Nursing the Nurses

Sammanfattning: The COVID-19 pandemic has struck hard on our healthcare system, and ICU nurses in particular. Their wellbeing and job satisfaction suffered immensely, which weakened the clinical backbone of our healthcare system, and the need to strengthen managerial processes to prevent a situation like this from repeating itself is urgent. This cross-sectional, qualitative study aims to describe what leadership styles can be leveraged in various phases in a prolonged crisis, in order to facilitate and enhance nurses' job satisfaction. The sample consists of thirteen ICU nurses in total, who worked during the COVID-19 pandemic during one or several contamination waves. Pearson and Mitroff's Crisis Management Framework, as well as the Full Range Leadership Model which presents Transformational, Transactional and Passive Aviodant leadership, serve the purpose of analyzing and comprehending the findings of the study. The study broadens the understanding on how nurse leaders can support nurse staff's job satisfaction during a prolonged crisis using certain leadership requirements depending on the life cycle phase of the crisis. From the analysis, multiple leadership requirements, especially in accordance with Transformational and Transactional leadership, emerged. Consequently, this thesis can be used as guidance for nurse leaders and other healthcare leaders to support their staff members as they are facing potential future crises similar to the recent pandemic.