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Bibi Hølge-Hazelton,1,2 Line Zacho Borre,1 Mette Kjerholt,3 Brendan McCormack,1,2,4 Elizabeth Rosted2,5 1Zealand University Hospital, Research Support Unit, Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde, Denmark; 2University of Southern Denmark, Department of Regional Health Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense C, Denmark; 3Department of Hematology, Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde, Denmark; 4Centre for Person-Centred Practice Research, Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, Musselburgh, East Lothian, EH21 6UU, UK; 5Department of Oncology and Palliative Care, Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde, DenmarkCorrespondence: Bibi Hølge-HazeltonZealand University Hospital, Research Support Unit, Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde, DenmarkTel +45 27124286Email bibh@regionsjaelland.dkPurpose: To identify the differences in experiences during wave I and II of the COVID-19 pandemic among healthcare leaders.Background: It is expected, that working conditions for COVID-19-pandemic frontline staff will change, as health care organizations have gained experience with handling the consequences of the disease.Methods: An online survey was sent out to Danish health care leaders during the first and the second pandemic wave. Comparative analyses were performed in relation to three key characteristics: management level, management education and experiences as a leader.Results: Eighty-nine health care leaders completed both surveys. Significant differences were found within the entire group across the key characteristics as they felt more prepared for each stage of the situation, they had more influence on the decisions taken, and they felt more concerned about the quality of treatment and care and their own health. Further significant results related to the three key characteristics were found at 1) Management level: The heads of department experienced being better informed, having more overview of their tasks and that these were meaningful. The ward managers experienced being more able to work in consistency with own beliefs and values, though they felt more overloaded. 2) Level of management education: Leaders, without a formal management education, experienced being more supported by staff. 3) Years of experiences as leader: Leaders with more than five years of experience, experienced being more prepared and informed, had more influence on decision-making, and were more worried about their own health.Conclusion: The learning from experience that happens naturally in crisis situations is the reason why the leaders feel more prepared. However, there is a need for further leadership and practice development, to create contexts where leaders feel more ready for all aspects of their role.Keywords: follow-up, clinical leadership, management, communication, online survey

Bibi Hølge-Hazelton,1,2 Mette Kjerholt,3 Elizabeth Rosted,2,4 Stine Thestrup Hansen,5 Line Zacho Borre,1 Brendan McCormack6 1Research Support Unit, Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde 4000, Denmark; 2Department of Regional Health Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense C 5000, Denmark; 3Department of Hematology, Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde 4000, Denmark; 4Department of Oncology and Palliative Care, Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde 4000, Denmark; 5Department of Plastic Surgery and Breast Surgery, Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde 4000, Denmark; 6Centre for Person-Centred Practice Research, Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, Musselburgh, East Lothian EH21 6UU, UKCorrespondence: Bibi Hølge-HazeltonZealand University Hospital, Research Support Unit, Munkesøvej 14, Roskilde 4000, DenmarkTel +45 27124286Email bibh@regionsjaelland.dkPurpose: The aim was to identify the differences in experiences of Danish healthcare leaders in the beginnning of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and to generate knowledge for future leadership during and post crises.Background: The global spread of COVID-19 has affected healthcare systems worldwide and has forced healthcare leaders to face challenges few were prepared for. It is expected that the pandemic may hit in several waves within the next year and therefore healthcare leaders must be prepared for these waves.Methods: An online survey was developed, and comparative analyses were performed.Results: One hundred and sixty hospital leaders were invited, and 72% completed the questionnaire. Significant differences were found within three selected characteristics: 1) Management level: significantly more heads of departments experienced taking complex decisions (P=0.05), being able to work in a way consistent with their beliefs and values (P=0.05), and they were less likely to experience that collaboration with other leaders was adversely affected by the COVID-19 situation compared to ward managers (P=0.04). On the other hand, ward managers were significantly more often worried about both their own health (P=0.01) and their family’s health (P=0.04). 2) Management education: those with a formal management education more often experienced having the managerial competences to effectively manage the COVID-19 situation (P=0.00), and performing meaningful tasks during the situation (P=0.04). 3) Years of experience: significantly more leaders with more than five years of experience identified having the managerial competences to effectively manage the situation (P=0.01).Conclusion: Leadership support during a healthcare crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic should strategically focus on ward managers, leaders with no formal management education and leaders with less than two years of experience. Hospital leaders may use this knowledge to re-contextualize what is already known about targeted leadership support during healthcare crises and to act accordingly.Keywords: assessment, clinical leadership, management, communication

