Professional Governance in a Time of Crisis

Abstract

The global COVID-19 health crisis has significantly altered the structures and processes of healthcare in innumerable unanticipated ways. No profession has been more impacted or challenged than nursing. In many settings, nursing professional governance has been abandoned or neglected. The impact of this trend is outlined in this article. The authors suggest to nurse leaders that nursing professional governance can be an invaluable mechanism for nursing engagement in the midst of managing a crisis.

Preparing ward nurses for intensive care units during a state of emergency: an example from COVID-19 pandemic

“…Tang et al ’s3 study revealed the severity of the pandemic conditions and the disproportionate impact on the nursing profession 6. The sudden and unexpected deployment of nurses to a role that they did not feel ready for places nurses under stress and has potential to impact patient care and safety.…”

“…Although effective vaccines are now available, it is clear that staffing plans in relation to extreme patient load at ICUs for similar mass disaster conditions should be developed. Unfortunately, while nurses should be included in the decision-making processes in a transparent manner, the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led to the suspension of usual professional governance process in most cases 3 6. This approach caused an increase in the psychological pressure on nurses and the emergence of feelings of anxiety and fear.…”

A foundation of trust

“…Postpandemic surveys about nurses' experiences that contributed to a loss of trust consistently revealed that there was a generalized sense of loss of engagement; investment; physical, emotional, and psychological support; and effective leadership. 1 For leaders, correcting deficiencies in resource use, staffing, shift schedules, and workload, although critically important, bypass these driving sources. Leadership strategies to recalibrate a sense of trust center the expressed perceptions, insights, and feelings about these system failures that drove staff mistrust.…”

Nursing leadership from crisis to postpandemic

“…In a healthy work environment, there is both good communication and constructive collaboration, with all professionals involved enabled to contribute to effective decision making. This can be regarded as professional governance (Kanninen et al, 2021; Porter‐O'Grady & Pappas, 2022), which can come close to professional autonomy. During times of crisis, leaders may have to make decisions without the time to listen to their staff, and nurses have to respond directly to doctors' instructions during the course of frontline patient care.…”

“…Strong relationships are therefore central to cocreating the future environment of nursing practice (Feistritzer et al, 2022). Specifically, nurse leaders need to focus on good communication, teamwork and professional governance (Porter‐O'Grady & Pappas, 2022). Visibility and listening are key to communication, being and discussing with nursing staff in different spontaneous and organized meetings gives important information what is working well and eliminates rumours and misunderstandings.…”