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Compassionate leadership in palliative and end-of-life care: a focus group study

Alistair Hewison (School of Nursing, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK)
Yvonne Sawbridge (College of Social Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK)
Laura Tooley (West Midlands Clinical Networks and Clinical Senate, NHS England, Birmingham, UK)

Leadership in Health Services

ISSN: 1751-1879

Article publication date: 21 March 2019

Issue publication date: 4 April 2019

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to explore compassionate leadership with those involved in leading system-wide end-of-life care. Its purpose was to: define compassionate leadership in the context of palliative and end-of-life care; collect accounts of compassionate leadership activity from key stakeholders in end-of-life and palliative care; and identify examples of compassionate leadership in practice.

Design/methodology/approach

Four focus groups involving staff from a range of healthcare organisations including hospitals, hospices and community teams were conducted to access the accounts of staff leading palliative and end-of-life care. The data were analysed thematically.

Findings

The themes that emerged from the data included: the importance of leadership as role modelling and nurturing; how stories were used to explain approaches to leading end-of-life care; the nature of leadership as challenging existing practice; and a requirement for leaders to manage boundaries effectively. Rich and detailed examples of leadership in action were shared.

Research limitations/implications

The findings indicate that a relational approach to leadership was enacted in a range of palliative and end-of-life care settings.

Practical implications

Context-specific action learning may be a means of further developing compassionate leadership capability in palliative and end-of-life care and more widely in healthcare settings.

Originality/value

This paper presents data indicating how compassionate leadership, as a form of activity, is envisaged and enacted by staff in healthcare.

Keywords

Citation

Hewison, A., Sawbridge, Y. and Tooley, L. (2019), "Compassionate leadership in palliative and end-of-life care: a focus group study", Leadership in Health Services, Vol. 32 No. 2, pp. 264-279. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHS-09-2018-0044

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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