“Stable Team in Times of Change” is an educational and implementation programme carried out by the Healthcare Poland Foundation in cooperation with its content partner, medicine up. Its aim is to strengthen the real operational resilience of medical facilities by developing the competences of teams in three areas critical to the functioning of healthcare in conditions of pressure, uncertainty and increasing difficulties. In recent years, we have seen a simultaneous accumulation of phenomena that directly affect the stability of hospitals and clinics: chronic staff overload, a growing number of conflicts and complaints, escalating emotions in contact with patients, a decline in the psychophysical reserves of staff, and an increasingly difficult working environment resulting from permanent organisational and regulatory changes. In such circumstances, procedures and standards remain essential, but – as practice shows – they only work effectively when the team is mentally stable, able to communicate effectively in crisis situations, and has mature, calm leadership that builds trust instead of chaos. The architecture of the programme is based precisely on this diagnosis: it is a series of targeted training courses that can be implemented in full or in modules, depending on the needs of the individual unit and the profile of organisational risks (the modular structure has been designed as a flexible development path for the institution).
The coordinator of the initiative on the part of the Healthcare Poland Foundation is Mariusz Beberski – a member of the HCPL Council for Mental Health, nominated in 2025 by the Chairman of the Foundation Council, Prof. Jarosław J. Fedorowski. In practice, this means that the project is not run as a ‘soft’ HR programme, but as part of building organisational resilience and management quality in the health sector, with an emphasis on pragmatic solutions that can be implemented in the reality of on-call duties, overload and time pressure. The programme addresses the needs of entire teams: from medical and registration staff, through support staff, to managers and line leaders, because effectiveness in crisis situations depends on the consistency of the response of the entire organisation, not individual persons (the materials explicitly mention the following groups: doctors, nurses, medical registrars, managers).
“Stable Team in Times of Change” – the three pillars of the programme
The first pillar of the programme focuses on crisis communication and managing difficult situations – where tensions and reputational damage most often escalate. Participants learn to recognise early warning signs in patients before emotions get out of control, as well as to use de-escalation techniques when talking to aggressive, demanding or highly anxious individuals. An important element is practical assertiveness: setting boundaries in the face of verbal attacks while maintaining professionalism and the image of the facility. The programme also distinguishes between ‘types’ of patient behaviour, emphasising the need to choose a different conversation strategy for a person in panic and a different one for an aggressor acting in a calculated manner – which in the conditions of an emergency room, A&E or registration can be the difference between controlling the situation and its escalation. At the same time, the ability to regulate one’s own emotions under stress is developed so as not to be provoked, to maintain clarity of thought and to make decisions appropriate to the risk.
The second pillar covers team wellbeing and resilience, understood as practical ‘operational hygiene’ for working under prolonged pressure. This module focuses on immediate stress reduction techniques that work in real-life on-call conditions, rather than in a theoretical model. Participants learn to identify symptoms of burnout and depression in themselves and their colleagues in order to respond in advance, before problems turn into absenteeism, turnover or a decline in work quality. An important theme is separating professional and private life so as not to carry emotional burdens and ‘difficult cases’ home, and building so-called group resilience – an atmosphere of support that allows the team to regenerate after demanding events. The whole process is rounded off by energy management, understood as maintaining efficiency and commitment in the long term, even when the crisis has no ‘end date’.
The third pillar concerns leadership and conflict resolution – directly in line with patient safety and operational stability. The programme assumes that internal conflicts, role mismatches and unclear delegation under stress are among the most costly ‘silent failures’ in an organisation, as they reduce work flow and increase the risk of errors. Therefore, participants learn to use self-diagnosis (including DISC/FRIS/Gallup) to understand their own management style and its impact on subordinates in stressful situations, and then to tailor their messages to the employee’s profile so that task delegation and enforcement are effective even in operational chaos. An integral part of this is diagnosing the sources of conflict and ‘defusing’ them before they affect patient safety and the continuity of the ward or unit’s work. The programme also addresses managing group emotions during organisational changes or crisis situations, building the leader’s authority based on calmness and consistency rather than escalation. Particularly important is the component of building a culture of trust (psychological safety), in which employees are not afraid to report errors and problems – which in mature quality systems is a prerequisite for real safety improvement, not just formal compliance.
“Stable Team in Times of Change” programme is a part of a broader strategy to build system resilience
In terms of the Healthcare Poland Foundation, the “Stable Team in Times of Change” programme is part of a broader logic of building system resilience by strengthening people’s competences – in a practical, measurable way that is tailored to the reality of work in medical facilities. What sets it apart is that it is not limited to one professional group and does not reduce the problem to general slogans, but breaks down competencies into specific behaviours and communication procedures: how to recognise escalation, how to stop it, how to ensure team regeneration and how to lead people through change so that the organisation is more stable and the risk of adverse events is lower. The programme materials also emphasise the possibility of implementing the entire programme or selecting the modules that best suit the team’s needs, which allows for phased implementation without disrupting operational work.
