Leadership Lived Experiences in Implementing Compassionate, Respectful, and Caring Practices: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study

Compassionate, respectful, and caring (CRC) programs have been introduced in Ethiopian health facilities in the last 5 years to transform health care quality and provide patient-centered, compassionate, and respectful care. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the lived experiences of leaders to understand the meaning of successful CRC implementation and identify factors that influence implementation success in the health sector. A hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative study was employed through in-depth interviews with 26 participants from January 2022 to January 2023. Participants were selected purposively based on their position and role in CRC implementation experience from 6 regions of Ethiopia: Amhara, Oromia, South Nation Nationality People Region (SNNPR), Sidama, Benishangul Gumuz, and Southwest Ethiopian People Region (SWEPR). The ATLAS.ti version 7.02 software was used for data analysis, and interpretative phenomenological analysis was carried out. We found 5 main themes and 14 sub-themes from an in-depth interview. The 5 main themes that emerged include health care leaders' commitment to CRC, lived enablers of CRC, embodying CRC through actions of volunteerism, leaders' call to transform CRC advocacy, and sustaining CRC integration into systems and structures. These themes stress the transformative impact of CRC in health care settings, emphasizing leadership, collaboration, volunteerism, advocacy, and sustainability as key pillars for CRC implementation success, which enhances health care quality. The findings highlight that the implementation of CRC programs across all health care facilities is successful, leading to improvements in health care quality, organizational effectiveness, person-centered care, and the promotion of fundamental human rights.