Leading with Hearts and Minds

Shaping Culture on Purpose

Joe Ryan on leadership, accountability, and building trust in the HSE

In this episode of Leading with Hearts and Minds, Joe Ryan, National Director of Public Involvement, Culture and Risk Management at the Health Service Executive, speaks with Marie Kilduff about leadership, organisational culture, and psychological safety in healthcare.

Episode Highlights

• Leadership and organisational culture in the HSE
• How healthcare culture has changed over time
• Compassionate leadership and accountability in practice
• Psychological safety, staff wellbeing, and patient safety
• The impact of workplace incivility on performance
• Informal leadership and culture change in healthcare teams
• Measuring culture through staff experience and patient feedback

Guest:

Joe Ryan, National Director of Public Involvement, Culture and Risk Management, Health Service Executive

In this episode of Leading with Hearts & Minds, Marie Kilduff speaks with Dr Pádraic Dunne, Senior Lecturer at the RCSI Centre for Positive Health Sciences and Principal Investigator of the Digital Health Research Group. Pádraic’s background spans immunology, psychotherapy, lifestyle medicine, and health coaching, giving him a unique perspective on what supports human wellbeing in a world that is moving faster than ever.

Pádraic explains what positive health science entails, breaking it down into positive psychology, lifestyle medicine, and health psychology. He discusses why lasting change is challenging, why quick fixes rarely work, and why awareness, compassion, acceptance, and vulnerability are essential foundations for both personal and professional well-being.

This thoughtful conversation offers practical insight for anyone seeking to support their own well-being or that of their teams in a high-pressure healthcare environment.

Guest:

Dr Pádraic Dunne, Senior Lecturer, RCSI Centre for Positive Health Sciences

Host:

Marie Kilduff, National Clinical Leadership Centre for Nursing & Midwifery

In this episode of Leading with Hearts and Minds, Marie Kilduff speaks with Amy Carroll, Assistant Director of Midwifery at St. Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny. Marie begins by asking Amy how she first entered midwifery, opening a conversation about resilience, mentorship, and the reality of learning under pressure.

She shares insights from her time as a Spark Innovation Fellow, including how design thinking, curiosity, and psychological safety can transform services and support teams.

The episode also explores Amy’s award-winning work on the MUMA Postnatal Hub, her approach to conflict and communication, and her advice for midwives who want to grow into leadership roles.

A concise, uplifting conversation about compassion, innovation, and leading with authenticity.

In this powerful and deeply personal episode, Prof Áine Carroll joins Marie Kilduff to reflect on how her mother’s final months shaped her understanding of what integrated healthcare should truly be.

Despite decades of professional leadership in integrated care, Áine found herself navigating a fragmented system that left her feeling powerless as a daughter advocating for her mum. That experience intensified her long-standing commitment to person-centred, coordinated care and exposed the gaps that so many families still face.

Together, Marie Kilduff and Prof Carroll explore:

• What happens when care isn’t joined up, even for those who understand the system
• The barriers that continue to block progress, from siloed services to poor communication and digital limitations
• Why leadership in a complex adaptive system must evolve
• The role of data, partnership, and meaningful relationships in driving improvement
• How the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC) supports global learning through the Nine Pillars
• Why hope, action, and collective responsibility are central to making real change.

In this episode of Leading with Hearts and Minds, Marie Kilduff speaks with Caroline O’Regan, a respected leader in healthcare education and organisational development who has contributed significantly to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and the Health Service Executive (HSE).

Caroline reflects on more than three decades of experience in leadership development—charting how the focus in healthcare has shifted from hierarchical management to a more inclusive, collaborative, and compassionate approach that values communication, empathy, and systems thinking.

They discuss:

• How leadership in healthcare has evolved over the decades
• The impact of Caroline’s work with RCSI on leadership education
• Preparing emerging leaders for complexity and change
• Why compassion and clarity remain at the heart of effective leadership

Presented by Marie Kilduff.

Produced by the National Clinical Leadership Centre for Nursing and Midwifery.

In this episode of Leading with Hearts and Minds, Marie Kilduff speaks with Claire Zangerle, CEO of the American Organisation for Nursing Leadership and CEO of the American Hospital Association.

Claire describes her unconventional path into leadership, from a second career in nursing to leading two of the most influential healthcare organisations in the United States. She reflects on the lessons learned along the way: the value of vulnerability, the importance of finding your “why,” and why leadership is as much about how we lead as what we achieve.

From addressing workplace incivility and burnout to inspiring the next generation of nurse leaders, Claire’s message is both practical and deeply human: nurses shouldn’t just have a seat at the table, they should set the table.

🎧 Listen for insights on:

• Redefining what leadership looks like in nursing
• Building confidence and authenticity as a leader
• Addressing bullying and incivility in healthcare
• Finding purpose and balance in demanding roles

Follow Leading with Hearts and Minds for more conversations with those shaping the future of compassionate, courageous healthcare leadership.

In this episode of Leading with Hearts and Minds, we speak with Dr. Chris Turner, Emergency Medicine Consultant and co-founder of Civility Saves Lives.

Chris shares how repeated experiences in governance made him realise that patient safety is not only about protocols and checklists, but also about how we treat each other. He explains how incivility hijacks the brain, reduces performance, and can ultimately put lives at risk.

From a small talk in Redditch to a TEDx talk viewed by over half a million people, Civility Saves Lives has evolved into a global movement. Chris discusses the science behind civility, the role of apology and humility in leadership, and practical ways to address uncivil behaviour with compassion rather than blame.

This is an important reminder that civility is not a nice-to-have in healthcare; it is essential for safe and effective teams.

Learn more at www.civilitysaveslives.com

Episode 1 – Season 2

Marie Kilduff in Conversation with Michael Comyn

Season 2 of Leading with Hearts & Minds opens with a deeply personal and practical conversation. Marie Kilduff talks with host Michael Comyn about his approach to emotional intelligence, leadership, and philosophy – and how these three strands come together to shape the way leaders think and act in healthcare.

Michael shares stories from over three decades of coaching and facilitation, reflecting on why emotional intelligence matters more than ever, what happens when leaders ignore it, and how philosophy can provide a framework for better decision-making under pressure.

Whether you are a seasoned healthcare leader or just starting your journey, this episode is an invitation to pause, reflect, and reconnect with the human side of leadership.

In our final NCLC Leading with Hearts and Minds Podcast episode for Season One, Ms Bonnie Barnes, Co-founder of the DAISY (Diseases Attacking the Immune System) Foundation, and Dr Deb Zimmerman, CEO, DAISY Foundation, provide an insightful overview of the role and function of the organisation.

Bonnie (and her husband Mark) founded DAISY, having lost her stepson, Patrick, to Immune Thrombocytopenia in 1999. Bonnie, Mark and their family were so grateful for the holistic, compassionate nursing care Patrick received that they set up the foundation as a way of recognising nurses and midwives for all that they do.

Deb is the CEO of the foundation and shares how this initiative has spread from the United States to 44 countries internationally while also providing an overview of the impact of the DAISY awards on nurses and their organisations.

Having listened to our podcast, if you or your organisation would like to get involved with this initiative, please get in touch with [email protected]

In this episode, Nursing and Midwifery Challenge Programme participant Rachel Kennedy shares her experiences of how this programme helped her develop her leadership skills and knowledge.

Rachel reflects on how she progressed through her Nursing career and used every opportunity for learning, growth and development. Rachel offers key messages for junior colleagues to help them overcome challenges they may meet.