Solange Mianda, Anna S Voce Discipline of Public Health Medicine, School of Nursing and Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa Background: In South Africa, inadequately skilled health care providers and poor clinical leadership are continually linked to preventable perinatal and maternal mortality, which calls for improved clinical skills among health care providers and for strong clinical leadership at the bedside. Very little has been done to ensure clinical leadership at the bedside in the labor ward of district hospitals. One strategy implemented has been the appointment of District Clinical Specialist Teams, introduced to improve the quality of maternal and child health care in district hospitals and clinics through the provision of clinical leadership as an outreach activity. However, the strengthening of clinical leadership at the bedside remains neglected. Further, clinical leadership in the literature is not conceptualized in the same way across settings.Aim: To explore midwife conceptualizations of clinical leadership in the labor ward of district hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal.Methods: Iterative data collection and analysis, following the Corbin and Strauss grounded theory approach, was implemented. In-depth interviews were carried out with the midwifery members of the District Clinical Specialist Teams in KwaZulu-Natal. The emergent theoretical framing of clinical leadership was presented and discussed at a workshop with broader midwifery representation, leading to a final proposition of the conceptualization of clinical leadership among midwives.Results: The emergent conceptualization of clinical leadership comprised five major dimensions: the definition of clinical leadership, the context in which clinical leadership takes place, the conditions related to clinical leadership, the actions and interactions involved in clinical leadership, and the effects of clinical leadership.Conclusion: Clinical leadership is an emergent phenomenon arising from dynamic interactions in the labor ward and the broader health system, which converge to attain optimal patient care. Clinical leadership is not being understood from a traditional hierarchical perspective, as vested only in a positional leader. Keywords: bedside care, clinical leadership, frontline health workers, midwives, grounded theory, leadership, qualitative research, patient outcomes

Solange Mianda, Anna S Voce Department of Public Health Medicine, School of Nursing and Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa Introduction: Poor patient outcomes in South African maternal health settings have been associated with inadequately performing health care providers and poor clinical leadership at the point of care. While skill deficiencies among health care providers have been largely addressed, the provision of clinical leadership has been neglected. In order to develop and implement initiatives to ensure clinical leadership among frontline health care providers, a need was identified to understand the ways in which clinical leadership is conceptualized in the literature.Design: Using the systematic quantitative literature review, papers published between 2004 and 2016 were obtained from search engines (Google Scholar and EBSCOhost). Electronic databases (CINHAL, PubMed, Medline, Academic Search Complete, Health Source: Consumer, Health Source: Nursing/Academic, ScienceDirect and Ovid®) and electronic journals (Contemporary Nurse, Journal of Research in Nursing, Australian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery, International Journal of Clinical Leadership) were also searched.Results: Using preselected inclusion criteria, 7256 citations were identified. After screening 230 potentially relevant full-text papers for eligibility, 222 papers were excluded because they explored health care leadership or clinical leadership among health care providers other than frontline health care providers. Eight papers met the inclusion criteria for the review. Most studies were conducted in high-income settings. Conceptualizations of clinical leadership share similarities with the conceptualizations of service leadership but differ in focus, with the intent of improving direct patient care. Clinical leadership can be a shared responsibility, performed by every competent frontline health care provider, regardless of the position in the health care system.Conclusion: Conceptualizations of clinical leadership among frontline health care providers arise mainly from high-income settings. Understanding the influence of context on conceptualizations of clinical leadership in middle- and low-income settings may be required. Keywords: clinical leadership, conceptualizations, frontline health care providers

