Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor

We applaud Dr. Jeffries for her excellent guest editorial (November–December, 2020) (Jeffries, 2020) on the challenges and opportunities of leading as a nursing dean during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Jeffries describes the myriad challenges of caring for her school, students, and university during the extended public health crisis that we have all experienced and offers important tips for navigating each of these. She concludes with a section on lessons learned as a leader, including the importance of staying visible, creating a touchpoint, accepting the unknown, resisting the urge to sugarcoat, and serving with gratitude. As experienced academic nursing leaders, we offer an additional strategy for surviving and thriving as a nursing dean during a pandemic and beyond: intentional self-care.

Work/life integration has become the normative best practice for achieving the often elusive balance between personal and professional roles and responsibilities. The approach involves maximizing synergies among the multiple dimensions of life, including work, home/family, community, personal well-being, and health (Haas School of Business, 2018). Those who strive for work/life integration are familiar with the temptation of forfeiting personal well-being and health when the demands of work, home/family, or community responsibilities (and sometimes all three) are high. In Nursing Deans on Leading (2020), Brewington (2020) notes that novice nursing deans in particular can succumb to this temptation in the context of role ambiguity, obsession with electronic communication, blurred boundaries, and ineffective time management. Ongoing sacrifices of personal well-being and self-care are blamed in part for the short tenure of nursing deans and high vacancy rates of nursing dean positions that have prevailed over the past 10 years (Bouws, 2017).

Brewington (2020) reminds deans to embrace the notions that life should not be one-sided, self-care is not selfish, and how you treat yourself sends a message to others about how you expected to be treated. She emphasizes Sherman's (2012) timeless advice to nurse leaders about taking time to rest, recharge your battery, engage regularly in a self-renewal activity, reflect daily, and set an example of self-care for your team. We must be role models for self-care! As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and consider lessons learned about leadership, our hope is that intentional self-care will get the recognition it deserves as a key component of surviving and thriving as a nursing dean.