Caring Greatly

Rhonda Collins, DNP, RN, FAAN, is the chief nursing officer at Vocera Communications. In this special edition of the Caring GreatlyTM podcast, Dr. Collins describes how nursing leaders across the country are tackling the unique challenges of COVID-19. She covers how technology can enable clarity and connection at a time when the frontlines are facing unprecedented levels of uncertainty, anxiety, and isolation. As we begin to emerge from COVID-19, Dr. Collins envisions a world where clinician and staff support will be more critical than ever before.

M. Bridget Duffy, M.D., is the chief medical officer at Vocera Communications. In this special edition of the Caring GreatlyTM podcast, Dr. Duffy shares insights into the experiences of clinicians and leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic. She discusses the need to provide safety and support to clinicians on the frontlines, and how clinicians are providing care and resources in their communities outside of their official roles.

In this episode of the Caring Greatly podcast, Dr. Fitzpatrick and I discuss the role of human connection in addressing health disparities. It is easy for C-Suite leaders to acclimate to the daily complexities of care delivery, which makes it important to step back and meet patients where they are. There is so much to learn from the community that can inform solutions to the foundational issues of misinformation and mistrust, which are enormous drivers of cost in the United States.

Mr. Dubovsky explains how a close partnership between experience and technology simplifies the work and provides a foundation for mutual effectiveness by maximizing adoption and minimizing mistakes. For a technology to be effective in delivering results, it needs to be intuitive, integrated securely with existing systems, and implemented seamlessly with existing initiatives. For a technology to unleash human potential, the people and teams involved need to discover and seize opportunities for deep cooperation and coordination.

In this episode, we discuss how to build a community-based organization centered on vision and values and built on a foundation of trust. According to Mr. Henkel, it can be all too tempting to compromise that foundation with excuses or a lack of transparency. Instead, leaders must have the courage to weigh every decision through the lens of mission, vision, and values. For example, when a series of acquisitions made hundreds of administrative jobs redundant, Mr. Henkel and his team gave affected employees two-years advance notice that their positions would be eliminated. This gave team members the opportunity to skill up, apply for other positions in the organization, or seek opportunities elsewhere before their jobs ended.

In this episode of the Caring Greatly podcast, we look at how cognitive load and overload affect nursing practice. We consider what can happen when technology is introduced into clinical workflow without considering how it may diminish clinicians' ability to focus on critical patient care tasks. We delve into how technology can be used to mitigate cognitive overload so that clinicians can be fully present at the bedside. And we look at the role of clinical leaders in shepherding in the future of healthcare technology.

In this episode of the Caring Greatly podcast, we discuss how embracing human-centered leadership is foundational to providing safe, high-quality care in an environment of respect and teamwork. We delve into Intermountain’s experience promises (always safe, always present, always together) and look at how they apply at all levels and in all interactions across the system, as well as the “proofs” that demonstrate success.

In this episode of the Caring Greatly podcast, we discuss what it means to instill a culture that is AlwaysThinkingAhead™ and how shared purpose can overcome the inherent tension between procedural checklists and creative thinking in healthcare. To bring a culture of empowerment to life, Ms. Hudson-Jinks and her fellow leaders are investing funds towards realizing brilliant ideas from team members and patients alike.

Arden Krystal, MHA, CHE, is the president and chief executive officer of Southlake Regional Health Centre in Ontario, CAN. For Ms. Krystal, human-centered leadership (leading people with humanity) is an imperative for healthcare providers competing for a shrinking pool of qualified talent from a generation with an entirely different outlook on personal fulfillment at work.

In this episode of the Caring Greatly podcast, Ms. Krystal and I discuss the challenges female leaders face when they try to take a human-centered approach to leadership, as well as the benefits to the system when leaders and team members alike are empowered to bring their full humanity to work.

We end with the notion that respect for your workforce means having the courage to not write policies designed to contain bad actors, but rather challenging your leaders to think in principles that empower the majority of dedicated team members without resorting to rules and regulations.

Emily Silverman, MD, is the creator and host of the Nocturnists live show and podcast, a practicing internist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. When Dr. Silverman felt a part of herself being stripped away by the “box-checking” culture of stoicism in medicine, she turned to the power of storytelling as a way to help herself and her colleagues digest and metabolize their shared experiences.

In this episode of the Caring Greatly podcast, Dr. Silverman describes stories as a way for humans to make sense of a chaotic universe and for each individual to find their place within it. She sheds light on how to unleash the healing power of stories to create human connection and empathy for others and for ourselves. Finally, we explore the value of storytelling within an organization and consider how to foster a culture of storytelling.