Pandemic Priorities: The Impact of COVID 19 Pandemic on Ethical Leadership in the Healthcare Profession

ABSTRACT

Leadership priorities within The healthcare setting have been brought into sharp focus by The COVID 19 pandemic, coinciding with The Black Lives Matter movement, Me Too movement, PpE shortages and staffing crises. Appropriately championing The rights of such staff is imperative. The pandemic necessitates a period of rigorous self-analysis, recognising past failures, oversights and discriminations. Utilising a modified ethical leadership questionnaire, comparing pre-and post-pandemic views of healthcare leaders on their own ethical leadership values, this study demonstrates a novel Research into The effects of The pandemic on this topic. Our study has found significant changes in attitudes of healthcare leaders with regards to The ethics of justice;fewer leaders were likely to hold formal investigations and more leaders would follow unwritten rules relating to an ethical dilemma. They also would pay more attention to individuals. In addition, in terms of critique, leaders were more likely post-pandemic to speak out against injustice and unfair practices although whether this is due to The pandemic solely, or social movements such as Black Lives Matter and Me Too is yet unknown.