Cultivating Strengths-Based Leadership Capabilities: The Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership Capabilities Framework.

As we recover from the global pandemic, leadership is essential to help stabilize workforces, inspire nurses and re-construct health systems to enable nurses to provide humanistic care. This paper outlines a philosophy and value-driven leadership approach with its associated leadership capabilities framework. The Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare (SBNH) Leadership (SBNH-L) Capabilities Framework is designed to help leaders translate SBNH-L values into action. We outline steps to enable a leader to embody an SBNH leadership style and discuss how the SBNH-L Capabilities Framework can facilitate this process.

Implementing Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership Values to Promote Equitable, Diverse and Inclusive Workplaces: A Guide for Healthcare Leaders.

Inequities in healthcare persist despite equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) being embedded in the nursing code of ethics (CNA 2017). Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership (SBNH-L) is "a unique, value-driven, embodied approach that guides leaders and managers to create equitable and safe workplace cultures and environments that honour, develop, mobilize and capitalize on the strengths of individuals and their team" (Gottlieb et al. 2021a: 173) that can be used as a framework to promote EDI in the workplace. Herein, we present concrete suggestions for focusing on EDI through an SBNH-L lens in order to improve healthcare environments for practitioners.

A Commentary on Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare (SBNH) and SBNH Leadership.

The global social upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic coincided with the peak of the last wave of the baby boom generation moving into their sixties, quickly wreaking havoc among workforces and economies around the world. Canada's health system was no exception, and as demands for care far exceeded the capacity to deliver it, chaos, a frenetic pace and fear permeated every corner of healthcare within weeks.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of a Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership program aimed at building leadership capacity: A concurrent mixed-methods study.

Background: Targeted interventions have been found effective for developing leadership practices in nurses. However, to date, no leadership training program based on the Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership approach exists. Objectives: Demonstrate the effectiveness of a Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership 6-month program designed for nurse and healthcare leaders on leadership capacity and psychological outcomes. Design: Concurrent mixed-methods with nurse and healthcare leaders from five healthcare organisations in Quebec and Ontario (Canada). Settings: Participants were recruited from five Canadian health care organizations: two in Toronto (Ontario) and three in Montreal (Quebec). Participants: A total of 50 nurse leaders and healthcare leaders were included in the quantitative component, and 22 (20 nurse leaders and two healthcare leaders) participated in the qualitative individual interviews. Methods: Quantitative and qualitative (interviews) methods were used. Quantitative data (pre-post surveys) were collected from the participants before their participation in the program (Time 0), as well as after the completion of the program (Time 1). Qualitative data (individual interviews) were collected from participants at the end of the program (Time 1). Analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics, paired-sample t-tests, and thematic analysis. Results: Quantitative results suggest a significant improvement in terms of leadership capabilities, work satisfaction, and reduction in perceived stress among participants. Three themes emerged from the qualitative data analysis: 1) focus on people's strengths, 2) structure and language based on Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare values, and 3) building support networks. Conclusions: The Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership program developed to build the leadership capabilities of nurse and healthcare leaders was found to be effective. The positive impact of the 6-month program was demonstrated. It was also shown that the leadership program can help improve the leadership competencies, well-being, and work satisfaction of participating nurses and healthcare leaders. Implication: This study reinforces the importance of working with educational, research, and healthcare organizations to establish leadership development programs and mentorship opportunities. Future leadership training should use a Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership lens when tackling leadership and stress in the workplace.

Nursing leaders' perceptions of the impact of the Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership program three months post training.

