Leadership Qualities to Support Healthcare Workers’ Mental Wellness

Leadership is the act of motivating teams or a group of people to achieve a common goal. This especially applies to leaders in the nursing and allied healthcare industry because healthcare can be a challenging and stressful career, and a great leader empowers and motivates those around them on a daily basis. Forbes describes Leadership as, “a process of social influence, which maximizes the efforts of others, towards the achievement of a goal.” In order for healthcare staff to maximize their efforts they need to be in an environment that supports travelers’ mental wellness.

Travel nursing and allied health leaders are managers of a care team and have to monitor and maintain a balance between cost-effective care, patient safety, and retention. With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that when it comes to travel nurse or allied health retention, mental wellness is sometimes overlooked. In order to empower a team of nurses or allied health techs, leaders have to support individuals through transparent communication. By establishing an open communication strategy, nurses and allied health professionals are confident that they are being heard and appreciated. It is the leader’s responsibility to position themselves as trustworthy listeners and make it clear that they are not only there to support medical goals, but individual goals as well.

There are a few essential leadership qualities that can be applied to effective travel nurse and allied health leadership to support healthcare workers' mental wellness. According to an article featured on Inc., here is an

Essential Leadership Qualities List‍

1. Clarity‍

Be clear and concise in your communication style. This eliminates stress - good clarity leads to great achievement, and great achievement makes room for positive mental wellness.‍

2. Decisiveness‍

Healthcare workers count on their managers to be decisive. You want to build a relationship with your travel nurses, where they are confident in your decisions because they know you have their best interest at heart.

‍3. Courage‍

Having the courage to stand up for your travel nurses and allied health techs when necessary is a virtue that is highly valued by all healthcare workers.

‍4. Passion‍

Be a walking inspiration, show your nurses that you care about what you do and that you care about them.

‍5. Humility‍

The healthcare industry deserves leaders that are approachable. Additionally, always listen to your nurses or allied health techs, admit when you are wrong, and be open to all growth opportunities.

Importance of Mental Wellness

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In the travel healthcare industry, travelers’ mental wellness is disrupted when there is a disconnect between team members - therefore it is crucial to promote mental wellness from top to bottom. Nursing and allied health leaders need to provide an open space for all healthcare workers to share their experiences, and feel comfortable sharing their true feelings, in order to form a healthy environment that supports mental wellness.

Advantis Medical, travel nursing agency, is proud to work with incredible travel nursing and allied health managers that prioritize care and mental wellness for themselves and their teams.