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Editorial
Kindness in healthcare: why it matters and why BMJ Leader will focus on it
  1. Robert Klaber1,
  2. James Mountford2,
  3. Dominique Allwood1
  1. 1 Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK
  2. 2 Galileo Global Education, Paris, France, France
  1. Correspondence to Dr Robert Klaber, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, Select a state/province, UK; bob.klaber{at}nhs.net

https://doi.org/10.1136/leader-2024-000991

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We live in extraordinary times: healthcare is fundamentally about care, and yet many of us are working in healthcare systems across the globe that can frequently feel unkind, uncaring and, at times, extremely brutal.1 People working in healthcare are experiencing increasing stress and pressure, amidst a background newsreel that is almost unrelentingly negative. Healthcare leaders, however, must respond to this situation by finding ways within themselves and each other to engender hope about a better future with and for the people and communities their organisations employ and serve, and to take practical steps to deliver on the hope.

We believe that placing kindness at the centre of leadership action, an underused approach, is essential to advancing the mission of healthcare systems.2 It is hard to imagine how we would otherwise develop more inclusive, more equitable, higher quality and more efficient healthcare.3 Simply put: to engender hope and optimism, and to serve patients well, leaders must act and behave kindly towards others.

The editorial team has identified several strategic priorities for BMJ Leader. Among them is kindness, an emerging and understudied area in …

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Footnotes

  • Twitter @bobklaber, @mountfordjames, @DrDominiqueAllw

  • Contributors BK wrote the initial conceptual outline; DA and JM developed the text. All authors reviewed and shaped the final text.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.