The Handoff

Our guest for this episode is Dr. Joanne Spetz, a professor of Health Policy Studies, Family and Community Medicine, and Nursing at UCSF. She's also a researcher who focuses on the economics of the healthcare workforce, and her insights into the nursing workforce are more relevant than ever in the midst of a pandemic that has stretched our supply of nurses to the breaking point.

In this conversation, Joanne talks with Dr. Nurse Dan about the trends she's seeing across the profession, including a disturbing acceleration of retirements and nurses leaving the workforce. She previews insights from the bi-annual study she does in partnership with the California Board of Nursing, which looked at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the state's nurses this year. Joanne also shares her thoughts on how we can better use data to inform everything from healthcare policy to education to hiring and training.

Links to recommended reading:

• Forecasts of the Registered Nurse Workforce in California (2019)
• Survey of Registered Nurses - California Board of Nursing (2018)
• Additional California Board of Nursing reports

The full transcript for this episode can be found here: https://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/joanne-spetz

In recent years, the issues of moral injury and moral suffering have become widely discussed within the field of nursing. These conversations have taken on particular urgency as the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed many nurses to death and patient suffering on an unprecedented scale.

Our guest for this episode is Dr. Cynda Rushton, a Professor of Clinical Ethics at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and School of Nursing. After beginning her career in the pediatric ICU, Dr. Rushton became acutely aware of the moral suffering that clinicians face in the course of doing their jobs -- suffering that she says often goes unacknowledged. She eventually decided to pursue a career in bioethics, and has dedicated her professional life to helping nurses and nurse leaders find ways to build their resilience.

In her conversation with Dan, Dr. Rushton talks about the interventions that she thinks can best help nurses meet the unique challenges that come from working at the bedside today and how to maintain their integrity in the face of moral suffering.

Links to recommended reading:

• Moral Resilience Transforming Moral Suffering in Healthcare
• Johns Hopkins Institute of Bioethics
• How Johns Hopkins University Improved Nurse Resilience by Addressing Moral Distress
• The Burden of Caring: The Moral Injury of COVID-19

The full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/cynda-rushton

In the spring of 2020, Duke University hospital adopted a restricted visitation policy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, making it impossible for patients to see their families in person. Two nurses in the ICU at Duke's Heart Center quickly created a program to empower virtual visits via iPad.

Working in partnership with Duke's School of Nursing, frontline staff and the Heart Center's leadership team, Mollie Kettle and Kelly Kester developed workflows, trained staff, secured approval and implemented the process in just over a week. Not only did they make it possible to maintain a high level of care for patients and their families, they demonstrated how a crisis can lead to the rapid roll-out of evidence-based innovation.

In this episode, Dan speaks with Mollie and Kelly about their process and its outcomes, which were detailed in a study that recently appeared in AACN Advanced Critical Care. Mollie and Kelly also talk about their approach to change management and lessons for other nurse leaders.

Links to recommended reading:

• COVID-19: Mobilizing Quickly for a Rapid Response
• AACN Healthy Work Environments

The full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/mollie-kelly

The state of North Dakota has been an unlikely area of focus in the second half of the COVID-19 pandemic, first for the state's incredibly high infection rate, then for the governor's controversial decision to ask nurses who had tested positive for COVID-19 to continue working, and now, as one of the states with the highest vaccination rates.

Our guest for this episode is Tessa Johnson. Tessa is the President of the North Dakota's Nurses Association, and she's been thrust into the spotlight as the nurses in her state have grappled with the fallout from the governor's executive order. Dr. Nurse Dan chatted with Tessa to get her take on that decision, her thoughts on how things could have been handled differently and lessons learned from being one of the epicenters of the pandemic. She also shares what it's been like to become the face of the nurses in her state on national media outlets like CNN and MSNBC.

Links to recommended reading:

• North Dakota Nurses Association
• Tessa Johnson on CNN
• MSNBC: North Dakota Nurses Association president: 'We're in a very critical situation'

The full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/tessa-johnson

For nurses with a passion for technology, the time has never been better to explore non-traditional career opportunities. Early in her career, our guest for this episode, Molly McCarthy, did exactly that -- stepping away from the beside to pursue her passion in medical device design and health technology. After stints at Philips and Natus, she landed at Microsoft, where she served as the Chief Nursing Officer for six years, and now leads a team that drives digital innovation for health provider and payor organizations.

In her conversation with Dr. Nurse Dan, Molly explores the ways that nurses can get involved as healthcare delivery becomes more and more digital, as well as how Microsoft is working to get more nurses involved in its design process for initiatives related to the vaccine roll out and virtual care.

Links to recommended reading:

• Empowering Nurse Innovation in the NurseHack4Health: First Virtual Hackathon
• NurseHack4Health
• How to Find Remote Nursing Jobs in 2021
• 7 Ways Telemedicine Is Transforming Healthcare

The full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/molly-mccarthy

To wrap up our interview series for Black History Month, we are re-releasing a very special episode from our archives with Ashley Sayles. Ashley is a pediatric nurse practitioner living and working in Baltimore who has been very open about her brushes with racism and her experience being the only black nurse on her unit.

She joined Dr. Nurse Dan late last year to talk about how pivotal conversations around race have spilled over into healthcare, forcing those of us who work in this industry to reckon with how we care for patients and how we treat our coworkers of color.

In this interview, Ashley shares invaluable insights and advice to nurse leaders on how to create more equitable and inclusive workplaces and guidance to nurses who want to be allies for the nurses of color on their units. Ashley also shares why 2020 has been a turning point for her and other black nurses and the changes she's witnessed as a result of the growing Black Lives Matter movement.

