Embracing Courage, Not Fear: Advocating for Leadership Centered on Trust in the Healthcare Sector
In the high-stress environment of trauma care, every second counts. At Inova Healthcare System, a shift in culture grounded in trust and psychological safety is transforming the way trauma care is delivered, with profound impacts on both patient outcomes and healthcare provider well-being.
Paula Ferrada, Chair of the Department of Surgery at IFMC and System Chief for Trauma and Acute Care Surgery at Inova Healthcare System, is leading this change. Her approach to leadership is rooted in compassion, humility, and a deep understanding of the importance of psychological safety in high-reliability environments.
Compassionate leadership involves interpersonal acts of compassion, a leadership style focused on care, and systemic practices that embed compassion into organisational culture. This approach creates an environment where patients feel understood and supported, improving treatment adherence and functional outcomes.
Leaders who demonstrate compassion also positively influence healthcare staff. By fostering expressions of compassion among employees, morale, resilience, and job satisfaction are enhanced, reducing burnout and nurturing a supportive work environment that values the emotional and professional needs of caregivers.
Psychological safety, on the other hand, refers to creating a workplace environment where staff feel safe, supported, and valued, enabling them to communicate openly and address challenges without fear of blame or retribution. This is crucial in high-stakes trauma settings, where rapid, coordinated responses are required.
When psychological safety is established, healthcare teams can better manage the intense stress and trauma exposure inherent in their work. This safer environment enables providers to deliver more compassionate, effective care to trauma survivors and fosters resilience among care teams.
Psychological safety also encourages open communication and feedback, promoting continuous learning and improvement, reducing errors, and enhancing patient safety in high-reliability trauma care environments.
Together, compassionate leadership and a culture of psychological safety create a resilient workforce capable of maintaining high-quality care under pressure. These factors contribute to a sustainable culture of care that improves both patient outcomes (through better adherence, satisfaction, and recovery) and provider outcomes (reducing burnout, increasing job satisfaction, and fostering well-being).
Inova Healthcare System's commitment to compassionate leadership and psychological safety is evident in their policies prioritising recovery, rest, and resilience, staffing teams effectively, scheduling shifts considerately, supporting mental wellness, and conducting debriefs for learning rather than blame.
The benefits of this approach are substantial and multi-faceted. Surgical efficiency has increased alongside safety at the hospital, with first-case on-time starts improving from 52% to 74%. In psychologically safe teams, members can speak up, ask questions, and admit uncertainty without fear, which supports each other through the emotional toll of the work.
The most successful trauma teams, globally, are led by individuals who understand that excellence requires empathy. Investing in compassionate leadership and psychological safety leads to better outcomes, including fewer medical errors, greater staff retention, higher patient satisfaction, stronger innovation, and improved trust.
Sources: [1] Husebø, A. O., & Olsen, J. I. (2016). Clinical leadership development and emergency care: A systematic review. BMC Health Services Research, 16(1), 1-12. [2] Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological safety: A social psychological approach to understanding and building effective work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383. [3] West, J., & colleagues. (2019). The moral imperative of physician well-being. New England Journal of Medicine, 380(18), 1723-1725. [4] Rath, T., & Harter, J. K. (2010). Wellbeing: The five essential elements. Simon and Schuster. [5] Ferrada, P. (2021). The role of leadership in trauma care: A call for compassionate and psychologically safe teams. Inova Healthcare System internal presentation.
- Paula Ferrada, a leader at the forefront of transforming trauma care at Inova Healthcare System, fosters a compassionate and psychologically safe work environment, which positively impacts healthcare providers' mental health and well-being.
- Employing a leadership style grounded in compassion and a culture that prioritizes psychological safety, Ferrada's work contributes to improved staff morale, resilience, and professional job satisfaction, thereby reducing burnout.
- Enhanced psychological safety within the workplace leads not only to better provider wellness but also to more effective and compassionate care for trauma survivors, ultimately fostering resilience among care teams.
- Ferrada's commitment to a culture focusing on recovery, rest, mental wellness, and debriefs for learning rather than blame reflects the organization's dedication to embedding compassionate leadership and psychological safety into the health and wellness of both patients and providers.
