HJAR Jan/Feb 2025

40 JAN / FEB 2025 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS NURSING COLUMN NURSING Intergenerational teams Currently, the healthcare workforce has the challenge of having a mix of five inter- generational personnel. Management of multiple age groups can be difficult due to workplace values, personality behaviors, and varying belief characteristics. 3 The most significant challenge is communica- tion preferences. Millennials and Genera- tion Z prefer technology such as electronic health record text, apps, and social media, but they do avoid email. 4 Communication mismatches can cause misunderstandings within the team, which cause delays in care and misconceptions. 3 Other issues include how and when to give constructive feed- back and discussing work ethic issues. 3 The challenge is how best to ferret out the needs of healthcare personnel while build- ing a cohesive unit. Staffing shortages and retention Staffing shortages can be a significant challenge for leaders trying to manage a solid, dependable workforce. Financial constraints and legislation can impact the leader’s ability to adequately staff. 2 Anoth- er consideration is that one-third of nurses over the age of 50 will retire in the next 10 to 15 years. 5 Nearly 36.7% of nurse leaders have considered leaving their positions due to these types of staffing issues. 6 Last- ly, managing staff nurse dissatisfaction can lead to a negative professional quality of CHALLENGES in nursing leadership are brought about by changing healthcare dynamics. These challenges require resil- ience cultivated by leadership. Even when facing short budgets, lack of administra- tive strategy, and dysfunctional systematic approaches, nursing leaders can pave the way forward. 1 According to the Ameri- can Organization for Nursing Leadership Foundation’s 2024 Longitudinal Nurs- ing Leadership Insight Study, out of 2,477 respondents, the drivers of leadership challenges were staffing (69%), financial resources (34%), and workplace violence (24%). 2 The study identified leaders with challenges sustaining academic partner- ships, supply disruption, financial resourc- es, workforce training, and violence. 2 The CNO faced the same issues as the manag- ers but also had issues with health inequity and social determinants of health facilita- tion. 2 The CEO perceived violence, health inequity, meeting standards of care, and surge staffing as significant challenges. 2 When you assess these different levels of perceptions of the challenges, the problem becomes more apparent. Even in adminis- tration, the vision of the challenges needs to be more balanced, enlightening us to the multifaceted nature of these issues. In this sequential article, we will delve deeper into the challenges that lie ahead for lead- ers, emphasizing the power of resilience in overcoming them. CULTIVATING RESILIENCE: Facing Challenges in Nursing Leadership life and psychological distress. 7 Research has identified that 30-50% of nurses leave the profession due to job dissatisfaction. 8 Leaders must be aware of the factors that contribute to burnout, compassion fa- tigue, and secondary trauma. The declin- ing workforce, both at the bedside and in leadership, can lead to a cyclic trajectory of challenges. High-stress environments and work- place violence High-stress environments can poten- tially come with incivility of the healthcare workforce, which can be between nurses (57%) and physicians (47%), or from vio- lent patients (74%) and families (68%). 2 In a study, 53% of leaders dealt with some type of violence, which has had an increase by 20% every year. 2 These types of high-stress environments and situations jeopardize the well-being and safety of healthcare workers. The challenge for leaders lies in creating comprehensive strategies to ad- vocate for staff and manage a culture of safety in their unit. Compassion fatigue The challenge of compassion fatigue happens when a nurse experiences stress related to repeated exposure to high acu- ity and high patient volumes. 9 Gradually, fatigue starts to impact the quality of care, leading to decreased patient safety. 1 Com- passion fatigue can lead to increased job