know how your staff is doing if you pay attention to what is happening.

A second key thing that leaders can do is to look for multiple ways to express gratitude to the staff for the sacrifices that they are making. Many nurses will not be spending either Christmas or New Years’ with friends or family members. What is ordinarily a festive time with lower patient volumes is not what will be experienced this year. There is little time for celebration right now, and the staff will grieve the loss of that. One manager recently told me that she took the time to write Christmas cards with personal notes to each of her 100+ staff mailed to their homes. I wanted them to know that I know how hard they are working and deeply appreciate what they are doing for our unit.

We often learn the most about ourselves and our leadership during a time of crisis. While we know that this too will pass, how we lead during the next few weeks and months in this high-stakes situation is critically important for our nursing workforce.

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