Leading wellness in healthcare: A qualitative study of leadership practices for wellness in hospital settings

Julaine Allan; Katarzyna Olcon; Ruth Everingham; Mim Fox; Padmini Pai; Maria Mackay; Lynne Keevers

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0285103

Leading wellness in healthcare: A qualitative study of leadership practices for wellness in hospital settings

PLoS One. 2023 Jul 19;18(7):e0285103. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285103. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Julaine Allan¹, Katarzyna Olcon², Ruth Everingham^{2

3}, Mim Fox², Padmini Pai³, Maria Mackay⁴, Lynne Keevers²

Affiliations

¹ Rural Health Research Institute, Charles Sturt University, Orange, New South Wales, Australia.
² School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
³ Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, Warrawong, New South Wales, Australia.
⁴ Graduate School of Medicine, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.

Abstract

Ways of dealing with workplace stress and enhancing healthcare workers wellness are sought globally. The aim of this study was to explore healthcare leaders' practice in relation to the implementation of a workplace wellness program called SEED in the context of multiple crises (bushfires and COVID-19) affecting a local health district in New South Wales, Australia. Practice theory informed interviews (n = 23), focus groups (n = 2) and co-analysis reflexive discussions (n = 2) that were conducted with thirteen leaders and twenty healthcare workers. A pragmatic approach to program implementation for healthcare workers' wellness explored the process and actions that resulted from leadership practice in an inductive thematic analysis. Preliminary themes were presented in the co-analysis sessions to ensure the lived experiences of the SEED program were reflected and co-interpretation of the data was included in the analysis. Three key themes were identified. 1) Leading change-implementing a wellness program required leaders to try something new and be determined to make change happen. 2) Permission for wellness-implicit and explicit permission from leaders to engage in wellness activities during worktime was required. 3) Role-modelling wellness-leaders viewed SEED as a way to demonstrate leadership in supporting and caring for healthcare workers. SEED provided a platform for leaders who participated to demonstrate their leadership practices in supporting wellness activities. Leadership practices are critical to the implementation of healthcare wellness programs. The implementation of SEED at a time of unprecedented crisis gave leaders and healthcare workers opportunities to experience something new including leadership that was courageous, responsive and authentic. The study highlighted the need for workplace wellness programs to intentionally include leaders rather than only expect them to implement them. The practices documented in this study provide guidance to others developing, implementing and researching workplace wellness programs.

Copyright: © 2023 Allan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
Delivery of Health Care
Health Personnel
Hospitals
Humans
Leadership

Grants and funding

JA, KO, PP, MF, MM and LK all received funding for this study from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Medical Research Future Fund - COVID-19 mental health research. Grant number APP2005659. https://www.health.gov.au/summary-of-mrff-grant-recipients The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.