Background: Development of nursing leadership is necessary to ensure that nurse leaders of the future are well-equipped to tackle the challenges of a burdened healthcare system. In this context, the Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership program was delivered to 121 participants from 5 organizations in Canada in 2021 and 2022. To date, no study used a qualitative approach to explore nursing leaders' perceptions of a leadership Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership program three months post training. Objective: To describe nursing leaders' perceptions of the impact of the Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership program three months post training. Methods: Qualitative descriptive design was used with individual semi-structured interviews. A convenient sample of nurse leaders (n = 20) who had participated in the leadership program were recruited for an individual interview three months post training. The data generated by interviews were analyzed using a method of thematic content analysis. Results: Three themes emerged from the qualitative data analysis related to the leadership program that stayed with participants three months post training: 1) mentorship: a lasting relationship, 2) human connections through Story-sharing, and 3) focus on strengths. Two other themes emerged related to the changes that they have made since attending the program: 1) seeking out different perspectives to work better as a team and 2) create a positive work environment and to show appreciation for their staff. Conclusion: The present study offers evidence of the impact of the Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership program three months post training. Implication: This study reinforces the importance of training using a Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership lens when tackling leadership.

Story-Sharing Facilitation Guide: An Educational Strategy to Develop Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leaders.

BACKGROUND: A reflective praxis process has been developed to facilitate story-sharing, an educational strategy grounded in narrative pedagogy. METHOD: This article describes this strategy, the Story-Sharing Facilitation Guide (SSFG). The guide allows educators to facilitate the telling of a story that often triggers a memory of similar or contrasting experiences. Sharing stories helps learners find personal and professional meaning, develop new insights, and revise actions. The SSFG is underpinned by Dreyfus and Taylor's Contact Theory of how human beings learn and come to know and understand their different life-worlds. RESULTS: The SSFG was developed and used by faculty in a leadership training program. Evaluation results of the program found this to be an effective educational method. CONCLUSION: The guide provides educators with an intentional process of reflection that deepens learning and allows for labeling the experience and linking it with the concepts being taught. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(X):XXX-XXX.].

Facilitated engagement approach: A novel approach to guide mentor conversations.

BACKGROUND: Mentorship has been recognized as a strategy to develop leadership competencies in clinical leaders and has been integrated into leadership programs. However, there are few published frameworks to guide mentor conversations with mentees training to assume nursing leadership roles. OBJECTIVE: This study explores mentors' perceptions of 6-month mentorship, a component of the Strengths-Based Nursing Leadership program, the effectiveness of the Facilitated Engagement Approach, a pedagogical strategy developed to facilitate conversation between the mentor and mentee, and the impact of mentorship on leadership practice of mentees. METHODS: A mixed method qualitative and quantitative approach was used with semi-structured interviews and bi-weekly survey among mentors. Data were thematically analyzed. RESULTS: Mentors described the use of the Facilitated Engagement Approach to guide their mentorship conversations and found it to be effective in mentoring program participants. Mentors described techniques used and the process of deepening a reflective mentorship conversation. The Spiraling Process (58 %) and the Story Sharing Process (74 %) were integral aspects of the Facilitated Engagement Approach used. Mentorship was found to be impactful in that mentors reported a change in their mentee. CONCLUSIONS: The Facilitated Engagement Approach was an effective tool for mentees and mentors to develop leadership capacities.

Influencing Work Culture: A Strengths-Based Nursing Leadership and Management Education Program.

Little is understood about developing the capacity of healthcare leaders to influence work cultures that promote health and healing. A program designed for clinical leaders to teach them how to create Strengths-Based care environments was piloted and evaluated using mixed methods. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 15 participants from two clinical sites. Evaluation of the data revealed that the program was impactful and that participants had the impetus to influence work environments by shifting their discourse from traditional deficit models of care toward an approach that illuminates a focus on strengths and relational ways of being a leader.

Creating Empowering Conditions for Nurses with Workplace Autonomy and Agency: How Healthcare Leaders Could Be Guided by Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership (SBNH-L).

