Guidance for Health Care Leaders During the Recovery Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Consensus Statement.

Importance: The COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest global test of health leadership of our generation. There is an urgent need to provide guidance for leaders at all levels during the unprecedented preresolution recovery stage. Objective: To create an evidence- and expertise-informed framework of leadership imperatives to serve as a resource to guide health and public health leaders during the postemergency stage of the pandemic. Evidence Review: A literature search in PubMed, MEDLINE, and Embase revealed 10 910 articles published between 2000 and 2021 that included the terms leadership and variations of emergency, crisis, disaster, pandemic, COVID-19, or public health. Using the Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence reporting guideline for consensus statement development, this assessment adopted a 6-round modified Delphi approach involving 32 expert coauthors from 17 countries who participated in creating and validating a framework outlining essential leadership imperatives. Findings: The 10 imperatives in the framework are: (1) acknowledge staff and celebrate successes; (2) provide support for staff well-being; (3) develop a clear understanding of the current local and global context, along with informed projections; (4) prepare for future emergencies (personnel, resources, protocols, contingency plans, coalitions, and training); (5) reassess priorities explicitly and regularly and provide purpose, meaning, and direction; (6) maximize team, organizational, and system performance and discuss enhancements; (7) manage the backlog of paused services and consider improvements while avoiding burnout and moral distress; (8) sustain learning, innovations, and collaborations, and imagine future possibilities; (9) provide regular communication and engender trust; and (10) in consultation with public health and fellow leaders, provide safety information and recommendations to government, other organizations, staff, and the community to improve equitable and integrated care and emergency preparedness systemwide. Conclusions and Relevance: Leaders who most effectively implement these imperatives are ideally positioned to address urgent needs and inequalities in health systems and to cocreate with their organizations a future that best serves stakeholders and communities.

Exploring the concept of leadership from the perspective of physical therapists in Canada.

PURPOSE: To explore the concept of leadership from the perspective of physical therapists in Canada. METHODS: A quantitative, cross-sectional nationwide study was performed using a Web-based survey distributed to all members of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association (CPA) with a registered e-mail address (n=6,156). Frequency distributions and percentages were obtained for all leadership characteristics, and chi-square tests were performed, with significance set at p<0.05. RESULTS: A total of 1,875 members responded, for a 30% response rate. Communication, professionalism, and credibility were rated as extremely important leadership characteristics by the majority of respondents across all three settings (workplace, health care system, and society); practising in the private sector contributed significantly to the perceived importance of business acumen (p<0.001). Overall, 79.6% of respondents self-declared as leaders; male gender, primary work facility in private practice or educational institution, and supervision of students were factors associated with self-declaration as a leader. CONCLUSIONS: The top three characteristics that physical therapists perceive as important differ from those reported among other health care professions. Further research is required to understand whether the presence of multiple health care professionals in an acute-care setting facilitates leadership opportunities or whether physical therapists feel overshadowed. Future studies should also investigate whether individuals practising outside the private sector recognize the business aspects of their workplace.

Objectif : Explorer le concept de leadership du point de vue des physiothérapeutes au Canada. Méthode : Une étude quantitative transversale nationale a été réalisée à l'aide d'un sondage par Internet distribué à tous les membres de l'Association canadienne de physiothérapie (ACP) qui possèdent une adresse de courriel inscrite à l'Association (n=6156). La répartition de la fréquence et les pourcentages ont été obtenus pour toutes les caractéristiques de leadership de l'étude, et des tests du Khi-carré ont été réalisés avec un seuil de signification fixé à <0,5. Résultats : Au total, 1875 membres ont répondu, soit un taux de réponse de 30 %. La communication, le professionnalisme et la crédibilité ont été classés comme des caractéristiques de leadership extrêmement importantes dans tous les milieux (lieu de travail, système de santé et société en général); la pratique dans le secteur privé a grandement contribué à l'importance perçue du concept de « sens des affaires ¼ (p<0,001). Dans l'ensemble, 79,6 % des répondants ont dit se considérer comme des dirigeants (leaders). Les facteurs suivants ont été associés à cette déclaration : le fait d'être de sexe masculin, de travailler principalement en pratique privée ou dans un établissement d'enseignement et d'exercer un travail de supervision auprès d'étudiants. Conclusions : Les trois premières caractéristiques perçues par les physiothérapeutes comme étant importantes diffèrent de celles dont on fait état dans d'autres professions du milieu de la santé. D'autres recherches seront nécessaires pour comprendre si la présence de plusieurs professionnels de la santé dans des établissements de soins de courte durée facilite les possibilités de leadership ou si les physiothérapeutes sentent que les autres professionnels leur portent ombrage. D'autres études devraient aussi tenter de déterminer si les physiothérapeutes qui pratiquent ailleurs que dans le secteur privé sont conscients du côté plus entrepreneurial de leur milieu de travail.