Human-centered leadership (HCL) is a new model in nursing leadership that focuses on the fulfillment and effectiveness of leadership and keeps humans at the forefront of decision-making. In healthcare, that means nurse leaders, when making daily decisions, are keeping their staff's wellbeing and patients' wellbeing at the center.
With rising health disparities and inequalities, staffing and resource shortages, and safety concerns burdening staff, it is imperative that nurse leaders adapt their mindset and leave the traditional and common business-focused mindset behind, instead of a human-first centered approach.
It's time to analyze the attributes of effective nurse leaders who can approach their work focusing on their staff's wellbeing and individual successes, while achieving the best patient outcomes, meeting operational and metric needs, and fostering a healthy work environment.
A Philosophy That Puts People First
"Just put your people first. When people feel valued and cared for, they do their work with strong motivation, a deep sense of meaning, and great engagement." - Rasmus Hougaard.
With HCL, nurse leaders and healthcare organizations begin to realize that change begins with people, starting with leadership, who empower staff, and the primary goal is to provide the best care to patients. As explained in Human-Centered Leadership in Health Care: An Idea Thats Time Has Come, the HCL model is embedded in the organization, rather than positioned above it, and recognizes the expertise and value of those who serve at the point of care.
It all starts with leadership caring about humans, human growth, and human health. HCL has the mindset of it starts with me, but ultimately, it's not about me. Finding the best leadership approach for nurses specifically is vital because nurse leaders have a unique balancing position between metrics and caring for patients, as well as those providing the care for patients.
If leaders focused first on the well-being of their staff, would the staff feel better equipped and supported to work through complex nursing care situations and provide consistent, great care to patients?
A Look Back: From Traditional to Transformational Leadership
For a quick history lesson on various nurse leadership approaches leading to the development of HCL, it all begins with the Traditional leadership method. Nurse leadership was built on a business-minded approach since that was the known template to follow. Traditional leadership typically follows a top-down approach, with leadership being at the top, with goals being set by the top, followed by the rest.
Traditional leadership is also generally authoritative and transactional, with little input from those not in the top tier. Traditional leadership poses various problems in nursing due to the rigidity, inability to change or hear changes from others, and the lack of empowerment for nurses. From there, in the late 1970s, Transformational leadership started to gain traction in nursing.
Why Human-Centered Leadership Stands Apart
Transformational nurse leadership focuses on aligning nurses with organizational goals and metrics. Though Transformational leadership focuses on guiding the group in a similar goal-oriented direction, since the goals are based on accomplishing metrics, it leads to leadership stress, burnout, and turnover by trying to always "do-more" to improve metrics.
Some might wonder why nursing leadership is focused mainly on metrics when the essence of nursing is to care for human health and wellbeing, which leads us to the newest approach: Human-centered leadership.
A key difference in HCL is the belief that humans should be the focus. Human-centered leaders believe that work is only one part of life. HCL recognizes that the team is better off if team members are healthy and can take care of themselves and their lives first. HCL gives power back to nursing and reflects the overall essence of nursing,: caring for human health and wellbeing.
How HCL Encourages Collaborative Change
Another difference in HCL is how change occurs. Rather than leaders practicing a top-down approach, they practice an inward-outward approach. With HCL, change begins at the system's center and influences all other parts, without having one part that determines the change for the whole system.
An example of how this works is instead of high-level leaders deciding the values and mission statement for the organization, they take a poll or survey recommendations from the entire staff and collectively create values and a mission statement together. Outcomes happen due to a culture of excellence, trust, and the practice of caring about and for others. HCL promotes a healthy and safe work environment for nurses so they can provide the best care for patients.
HCL values the voices of nurses, empowering their ideas and innovation to create a shared vision for the organization. This type of leadership celebrates the individual nurse's contributions and success that lead to reaching goals of the individual and then, in return, the organization, rather than the organization's goals being the primary focus.
The Three Pillars of a Human-Centered Leader
There are three main attributes to the HCL leader: an Awakener, a Connector, andanUpholder.
The attributes of an Awakener leader are being a motivator, coach, and mentor. Awakener motivates individuals to be their best to maintain their vital role in the changing environment and add value to those impacted by their practice. Human-Centered Leadership in Health Care: An Idea Thats Time Has Come. When an individual nurse grows in their knowledge and skills, it grows the team's strengths and expertise.
A Connector is a collaborator, supporter, and nurturer. They unify groups through a shared mission, encourage personal ownership and problem-solving at the point of care of a patient, and build a community.
Lastly, an Upholder is supportive, respectful, kind, empathetic, and empowering. An Upholder practices self-care, self-awareness, and is self-reflective. By understanding their feelings, leaders who show Upholder tendencies can better understand and evaluate others.
Conclusion
To move the needle forward in a role as complex as a nurse leader, basing a nurse leadership style on anything other than nursing misses the mark. The essence of nursing is caring for and focusing on human life and wellbeing, not pushing harder to meet metrics.
A human-centered approach balances the essence of nursing, focuses on the well-being of the nurse and the patient, and creates a true shared vision, leading to a culture that naturally meets organizational human-centered needs and care.
About the Author:
Katelyn DeVarennes first received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from West Texas A&M University. She then received her Associate of Science in Nursing from Century College then her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Minnesota State University, Mankato. She knew her education in Biology and Nursing would lead her down a unique career path as she enjoys blending her Cardiac and ICU bedside skills with her passion for Nursing Informatics and Regulatory Accreditation. She believes sharing knowledge is powerful and loves engaging in meaningful conversations with healthcare workers across all disciplines and years of experience.
Katelyn is an independent contributor to CEUfast's Nursing Blog Program. Please note that the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this blog post are solely of the independent contributor and do not necessarily represent those of CEUfast. This blog post is not medical advice. Always consult with your healthcare provider for any health-related questions or concerns.
If you want to learn more about CEUfast's Nursing Blog Program or would like to submit a blog post for consideration, please visit https://ceufast.com/blog/submissions.