The COVID-19 pandemic had the unintended consequence of placing nurses in the spotlight because their knowledge and skills were in desperate need. While it will be years until we fully understand the impact that this pandemic has exacted on the nursing workforce, early studies have found that nurses have been traumatized by this event and many intend to leave the profession This seismic event only further exacerbated an already vulnerable and strained nursing workforce that pre-existed worldwide prior to COVID-19. The pandemic also highlighted the many challenges facing nursing leadership, in particular, how to create conditions to maintain and sustain a healthy nursing workforce. Nurses' job satisfaction has emerged as an important predictor of whether nurses remain in an organization and stay in the profession. When examined more closely, job satisfaction has been related to nurses feeling empowered to exercise autonomy over their own practice and having agency. Autonomy and agency, in turn, are affected by their managers' leadership styles. Leaders are instrumental in setting the tone and creating the climate and culture that either values or devalues autonomy and agency. To help leaders create empowering conditions, we have developed a guide for leaders. This guide, based on the value-driven philosophy of leadership called Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership (SBNH-L), is founded on principles of person-centered, empowerment, relationship-focused, and innate capacities (ie, strengths) that are operationalized in eight core values. This guide can be used by leaders as their roadmap to create empowering workplace conditions that value and facilitate nurses' autonomy and agency.

Strengths-Based Nursing: A Process for Implementing a Philosophy Into Practice.

Strengths-Based Nursing (SBN) is both a philosophy and value-driven approach that can guide clinicians, educators, manager/leaders, and researchers. SBN is rooted in principles of person/family centered care, empowerment, relational care, and innate health and healing. SBN is family nursing yet not all family nursing models are strengths-based. The challenge is how to translate a philosophy to change practice. In this article, we describe a process of implementation that has organically evolved of a multi-layered and multi-pronged approach that involves patients and families, clinicians, educators, leaders, managers, and researchers as well as key stakeholders including union leaders, opinion leaders, and policy makers from both nursing and other disciplines. There are two phases to the implementation process, namely, Phase 1: pre-commitment/pre-adoption and Phase 2: adoption. Each phase consists of distinct steps with accompanying strategies. These phases occur both sequentially and concurrently. Facilitating factors that enable the implementation process include values which align, readiness to accept SBN, curiosity-courage-commitment on the part of early adopters, a critical mass of early adopters, and making SBN approach both relevant and context specific.

Strengths-based nursing.

Strengths-based nursing (SBN) is an approach to care in which eight core values guide nursing action, thereby promoting empowerment, self-efficacy, and hope. In caring for patients and families, the nurse focuses on their inner and outer strengths-that is, on what patients and families do that best helps them deal with problems and minimize deficits. Across all levels of care, from the primary care of healthy patients to the critical care of patients who are unconscious, SBN reaffirms nursing's goals of promoting health, facilitating healing, and alleviating suffering by creating environments that work with and bolster patients' capacities for health and innate mechanisms of healing. In doing so, SBN complements medical care, provides a language that communicates nursing's contribution to patient and family health and healing, and empowers the patient and family to gain greater control over their health and healing.

Principles of strengths-based nursing leadership for strengths-based nursing care: a new paradigm for nursing and healthcare for the 21st century.

The current healthcare system is slowly evolving into a new system built on a vision of health promotion, primary care and community-based home care, with hospitals still being a core pillar of the healthcare system but not its primary service. This transformation requires a new approach to practice, namely, Strengths-Based Nursing Care (SBC). SBC is about mobilizing, capitalizing and developing a person's strengths to promote health and facilitate healing. For nurses to practise SBNC requires strong nursing leadership that creates conditions to enable them to do so. Strengths-Based Nursing Leadership complements and acts in synergy with, SBNC. This paper describes eight principles of Strengths-Based Nursing Leadership to support SBNC.

Predictors of the duration of exclusive breastfeeding among first-time mothers.

Few women currently meet revised WHO recommendations to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months postpartum. In this prospective study we aimed to determine the influence of socio-demographic, psychosocial, and perinatal factors on the length of exclusive breastfeeding among 189 Canadian primiparous mothers. A majority of the participants did not meet their exclusive breastfeeding goals, and only 5% breastfed exclusively for a full 6 months. Breastfeeding self-efficacy, in-hospital formula supplementation, prenatal class attendance, and type of delivery independently predicted exclusive breastfeeding duration. Findings underscore the complex interplay of factors influencing breastfeeding, highlight the early postpartum weeks as a critical period for the establishment of exclusive breastfeeding, and suggest the need for a continuum of pre- and postnatal strategies for prolonging the exclusive breastfeeding period.