Table 2.

SBNH-L Values with Definitions and Guiding Questions

SBNH-L Values	Definitions	Sample Guiding Questions
Value # 1- SYSTEMS THINKING	Systems thinking is a holistic approach that frames the conceptualization of a system’s parts interacting with the whole in an interconnected manner. Systems exist at the micro, meso, and macro levels.	What do I need to consider or to think about when putting a policy or directive in place? How does my department or unit fit within the larger healthcare institution? As a nurse manager, how does the organization foster autonomy and agency? How do these policies impact what I do at the unit level?
Value #2 – UNIQUENESS	Uniqueness defines the person, staff, unit, organization, and their specialness. What they do best; who they are; and what they strive to be. Uniqueness is reflected in the capacities, capabilities, skills, talents, and potentials (ie, strengths) that are present or that can be developed. Uniqueness can also refer to an issue, situation, or problem.	What is similar or different about this issue, situation, problem? What is special about each nurse? My unit? My organization? What do they each do best and what is working? How do I develop a staff member's strengths (eg, capacities, competencies, skills) to help them be more autonomous and have greater agency? How can I help my staff notice, recognize, mobilize, or develop their patient’s strengths to meet their specific needs?
Value # 3 –HEALTH and HEALING	Health is about creating wholeness whereas Healing is about restoring wholeness. Health involves developing capacities, capabilities, competencies, and skills needed to adapt, cope, relate, regulate, rally to achieve goals, grow, develop, and flourish. Healing involves repair, rehabilitation, recovery, renewal.	How can I develop each staff member’s capabilities, skills, capacities to enable them to grow, develop, and thrive? How do I recognize and then, deal with unhealthy and unsafe workplace environments that impede autonomy and interfere with agency? How do I recognize trauma, burnout, and the need to create conditions for healing? How do I support my staff when challenging situations arise?
Value #4 –MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES/CREAT-ING MEANING	Multiple perspectives. Individuals have different beliefs, understandings, interpretations that affect their way of being and their responses. Creating meaning refers to the processes by which a person makes sense of an experience, to arrive at an understanding.	Whose perspective do I need to know about to understand diversity of views when dealing with a challenge, a change in situation/policy, in order to move forward? How do I accommodate and work with different perspectives? Do I take the time to discuss with each nurse their beliefs, understandings, and needs with regards to autonomy and agency? What support can I give my staff?
Value #5 –SELF-DETERMINATION	Self-determination is about free will to take charge, make choices, and feel in control. Self- determination requires autonomy and skills of agency. Self-determination is about decision-making—the processes involved in arriving at a plan of action and enacting that plan.	How do I help staff identify the areas they can change and, or have some control over? How do I help staff consider what information they need to have in order to make decisions? What structures do I need to put in place that will encourage staff to be more autonomous and exercise their agency? How can I encourage staff to have greater psychological empowerment and understand in which areas of their practice they have autonomy and can be agentic?
Value #6 –GOODNESS-OF-FIT	Goodness-of-fit is about the “match” between the demands of the environment and the capabilities/capacities of the individual. Individuals shape and are shaped by their many life-worlds. Environments include the physical aspects (eg, space, lighting, noise) and social (eg, relational, emotional tone and culture). Individuals grow and thrive in environments where there is a goodness-of-fit and they experience difficulties and are distressed in “poorness-of-fit” environments.	What considerations do I need to think about or put in place for staff to be at their very best? What types of structures do I need to put in place that would enable staff to give person-centered, compassionate care? How do I ensure that my staff have the resources and tools required to meet the needs of the work environment and to do their work? How do I create a culture that values self-empowerment, autonomy, and agency and that potentiates the fit with each staff member’s personal and professional goals and skills?
Value # 7 –LEARNING, TIMING, READINESS	Learning is the process of acquiring new knowledge, understandings, skills, behaviors, attitudes, values, beliefs, cognitions (thinking). Learning is an innate capacity required for personal and professional development. Learning can occur through formal education and practical experience. Learning is maximized when the learner is ready and motivated to engage and reflect on their experiences. Readiness is a prerequisite for learning and consider a plan of action. Timing involves being attuned to personal, temporal, and contextual factors to maximize goal achievement.	What do I need to consider to nurture a climate that values learning? How do I recognize cues of readiness? How do I time interventions to maximize success? What resources do I need to lobby for to enhance learning opportunities for my staff? What structures do I need to put in place that encourage staff to broaden and deepen their knowledge and skills? What skills and knowledge do my staff need to have to be agentic?
Value # 8 – COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIP	Collaborative partnership recognizes that relationships are reciprocal- each person brings something to the relationship or interaction from which the other can learn. Collaboration is the art of working together in trusting, supportive ways to achieve a purpose. Partnership requires a willingness to share power rather than exert power in order to control. Collaborative partnership is working together on mutually agreed upon goals recognizing the expertise and experience of the other.	What considerations do I need to think about to promote collaboration among team members? How do I help my staff understand power—why power is important, what power looks like in different situations with different people, how to share power with others, and how to use their own power effectively? What role can I play with other colleagues and team members to improve and strengthen collaboration and partnerships?

Notes: Table derived from Hubley, P., Gottlieb, L.N., Durrant, M. Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership (SBNH-L): Value-Driven Capacities for Leaders. Ingram School of Nursing, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, 2020 and the values are based on Gottlieb, L.N. (2013). Strengths-Based Nursing Care: Health and healing for person and family. NY: Springer Publishing.