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The global scale and unpredictable nature of the current COVID-19 pandemic have put a significant burden on health care and public health leaders, for whom preparedness plans and evidence-based guidelines have proven insufficient to guide actions. This article presents a review of empirical articles on the topics of “crisis leadership” and “pandemic” across medical and business databases between 2003 (since SARS) and—December 2020 and has identified 35 articles for detailed analyses. We use the articles’ evidence on leadership behaviors and skills that have been key to pandemic responses to characterize the types of leadership competencies commonly exhibited in a pandemic context. Task-oriented competencies, including preparing and planning, establishing collaborations, and conducting crisis communication, received the most attention. However, people-oriented and adaptive-oriented competencies were as fundamental in overcoming the structural, political, and cultural contexts unique to pandemics.

With a rapid shift to telehealth during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, clinicians, health care organizations, and policy makers must consider and address patients' evolving needs, concerns, and expectations.

ContextCOVID-19 has had an unprecedent impact on physicians, nurses, and other health professionals around the world, and a serious health care burnout crisis is emerging as a result of this pandemic.ObjectivesWe aim to identify the causes of occupational stress and burnout in women in medicine, nursing, and other health professions during the COVID-19 pandemic and interventions that can support female health professionals deal with this crisis through a rapid review.MethodsWe searched MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and ERIC from December 2019 through September 30, 2020. The review protocol was registered in PROSPERO and is available online. We selected all empirical studies that discussed stress and burnout in women health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.ResultsThe literature search identified 6148 citations. A review of abstracts led to the retrieval of 721 full-text articles for assessment, of which 47 articles were included for review. Our findings show that concerns of safety (65%), staff and resource adequacy (43%), workload and compensation (37%), job roles and security (41%) appeared as common triggers of stress in the literature.Conclusions and RelevanceThe current literature primarily focuses on self-focused initiatives such as wellness activities, coping strategies, reliance of family, friends and work colleagues to organizational led initiatives such as access to psychological support and training. Very limited evidence exists about the organizational interventions such as work modification, financial security, and systems improvement.

The COVID-19 pandemic burdens health-care workers (HCWs) worldwide. Amid high-stress conditions and unprecedented needs for crisis management, organizations face the grand challenge of supporting the mental health and well-being of their HCWs. The current literature on mental health and well-being primarily focuses on improving personal resilience among HCWs. However, this puts the responsibility for coping with COVID-19-related stress almost fully on the individual. This chapter discusses an important alternative framing of this issue - how health-care organizations (HCOs) can facilitate recovery from work processes (i.e., returning to a baseline level by engaging in nonwork activities after work) for their workers. Based on a narrative review of the occupational health psychology literature, we provide practical strategies for supporting the four key recovery experiences of detachment, control, mastery, and relaxation, as well as present general recommendations about how to promote recovery. These strategies can help HCOs facing the grand challenge of sustaining worker well-being and functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as during future pandemics and for workers facing high work pressure in general.

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed extraordinary pressure on an already strained healthcare workforce (HCWs). Public health measures, such as prolonged periods of social isolation, unexpected employment disruptions, school closures, financial distress, and changes to routine, are having an unprecedented negative impact on mental well-being. Unaddressed stress and burnout can lead to depression, suicidal ideation and substance abuse. We conducted a review of the literature (a) to synthesize the common triggers of stress, burnout and depression faced by HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic and (b) to identify interventions at the individual, organizational and systemic levels that can support the well-being of HCWs during a pandemic. A systematic search of literature databases was conducted from 2003 to June 2020. We included review articles that reported on stress, burnout and depression in HCWs; that primarily focused on women; and that included the percentage or number of women surveyed. Of the 2,803 papers found, 31 were included. Our preliminary findings show that HCWs are at increased risk for stress, burnout and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic. These negative outcomes are triggered by individual-level factors such as gender, family status and lack of social support; organizational-level factors such as high workload and access to PPE;, and systemic-level factors such as prevalence of COVID-19, rapidly changing public health guidelines and a lack of recognition at work. There is a limited amount of evidence on effective interventions that prevent anxiety, stress, burnout and depression during a pandemic. Preliminary findings of causes of increased stress and mental health issues suggest possible strategies healthcare organizations can use to address modifiable factors such as ongoing training to increase confidence in caring for COVID-19 patients, clear infection control guidelines and sufficient PPE and optimization of working conditions for HCWs.

ObjectivesThe overall objectives of this rapid scoping review are to (a) synthesize the common triggers of stress, burnout, and depression faced by women in health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, and (b) identify individual-, organizational-, and systems-level interventions that can support the well-being of women HCWs during a pandemic.DesignThis scoping review is registered on Open Science Framework (OSF) and was guided by the JBI guide to scoping reviews and reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) extension to scoping reviews. A systematic search of literature databases (Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycInfo and ERIC) was conducted from 2003 until June 12, 2020. Two reviewers independently assessed full-text articles according to predefined criteria.InterventionsWe included review articles and primary studies that reported on stress, burnout, and depression in HCWs; that primarily focused on women; and that included the percentage or number of women included. All English language studies from any geographical setting where COVID-19 has affected the population were reviewed.Primary and secondary outcome measuresStudies reporting on mental health outcomes (e.g., stress, burnout, and depression in HCWs), interventions to support mental health well-being were included.ResultsOf the 2,803 papers found, 31 were included. The triggers of stress, burnout and depression are grouped under individual-, organizational-, and systems-level factors. There is a limited amount of evidence on effective interventions that prevents anxiety, stress, burnout and depression during a pandemic.ConclusionsOur preliminary findings show that women HCWs are at increased risk for stress, burnout, and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic. These negative outcomes are triggered by individual level factors such as lack of social support; family status; organizational factors such as access to personal protective equipment or high workload; and systems-level factors such as prevalence of COVID-19, rapidly changing public health guidelines, and a lack of recognition at work.Strengths and limitations of this studyA rapid scoping review was conducted to identify stress, burnout and depression faced by women HCWs during COVID-19.To ensure the relevance of our review, representatives from the women HCWs were engaged in defining the review scope, developing review questions, approving the protocol and literature search strategies, and identifying key messages.It provides a descriptive synthesis of current evidence on interventions to prevent mental health for women HCWs.Most studies used cross-sectional surveys, making it difficult to determine the longitudinal impact.There was significant variability in the tools used to measure mental health.

Context: The COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented stress on health care systems worldwide. The global scale of the outbreak and its unpredictable nature has put a significant leadership burde...

What leadership roles can transnational medical professional societies play in addressing the life long learning needs of health professionals in emerging world? The World Federation of Neurology (WFN) provides neurological education programme in countries with unmet neurological training needs, in an effort to improve the knowledge and skills of neurologists. The WFN's experience provides a unique study to exemplify how global stakeholders collaborate with each other to deliver CME and to improve the quality of health care services. A multi-stage programme evaluation was undertaken to explore the WFN CME, in an effort to: a) understand how global CME programmes are organized, and b) understand the success factors and the challenges of delivering global CME. The programme evaluation was conducted between June 2005 and March 2006. The preliminary results were shared with the WFN education committee and national coordinators and international experts to check and confirm the findings from the study. The study results reveal that global CME programmes could be designed effectively with minimum costs. These programmes contribute to meeting the continued learning needs of neurologists in resource poor settings. Further, the WFN initiative provides, some initial evidence that these programs can contribute to systems level improvements.