Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals have faced unprecedented pressures in their professional and personal lives. The cumulative impact of higher volumes and acuity of patients, salary cuts, fears of personal exposure, unknowingly infecting our families, the long-term financial fall out, and other stressors is unknown,¹ but could have a significant impact on mental health and resilience.²

Since March 2020, the Hospital Medicine group at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has faced these same stressors as the designated service for non-ICU COVID-19 care at University Hospital; yet, faculty morale and engagement remain high. In fact, news of a salary cut in the midst of an already stressful experience resulted in a collective shrug and gratitude for the transparency. How did we foster resilience during these uncertain times? We developed and used the following four tips for effective communication to FEEL our way from confusion to clarity.

Frequent Communication

Communication during times of uncertainty is akin to walking a tight rope—a leader must communicate frequently enough to drown out the “noise” but not so frequently that they add to it. During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals faced almost daily changes to operations and treatment guidelines. To combat confusion and frustration, we sent a summary e-mail every evening with updates and changes for the day, organized into sections for quick reference: a dashboard of overall volumes, updates in clinical operations, staffing, bed management, clinical guidelines, and faculty and staff resources. This consistent, standardized flow of information signaled transparency and instilled trust while minimizing disinformation.

Explain the Why

With every communication, it is essential to provide the cognitive bridge from problem to solution. Including the “why” behind decisions helps maintain trust, even if the decision proves to be faulty,³ and allows the group to analyze the underpinning logic and provide high-level, specific, and actionable feedback. The “why” is also an invitation to return to mission and vision—a compass amid chaos. In a rapidly shifting environment, reflecting on how changes bring us closer to providing excellent patient care (mission) and how every institutional ask is in fact an opportunity to embody leadership in inpatient care (vision) helps to keep everyone focused on the big picture.

Express Gratitude and Grace

Every day, 1,000 things are done well, but are often overshadowed by the few things that were not, especially in times of crisis. To avoid this pitfall, we intentionally used the beginning of each communication to acknowledge that these are challenging times and to thank our faculty for still continuing to provide excellent patient care. Expressing gratitude for everyday contributions is critical because those small, daily contributions are what make us successful. This also creates a climate in which team members are encouraged to celebrate great work and reinforces to our collaborators that we see them and appreciate their contributions.

Leverage Multiple Channels of Communication

Even carefully crafted messages are of little value if no one hears them, so it’s important to communicate via multiple modalities. Careful not to rely on e-mail alone, we also provided: (1) personal touch points (by phone or in-person) with anyone immediately impacted by an upcoming change; (2) a readily accessible shared drive where electronic copies of all policies and prior emails are stored; (3) a leader on call to answer questions in real time, and (4) an asynchronous electronic Q&A box to submit non-urgent queries at our colleagues’ convenience, with responses provided individually via personal touch point (and high yield answers that would benefit the entire group included in the daily evening communication). Layering communication channels greatly broadened our audience and reduced the risk of employees being frustrated by seemingly unexpected changes.

Effective and thoughtful communication serves as a bridge over uncertainty and is critical to the health and productivity of teams, especially in times when confusion can dwarf clarity. Although we may not yet be able to see the other side of COVID-19, if we FEEL our way through we can remain resilient and emerge stronger.