# The effectiveness of health-oriented leadership interventions for the improvement of mental health of employees in the health care sector: a systematic review

## TL;DR

This paper reviews leadership interventions in healthcare to improve employees' mental health, finding that interactive group seminars show promise.

## Contribution

The study systematically evaluates leadership interventions' impact on mental health in healthcare workers, identifying effective strategies.

## Key findings

- Seven eligible studies showed moderate to significant mental health improvements from leadership interventions.
- Interactive group seminars with reflective components are most effective for mental health improvement.
- Current evidence is limited, suggesting a need for more research and evaluation of interventions.

## Abstract

An increasing prevalence of work-related stress and employees’ mental health impairments in the health care sector calls for preventive actions. A significant factor in the workplace that is thought to influence employees’ mental health is leadership behavior. Hence, effective leadership interventions to foster employees’ (leaders’ and staff members’) mental health might be an important measure to address this pressing issue.

We conducted a systematic review according to the PRISMA statement (Liberati et al. 2009) and systematically searched the following databases: PubMed (PMC), Web of Science, PsycINFO (EBSCOhost), EconLit (EBSCOhost), and Business Source Premier (EBSCOhost). In addition, we performed a hand search of the reference lists of relevant articles. We included studies investigating leadership interventions in the health care sector that aimed to maintain/foster employees’ mental health.

The systematic search produced 11,221 initial search hits in relevant databases. After the screening process and additional literature search, seven studies were deemed eligible according to the inclusion criteria. All studies showed at least a moderate global validity and four of the included studies showed statistically significant improvements of mental health as a result of the leadership interventions.

Based on the findings, leadership interventions with reflective and interactive parts in group settings at several seminar days seem to be the most promising strategy to address mental health in health care employees. As the available evidence is limited, efforts to design and scientifically evaluate such interventions should be extended.