Links to recommended reading:

• The ReNegade Résumé
• Being the Only Black Nurse on the Unit
• Black Nurses Rock
• The Role of Allyship in Healthcare and Nursing
• How Nurses Can Help Dismantle Racial Healthcare Disparity
• The Handoff Episode 44: Making nursing more diverse
• The Handoff Episode 45: What the ANA is doing to combat racism in nursing
• The Handoff Episode 46: Why going "back to normal" isn't an option for underrepresented communities

The full transcript for this episode can be found here: www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/ashley-sayles

Our third interview in honor of Black History Month is with Dr. James Simmons, a nurse practitioner and thought leader who has appeared everywhere from Good Morning America to CBS and NBC to People magazine. He's also amassed a large social following on Twitter and Instagram, where he answers health-related questions from the public at the handle @AsktheNP.

James is an outspoken advocate of both the Black and LGBTQ+ communities, and in his conversation with Dr. Nurse Dan, he talks candidly about the inequities that the pandemic has laid bare, and why "going back to normal" isn't an option for these individuals.

In this episode, James speaks plainly about how the system has let down and left out these communities and what nurses and nurse leaders can do to make a difference moving forward.

Links to recommended reading:

• Meet James Simmons of Ask The NP in Greater LA
• Nurse Practitioner Documents Getting The COVID Vaccine - What To Expect
• Healthcare and Cultural Considerations for Patients
• How Nurses Can Help Dismantle Racial Healthcare Disparity
• The Handoff Episode 44: Making nursing more diverse
• The Handoff Episode 45: What the ANA is doing to combat racism in nursing

The full transcript for this episode can be found here: www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/james-simmons

Our second interview in honor of Black History Month is with Dr. Ernest Grant. Dr. Grant made history in January of 2020 when he became the first-ever male president of the American Nurses Association. Across his long and storied career, Dr. Grant has worked tirelessly to advocate for nurses and attract more people to the profession.

In this conversation, he tells Dr. Nurse Dan about the ANA's priorities for 2021, including how they are working with the new Biden administration and influencing policy in Washington. He also talks in depth about the role of nurses in the vaccine roll-out, what he's hearing about nurses' mental health and what he thinks the long-term impact of COVID-19 will be on the profession.

Dr. Grant and Dan close out the conversation with details on the ANA's latest project to combat racism in nursing -- a project Dr. Grant says he hopes will be his legacy on the organization.

Links to recommended reading:

• 10 things you didn't know about Ernest Grant, the first male ANA president
• Leading Nursing Organizations Launch the National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing
• ANA President On Why People Of Color Should Be Involved In Vaccine Trials
• AHA, AMA, ANA Issue Open Letter Urging Health Care Professionals to Take Covid-19 Vaccine & Share Experience With Others
• The Handoff Episode 44: Making nursing more diverse

The full transcript for this episode can be found here: www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/ernest-grant

Today's episode kicks off a series of interviews in support of Black History Month. For the next four weeks, we'll be featuring conversations with leading voices in the Black nursing community around topics like building a more diverse nursing workforce, creating inclusive workplaces and providing equitable patient care.

Our first conversation is with Dr. Rumay Alexander. Rumay is currently a professor in The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Nursing. She was also the first nurse ever to serve as the university's Associate Vice-Chancellor/Chief Diversity Officer. Throughout her career, she's been "the first" or "the only" in many of her roles, whether it was the first woman, the first African American or the first person ever to hold a given role. It's a perspective that has shaped much of her career and her passion for topics like diversity, inclusion, belonging and justice.

Dan and Rumay talk in depth about how to make nursing at both the bedside and in academia more representative of the population overall. Rumay shares the strategies she used to widen the funnel of students at UNC, her thoughts on what good leadership looks like when it comes to advancing the cause of diversity, and how COVID-19 has actually been helpful in opening our collective eyes.

Links to recommended reading:

• The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing
• National League of Nursing
• Disruptive Demographics: Their Effects on Nursing Demand, Supply and Academic Preparation
• Diversity and inclusion research: G. Rumay Alexander (video)
• The Role of Allyship in Healthcare and Nursing
• Black History Month 2021 - Honoring Black Healthcare Leaders

The full transcript for this episode can be found here: www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/rumay-alexander

The challenges facing nurses and nurse leaders are bigger and more urgent than ever before, and our guest for this episode is an expert on a topic that is on the minds of nearly every healthcare worker: how to process the collective trauma that has been inflicted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Diana Hendel is the former long-time CEO of Long Beach Memorial. In 2009, one of her employees shot two of his supervisors before taking his own life, an event that profoundly changed Diana as a leader and a person. She spent the next six years working to heal the organization and a result, becoming a student of organizational trauma, a topic she says isn't widely understood.

After retiring from the hospital, Diana went on to launch an executive coaching and leadership practice to help other leaders who were dealing with this issue, and eventually wrote a memoir about her experience. She has now channeled her expertise into helping healthcare leaders and workers deal with the impact of COVID-19.

In this conversation, Diana and Dr. Nurse Dan talk about the difference between trauma and stress, the existential crisis facing nurses and frontline care providers and how leaders can help their employees through the unprecedented challenges of this time.

Links to recommended reading:

• Why Cope When You Can Heal?
• Why Cope When You Can Heal?: How Healthcare Heroes of COVID-19 Can Recover from PTSD (Amazon)
• Responsible: A Memoir (Amazon)
• Trauma to Triumph: A Roadmap for Leading Through Disruption (Amazon)
• Innovations for the Modern Nurse Leader: Team Mental Wellness
• Wellness Partner Program hosted by Trusted Health & Ohio State University College of Nursing

The full transcript for this episode can be found here: www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/diana-hendel