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A Prescription for Caring in Healthcare Leadership: Building a Culture of Compassion and Excellence
“A great reference for healthcare leaders who are looking for specific ways to show more care to patients and employees alike!”
— Heather R Younger, J.D., best-selling author of The Art of Caring Leadership
“This timely, extraordinary work is a must-read for leaders. Study it, take it to heart, and put its lessons into practice.”
— Jim Kouzes, coauthor of The Leadership Challenge
“An interesting and persuasive roadmap for success in any profession.”
— General (Retired) Martin E. Dempsey, 18th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Lead with caring to transform healthcare.
Build a thriving culture by caring for the caregivers.In A Prescription for Caring in Healthcare Building a Culture of Compassion and Excellence, Dr. Joshua D. Hartzell shares over 20 years of leadership experience and insights from 17 leaders to show how caring-inspired leadership can improve well-being, morale, and patient outcomes.
In this book, you will discover how
Lead with caring and reconnect healthcare providers to their purposePrioritize self-care and team well-beingSet high standards and give compassionate feedbackDelegate effectively to foster professional growthInvest in the careers and lives of those you leadRecognize your team to boost morale and create a positive cultureA Prescription for Caring in Healthcare Leadership provides evidence-based strategies to transform your leadership approach.
Start your journey to becoming a Caring-Inspired Leader today!
— Heather R Younger, J.D., best-selling author of The Art of Caring Leadership
“This timely, extraordinary work is a must-read for leaders. Study it, take it to heart, and put its lessons into practice.”
— Jim Kouzes, coauthor of The Leadership Challenge
“An interesting and persuasive roadmap for success in any profession.”
— General (Retired) Martin E. Dempsey, 18th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Lead with caring to transform healthcare.
Build a thriving culture by caring for the caregivers.In A Prescription for Caring in Healthcare Building a Culture of Compassion and Excellence, Dr. Joshua D. Hartzell shares over 20 years of leadership experience and insights from 17 leaders to show how caring-inspired leadership can improve well-being, morale, and patient outcomes.
In this book, you will discover how
Lead with caring and reconnect healthcare providers to their purposePrioritize self-care and team well-beingSet high standards and give compassionate feedbackDelegate effectively to foster professional growthInvest in the careers and lives of those you leadRecognize your team to boost morale and create a positive cultureA Prescription for Caring in Healthcare Leadership provides evidence-based strategies to transform your leadership approach.
Start your journey to becoming a Caring-Inspired Leader today!
444 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 18, 2025
About the author
Joshua Hartzell
15 books5 followersBorn in Aug 1981, Joshua Hartzell was born and raised in Nappanee, Indiana.
Joshua Hartzell started as an Army National Guard Military Police Officer in 2000. After 9/11 Josh transferred to the infantry. He spent one year of active duty to serve in Iraq and then another couple of months in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. Before going to Iraq Josh spent a year as a Fugitive Recovery Agent. After getting home from Iraq, Josh spent two years as a Corrections Officer with a county sheriff's department with over seven hundred inmates at a ratio of one officer to every one hundred prisoners. After completing two years with the sheriff's department Josh finally began a business as a Bail Agent. Now Josh owns a private investigation agency that works mostly on cases to rescue abused children. Turning his experiences into writing you'll find that there is no shortage of excitement and adventure in his novels.
Joshua Hartzell started as an Army National Guard Military Police Officer in 2000. After 9/11 Josh transferred to the infantry. He spent one year of active duty to serve in Iraq and then another couple of months in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. Before going to Iraq Josh spent a year as a Fugitive Recovery Agent. After getting home from Iraq, Josh spent two years as a Corrections Officer with a county sheriff's department with over seven hundred inmates at a ratio of one officer to every one hundred prisoners. After completing two years with the sheriff's department Josh finally began a business as a Bail Agent. Now Josh owns a private investigation agency that works mostly on cases to rescue abused children. Turning his experiences into writing you'll find that there is no shortage of excitement and adventure in his novels.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 28, 2025
A very practical book with chapters that are very useful and short enough to bot lose focus but enough to get a good flavour of knowledge. The prescription at the end of each chapter was my favourite innovative element of the book. I’ll write a more in depth review for BMJ Leader, with both +s and -s but the minuses are pretty hard to find!
