Leadership Development and The Future of Long-term Care

INTRODUCTION:

The Covid-19 pandemic severely affected nursing homes in its early days with seniors living in this setting accounting for most of the death related to the virus. The Media highlighted many of the gaps existing in long-term care (LTC) that influence these incidents. One of the factors identified by the media was the lack of effective leadership. Considering that leaders in LTC are accountable for residents’ outcomes, there is an increased concern that they lack the necessary competency level to ensure homes provide the best care possible.

Leader Development

Care delivery in LTC is heavily regulated and complex, which requires effective leadership that positively, influences residents’ experience. Effective leaders must ensure the proper allocation of resources to achieve safe care and optimal patient outcomes. However, many of the leaders in LTC lack the knowledge, skills and competency to lead their teams toward optimal patient outcomes and proper allocation of resources. The problem is that LTC organizations do not have the training or mentorship programs in place to support leadership development resulting in the inability to improve their leadership competency level. Existing evidence suggests that strengthening the roles of nurse leaders can improve resident outcomes in this setting, which requires the implementation of leadership training programs for nurses working in nursing homes.

Nursing homes organization should invest in developing their people so that a more robust leadership is in place to support residents’ care needs and strategic planning. The implementation of mentoring and developing programs might increase the expenses of the home but the impact on residents can provide a return on investment in the form of improved resident outcomes. 

Effective leaders can improve resident outcomes that often translate to decreased costs of care delivery. Making leadership development an opportunity for financial and quality of care-improved performance.

Leaders in LTC are also accountable for their own development and should adopt a reflective practice and self-assessment to identify opportunities for improvement. The American College of Health Executives (ACHE) provides healthcare leaders with an annually updated version of their competency assessment tool. This tool serves as a measurement means to identify leaders' competency levels. The tool provides leaders with the opportunity to self-evaluate their competency level which can later inform their development plan. The ACHE also has tools and literature that can support this development.

Conclusion

LTC organizations lack mentoring and development programs that support the development of its leader. This gap in leadership development influences residents’ outcomes in this setting. It is essential that leaders and organizations invest in improving leaders’ competency levels so that the care and strategic planning in this setting can meet the needs of the population. For many, leaders are born but the truth is they can also be developed so that they have the knowledge, skills and competency to lead their teams toward an optimal patient outcome.