Remote leadership in health care: a scoping review

Abstract

Purpose The degree of remote working has increased in the health-care sector, but remote leadership in health-care contexts has not been systematically studied. Thus, the purpose of this review was to map existing literature and research themes of remote leadership in health care and identify potential research gaps to guide future studies. Design/methodology/approach A scoping review with narrative synthesis was conducted, covering all published literature addressing remote, virtual, online or distance leadership practices. The ABI/INFORM Collection, CINALH, PsycArticles, Scopus and Web of Science, MedNar, Open Grey and PQDT Open databases were searched electronically, and Finnish Journal of eHealth and eWelfare was searched manually. Findings In total 15 articles were included in the review. Most literature concerning remote leadership in health care has been published during the past three decades. The main themes discerned in this research stream are related to interactions, work environments, leadership in practice, use of technology and needs for more study of remote leadership and guidance for remote leaders. Research limitations/implications Research on remote leadership in health care is limited, patchy and associated concepts vary substantially. More comprehensive research on the phenomenon is needed, with more systematic attention to, and coverage of, relevant populations, concepts, contexts and the identified themes. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this appears to be the first review to map research on remote leadership in health care and identify research gaps, which is important as its prevalence has rapidly increased.

Facing the Post-Pandemic Challenges: The Role of Leadership Effectiveness in Shaping the Affective Well-Being of Healthcare Providers Working in a Hybrid Work Mode

“…As to the practical implications, our findings and the proposed leadership strategies model can be used in the training process of healthcare managers, aiming to improve leadership skills relevant in enhancing employees’ well-being and productivity under the current, turbulent post-pandemic circumstances. As healthcare systems require more flexibility to adopt a digitisation perspective [ 16 , 19 , 23 , 49 , 51 ], and a more patient-oriented focus [ 48 , 72 ], the proposed leadership model could be an important step in shaping more open and adjustable attitudes among healthcare managers.…”

“…The latest studies on healthcare leadership during the pandemic primarily relate to dealing with health threats and overload resulting from contact with patients [ 7 , 15 ]. However, there are no studies dealing with leadership in healthcare in the context of remote and hybrid management, changes following digitisation and the challenges brought about by the pandemic [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ], which require a number of skills, including knowledge of and openness towards health information technologies. This frequently tends to fail, largely due to poor leadership in healthcare organisations [ 20 ].…”

“…This frequently tends to fail, largely due to poor leadership in healthcare organisations [ 20 ]. Therefore, there is a need to expand research in remote healthcare leadership [ 16 , 19 ], especially to investigate which healthcare leadership strategies and styles can improve the well-being of employees [ 17 , 21 , 22 ], and which leadership strategies are important in case of digital transformation [ 23 ]. This paper also contributes to the comparison of respondents from different countries, as other researchers noted that samples from American or European regions where healthcare workers are likely to face psychological distress, especially in light of pandemic challenges, need further investigation [ 17 ].…”

Exploring Hybrid Leadership

“…3 Communication is the basis of trust. 8 Additional Benefits of Remote Leadership A scoping review of remote leadership in healthcare by Kiljunen et al 4 supported the importance of leadership in matters such as staff retention and work engagement and the negative impact of lack of professional support. An integrative review of remote leadership in healthcare by Terkamo-Moisio et al 3 underlined a further important aspect in healthcare: work well-being is positively influenced by both the leadership practices and the personnel's intentions to remain in their profession.…”

Hospital nurse leaders' experiences with digital technologies: A qualitative descriptive study

“…SD: 5.3; min -max: 9.0-25.0. et al, 2014;Kiljunen et al, 2021;Laukka et al, 2020), was developed in a research team that included three experienced researchers who were familiar with leadership, healthcare digitalization and qualitative research. The interview guide included four common themes (leadership competence in digital health services, leadership in digital health services, work wellbeing and artificial intelligence), and this current study used the data concerning the two first themes (Table…”