August 12, 2025
I was reading this book while getting a pedicure and one of the employees at the spa approached me and said, “are you a healthcare leader?” I said I wasn’t, but that I research the topic of caring leadership and its impact on organizational performance. She said, “I’m asking because I am a nurse assistant at the hospital down the road, and there is so much favoritism among the physicians. They all need to read this book. It’s much more pleasant to work at this spa than at the hospital.” I was surprised and saddened by this comment. In an environment where caring is the central focus with patients, how could the same level of caring not be exercised with the staff? Hartzell explores the importance of caring environments in healthcare and shares practical tips for leaders who aspire to create a healing environment for their healers. Although his research focuses on healthcare leadership, these skills can be applied to any industry. This book is very well researched and clearly needed, as I witnessed myself!
May 14, 2025
INCREDIBLE BOOK! Caring in Healthcare Leadership
I finished reading A Prescription for Caring in Healthcare Leadership this morning by Josh Hartzell, MD, MS-HPEd, FACP, FIDSA. This book honestly ticks all the boxes for me describing what an exceptional leadership should and can be.
Josh wasted no time in the introduction pointing out that skilled leaders prioritize people first, the mission second. He quoted Major General Mike Steele as saying, “When accomplishing our mission and taking care of our people and their family’s conflict, good leaders find ways to do both.” Major General Jeff Clark added to that by emphasizing that “If you are mediocre, you can probably do one or the other, [but] he expected us to be good leaders” (page 23). This is something all leaders should aim to accomplish.
Throughout the book, practical tips are provided on a variety of topics. Several key points include:
*Leading with compassion to reconnect healthcare providers to their purpose.
*Prioritizing self-care and team well-being.
*Setting high standards and providing compassionate feedback.
*Effective delegation to foster professional growth.
*Investing in the careers and lives of team members.
The last two chapters of the book focus on recognizing and celebrating achievements of those you lead as well as thinking of the legacy you will leave behind. The legacy is not what’s on your CV, but the impact you have on those you encounter.
Truly appreciate the recommendation to read this book as it is what we all need in these turbulent times!
I finished reading A Prescription for Caring in Healthcare Leadership this morning by Josh Hartzell, MD, MS-HPEd, FACP, FIDSA. This book honestly ticks all the boxes for me describing what an exceptional leadership should and can be.
Josh wasted no time in the introduction pointing out that skilled leaders prioritize people first, the mission second. He quoted Major General Mike Steele as saying, “When accomplishing our mission and taking care of our people and their family’s conflict, good leaders find ways to do both.” Major General Jeff Clark added to that by emphasizing that “If you are mediocre, you can probably do one or the other, [but] he expected us to be good leaders” (page 23). This is something all leaders should aim to accomplish.
Throughout the book, practical tips are provided on a variety of topics. Several key points include:
*Leading with compassion to reconnect healthcare providers to their purpose.
*Prioritizing self-care and team well-being.
*Setting high standards and providing compassionate feedback.
*Effective delegation to foster professional growth.
*Investing in the careers and lives of team members.
The last two chapters of the book focus on recognizing and celebrating achievements of those you lead as well as thinking of the legacy you will leave behind. The legacy is not what’s on your CV, but the impact you have on those you encounter.
Truly appreciate the recommendation to read this book as it is what we all need in these turbulent times!
