Abstract

Background: In the past decade, Gaza Strip residents and the health sector, in particular, suffered difficult years, as facing many crisis, where a crisis after other exhausted the Gaza Strip. These crises are disturbing the health sector and undoubtedly threaten the health services system. So, it is needed to prepare well to deal with them and good leaders of hospitals should be present. Effective leaders can manage the health crisis and have a good response to any crisis surrounding them and draw lessons from the previous crisis.

Aim of the study: The aim of this study is to understand the leadership styles in health crisis management among healthcare providers at Al-Quds hospital in Gaza Strip. Methodology: The descriptive-analytical cross-sectional design was applied. The quantitative approach was appropriate for this study and the researcher used a census sample that included all the health care providers. The researcher adopted the questionnaire as an instrument in this study. The study population consisted of all healthcare providers working in critical areas (Emergency Department, Operation Room, and Intensive Care Unit) and meet eligibility criteria at Al-Quds Hospital. The total population of health care providers was 87, 82 of them responded. The researcher chose 30 of participants from the study target population to conduct the pilot study.

Result: There were statistically significant differences among the charismatic leadership style and job description in favor of the nurses, and statistically significant differences in transformational leadership for emergency department comparing with intensive care unit and intensive care unit comparing with operation room, and charismatic leadership the results showed that there is a significant difference between diploma degree comparing with bachelor degree. The researcher found that charismatic and transformational leadership styles are effective during the health crisis in hospitals. According to the participants’ perceptions in accord with their responses about the total domains; the results showed that the weighted mean of all domains was 73.73%, this means the participants accept the total field score and it was statistically significant at all domains. The result of the study showed that the highest domain is “Charismatic leadership”, followed by “Transactional leadership”. Otherwise, the lowest is Transformational leadership.

Recommendation: Cooperation should be conducted between the Ministry of health and Non- governmental hospitals during the crisis. Hospital managers should collaborate with Non- governmental organizations to carry out courses and workshops for staff in crisis and disaster management, and ongoing coordination.