Workplace Challenges and Support Needs Experienced by Nurse Leaders in Home and Community Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study.

The COVID-19 pandemic had unprecedented impacts on the wellbeing of home care workers. Responsive leadership is a key facilitator for positive perceptions of work and reduced turnover intentions. Yet, the impact of the pandemic on nurse leaders working in home and community care remains to be explored. To describe the workplace experiences of point-of-care nurse leaders in the home and community care sector in Ontario, Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 8 nurse leaders in home care and analyzed thematically. Four overarching themes developed: (1) Inspired to lead-participants sought leadership roles to amplify their impact on client care, provider experience and the healthcare system. (2) Pandemic leadership challenges-leaders struggled to adapt to new pandemic-related workload demands, including unprecedented needs for staff well-being support. (3) Strategies to improve well-being-the personal toll of the pandemic was mitigated for some by maintaining personal boundaries and by strong support from peers and senior leaders. (4) Lessons learned-leaders expressed pride in their pandemic responses and professional growth through this time. They identified opportunities for stronger workplace structures to support them to excel in their roles. These experiences highlight the opportunity to better support nurse leaders in home and community care settings by creating work structures which promote healthy workplace boundaries, enable connections, and facilitate peer-to-peer information sharing. Such structures can support nurse leaders to thrive in their roles and continue to act as vital sources of support to their teams.