August 10, 2026
Colonel (Retired) Joshua Hartzell spoke at our College of Medicine's AOA induction ceremony. He is a dynamic, practical, and inspiring speaker, and I am not surprised that his excellent book, A Prescription for Caring in Healthcare Leadership, shares the same qualities. Dr. Hartzell's basic hypothesis is that leadership in medicine is comparatively understudied and underemphasized compared to clinical and technical knowledge, and that we healthcare workers (and, by extension, patients) would benefit from a more intentional approach to leadership.
In 23 practical chapters covering topics such as feedback, accountability, and humility, Dr. Hartzell collates best practices in leadership and shares experiences from a range of accomplished healthcare leaders. Each chapter ends with a "prescription for caring in leadership" section, with suggested next steps and recommended articles and books. This structure makes it easy to reference specific topics and begin applying the lessons learned in real time.
Overall, I plan to reread the book, and I believe any medical student, trainee, or clinician would benefit from Dr. Hartzell's approach to caring leadership. His goodwill and clarity of thought should be inspiring to leaders at all stages of their careers. Highly recommended!
In 23 practical chapters covering topics such as feedback, accountability, and humility, Dr. Hartzell collates best practices in leadership and shares experiences from a range of accomplished healthcare leaders. Each chapter ends with a "prescription for caring in leadership" section, with suggested next steps and recommended articles and books. This structure makes it easy to reference specific topics and begin applying the lessons learned in real time.
Overall, I plan to reread the book, and I believe any medical student, trainee, or clinician would benefit from Dr. Hartzell's approach to caring leadership. His goodwill and clarity of thought should be inspiring to leaders at all stages of their careers. Highly recommended!
February 11, 2026
My first leadership book! The main thesis, which I am convinced of now, is that a leader must be caring. Care about the people you lead, and people will care about your mission. Was pleasantly surprised by how much behind the scenes work goes into being an effective, thoughtful leader and am eager to devote more time to this important skill.
Quotes I liked / takeaways:
- People equate caring with being "soft", or being overly nice to people and "not having the fortitude to make hard decisions". Why is "people skills" considered to be a "soft" skill? "Being a caring leader means that we must embrace some of the more challenging aspects of leadership even more so, because we care."
- "Own your awesome, and acknowledge your awful." Model humility, accountability and self-compassion.
- "The problem is almost everyone in healthcare puts the needs of others above their own. The system around us is collapsing, but because of how much we care about our patients, we figure out ways to make it work." "'We cannot continue to rely on the altruism of health care workers to make up for the lack of staff, support, and resources.'"
- "'If you haven't read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren't broad enough to sustain you.'"
- "'People don't get burned out because they're working too hard, they burn out because they're having too little impact.'"
- "' We don't get burned out because of what we do. We get burned out because we forget why we do it.'"
- The rest of the book was a fast read / skim with tips that seem obvious when reading, but in reality difficult to practice, so the various anecdotes were helpful.
- I liked the 3:1 positive:negative ratio as a way to balance fostering a positive energy while avoiding toxic positivity.
Quotes I liked / takeaways:
- People equate caring with being "soft", or being overly nice to people and "not having the fortitude to make hard decisions". Why is "people skills" considered to be a "soft" skill? "Being a caring leader means that we must embrace some of the more challenging aspects of leadership even more so, because we care."
- "Own your awesome, and acknowledge your awful." Model humility, accountability and self-compassion.
- "The problem is almost everyone in healthcare puts the needs of others above their own. The system around us is collapsing, but because of how much we care about our patients, we figure out ways to make it work." "'We cannot continue to rely on the altruism of health care workers to make up for the lack of staff, support, and resources.'"
- "'If you haven't read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren't broad enough to sustain you.'"
- "'People don't get burned out because they're working too hard, they burn out because they're having too little impact.'"
- "' We don't get burned out because of what we do. We get burned out because we forget why we do it.'"
- The rest of the book was a fast read / skim with tips that seem obvious when reading, but in reality difficult to practice, so the various anecdotes were helpful.
- I liked the 3:1 positive:negative ratio as a way to balance fostering a positive energy while avoiding toxic positivity.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews