Self-organized Teams in Nursing & Care

Nordic municipal healthcare is rapidly growing. Demanding reforms combined with a multimorbid older population having complex and expanded care needs indicates an increased pressure on welfare capacity. Therefore new ideas in healthcare are necessary for health and human life, as well as for growth and sustainability. Innovation, defined as something radically new that creates added value, in health care and leadership should always consider the patient safety and perspective while taking the family into consideration, not only be financially motivated.

The quality of leadership is the interface for integrating changes in the healthcare organization. Arenas for professional exchange of ideas for development and reflection, organized as self-organizing development teams, must have a clear mandate and mission to improve care. Participants need feedback and confirmation as well as leadership support. Leaders need to enable the staff to make use of their professional education and high standards of care. Nurse leaders themselves must experience caring and confirmation from their superiors, and through participating in formal leader network, to maintain sight of patients and develop nursing care within their leadership roles. When leaders and staff have a shared vision of the best possible patient care expressed as „ministering to the patient“, it is visible in common routines, rituals and symbols in the organization and a trusting atmosphere can be created.

How self-organized nursing care teams and formal nurse leader networks, based on the caritative caring leadership theory, can enable and promote innovative nursing care for a future-oriented healthcare system will be described in this session.