Surviving a life‐threatening crisis: Taiwan’s nurse leaders’ reflections and difficulties fighting the SARS epidemic

Abstract

Nurse leaders become important executors of intervention in this health disaster, requiring emotional intelligence to manage their internal conflicts and interpersonal relationships effectively. They developed sociopolitical and analytical abilities and crucial requirements for planning and implementing strategies in areas where none previously existed. Building support systems was an important resource for managing conflicts between familial and professional roles. Relevance to clinical practice. Findings will assist nurse leaders to prepare themselves and the profession to better deal with disaster management in similar infectious outbreaks in the future.

Nurses’ preparedness for infectious disease outbreaks: A literature review and narrative synthesis of qualitative evidence

“…The events focused on were the SARS outbreak (Chung, Wong, Suen, & Chung, 2005;Liu & Liehr, 2009;Shih et al, 2007Shih et al, , 2009, the H1N1 pandemic (Lam & Hung, 2013), nonspecified emerging respiratory infectious disease outbreaks (Koh, Hegney, & Drury, 2012) and nonspecified epidemic events (O'Boyle, Robertson, & Secor-Turner, 2006). Two studies employed a two-step within-method qualitative triangulation design (Shih et al, 2007(Shih et al, , 2009; one study adopted a phenomenological approach ; one study used a descriptive exploratory method (Liu & Liehr, 2009); and three studies adopted a simple qualitative design (Koh et al, 2012;Lam & Hung, 2013;O'Boyle et al, 2006). Two studies employed a two-step within-method qualitative triangulation design (Shih et al, 2007(Shih et al, , 2009; one study adopted a phenomenological approach ; one study used a descriptive exploratory method (Liu & Liehr, 2009); and three studies adopted a simple qualitative design (Koh et al, 2012;Lam & Hung, 2013;O'Boyle et al, 2006).…”

“…Moreover, Chung et al (2005) Regarding the workplace resources that were associated with nurses' preparedness, the importance of a supportive relationship among coworkers in the work environment is noted in four of the selected studies Liu & Liehr, 2009;Shih et al, 2007Shih et al, , 2009). Chung et al (2005) identified that nurses were motivated by an atmosphere of "non-hierarchical team spirit" (p. 515) across multiple disciplines in the workplace, which resulted in a greater intention to respond to an epidemic event, as a high degree of collegiality would be generated in such conditions.…”

“…Moreover, most studies in the field of disaster preparedness have only focused on the organisational capacity during incident response, while far too little attention has been paid to the unique and expanded role of individual healthcare workers, especially frontline nurses, in controlling and mitigating prevailing outbreaks (Smith & Hewison, 2012). While some researches have been conducted on nurses' perceptions and experience of their roles in epidemic response (Lam & Hung, 2013;Shih et al, 2009), there is a lack of understanding of the underpinning components of nurses' preparedness in infectious disease outbreak management.…”

Crisis Leadership Efficacy of Nurse Practitioners

“…9,15 The research literature suggests that leaders who manage a crisis effectively tend to be emotionally intelligent. 16 They also have the innate ability to think globally and understand the interdependencies and patterns of different components of a larger structure or system. Last, they can synthesize information and communicate imperatives in a timely manner.…”

“…Last, they can synthesize information and communicate imperatives in a timely manner. 9,15,16 One of the first studies of nurse leaders in crisis situations was done by Shih and colleagues, 16 who studied the experiences of nurse leaders and the survival strategies employed by them during the SARS epidemic. Based on the data gathered from focus-group interviews and an open-ended questionnaire, the authors identified that nurse leaders are important facilitators of interventions in health disasters.…”