Robert McSherry,1 Paddy Pearce2 1School of Health and Social Care, University of Teesside, Middlesbrough, 2PKP Consulting, Yarm, United Kingdom Abstract: The presence and/or absence of effective leaders in health care can have a stark consequence on the quality and outcomes of care. The delivery of safe, quality, compassionate health care is dependent on having effective clinical leaders at the frontline. In light of the Kirkup and Francis reports, this article explores some ways of translating clinical leadership into health care quality improvement. This is achieved by exploring what is clinical leadership and why and how this is important to health care quality improvement, clinical leadership, and a duty of candor, along with the importance clinical leadership plays in the provision of quality care improvement and outcomes. Clinical leaders are not predefined roles but emerge from the complex clinical setting by gaining an acquired expertise and from how they then internalize this to develop and facilitate sound relationships within a team. Clinical leaders are effective in facilitating innovation and change through improvement. This is achieved by recognizing, influencing, and empowering individuals through effective communication in order to share and learn from and with each other in practice. The challenge for health care organizations in regard to creating organizational cultures where a duty of candor exists is not to reinvent the wheel by turning something that is simple into something complex, which can become confusing to health care workers, patients, and the public. By focusing on the clinical leader's role and responsibilities we would argue they play a crucial and pivotal role in influencing, facilitating, supporting, and monitoring that this duty of candor happens in practice. This may be possible by highlighting where and how the duty of candor can be aligned within existing clinical governance frameworks. Keywords: governance, candor, safety, outcomes

Background: Oral diseases, particularly dental caries, remain one of the most common chronic health problems for adolescents, and are a major public health concern. Public dental services in New South Wales, Australia offer free clinical care and preventive advice to all adolescents under 18 years of age, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. This care is provided by dental therapists and oral health therapists (therapists). It is incumbent upon clinical directors (CDs) and health service managers (HSMs) to ensure that the appropriate clinical preventive care is offered by clinicians to all their patients. The aims of this study were to 1) explore CDs' and HSMs' perceptions of the factors that could support the delivery of preventive care to adolescents, and to 2) record the strategies they have utilized to help therapists provide preventive care to adolescents. Subjects and methods: In-depth, semistructured interviews were undertaken with 19 CDs and HSMs from across NSW local health districts. A framework matrix was used to systematically code data and enable key themes to be identified for analysis. Results: The 19 CDs and HSMs reported that fiscal accountability and meeting performance targets impacted on the levels and types of preventive care provided by therapists. Participants suggested that professional clinical structures for continuous quality improvement should be implemented and monitored, and that an adequate workforce mix and more resources for preventive dental care activities would enhance therapists' ability to provide appropriate levels of preventive care. CDs and HSMs stated that capitalizing on the strengths of visiting pediatric dental specialists and working with local health district clinical leaders would be a practical way to improve models of preventive oral health care for adolescents. Conclusion: The main issue raised in this study is that preventive dentistry per se lacks strong support from the central funding agency, and that increasing prevention activities is not a simple task of changing regulations or increasing professional education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many areas of the developed world, contemporary hospital care is confronted by workforce challenges, changing consumer expectations and demands, fiscal constraints, increasing demands for access to care, a mandate to improve patient centered care, and issues concerned with levels of quality and safety of health care. Effective governance is crucial to efforts to maximize effective management of care in the hospital setting. Emerging from this complex literature is the role of leadership in the clinical setting. The importance of effective clinical leadership in ensuring a high quality health care system that consistently provides safe and efficient care has been reiterated in the scholarly literature and in various government reports. Recent inquiries, commissions, and reports have promoted clinician engagement and clinical leadership as critical to achieving and sustaining improvements to care quality and patient safety. In this discursive paper, we discuss clinical leadership in health care, consider published definitions of clinical leadership, synthesize the literature to describe the characteristics, qualities, or attributes required to be an effective clinical leader, consider clinical leadership in relation to hospital care, and discuss the facilitators and barriers to effective clinical leadership in the hospital sector. Despite the widespread recognition of the importance of effective clinical leadership to patient outcomes, there are some quite considerable barriers to participation in clinical leadership. Future strategies should aim to address these barriers so as to enhance the quality of clinical leadership in hospital care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, elevated roles for nurses of care coordinator, clinical nurse leader, and advanced practice registered nurse have come to the forefront. Because change occurs so fast, matching development and education to job requirements is a challenging forecasting endeavor. The purpose of this article is to envision clinical leadership development and education opportunities for three emerging roles. The adoption of a common framework for intentional leadership development is proposed for clinical leadership development across the continuum of care. Solutions of innovation and interdependency are framed as core concepts that serve as an opportunity to better inform clinical leadership development and education. Additionally, strategies are proposed to advance knowledge, skills, and abilities for crucial implementation of improvements and new solutions at the point of care., Competing Interests: Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.