Using Conversations, Listening and Leadership to Support Staff Wellness: The CALM Framework

Healthcare workers' (HCWs) wellness is a critical concern, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff Wellness Rounding (SWR) has emerged as a leadership-driven strategy to support HCWs but research on its effectiveness remains limited. This study examines the impact of SWR within a large healthcare organisation in Australia and introduces the CALM (Conversation, Active Listening, Leadership Engagement, Mechanism for Feedback) Framework to enhance leadership-driven wellness initiatives. SWR was implemented across six acute hospitals and 14 community health centres in New South Wales, Australia (July to October 2021). A sequential mixed-methods design was used to evaluate SWR effectiveness, leadership engagement, and key components for a structured wellness approach. Phase One included a survey of 169 HCWs to capture their experiences, and Phase Two and Three comprised semi-structured interviews with SWR leaders, participants of SWR and analysis of 342 SWR records. Findings showed that informal conversations foster trust, active listening supports emotional well-being, and leadership engagement facilitates issue escalation. However, feedback mechanisms require improvement: 77.5% of HCWs felt able to escalate concerns but only 32.5% believed feedback was effectively addressed. These insights directly informed the development of the CALM Framework with implications for leadership training and digital wellness integration in healthcare settings.