The Handoff

The Handoff will be back with season 3 next Wednesday, January 27 featuring interviews on topics like clinical ethics and moral resilience, mental health and burnout, the intersection of nursing and the gig economy, and diversity in nursing at the leadership level.

Informatics is a quickly growing field in the nursing world, and yet there is often confusion about what exactly informaticists do and how their work intersects with clinical nurses. Our guest for this episode is Tammy Kwiatkoski, director of clinical informatics for HIMSS. She’s here to dispel some of the mystery around this role, speak to why informatics is an attractive career path for nurses and what kind of skills are needed to break into the field. We also talk about how nurse leaders can partner with their colleagues in informatics to deliver better patient care. 

Tammy and Dr. Nurse Dan also speak about the impact that COVID-19 has had in her world. When the pandemic began, nurse informaticists at many health systems quickly stepped in to configure telemedicine tools, update documentation procedures, secure translators and ensure patients could receive virtual care, giving this role a new urgency literally overnight. 

Links to recommended reading: 

• HIMSS Nursing Informatics Workforce Survey 
• Nursing Informatics Community 

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

Our guest for this episode is an expert on clinical education and is helping to answer a question that is close to Dr. Nurse Dan’s heart: “How do we train the doctors and nurses of the future?” 

Lawrence Sherman is the CEO of Meducate Global, a consultancy whose goal is to improve the education of healthcare professionals around the world. He and Dan talk about how the landscape for clinical education is changing, and how those changes have been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic as learning has moved from a face-to-face setting to a digital one. 

Lawrence shares his thoughts on how the role of clinical educator needs to evolve from a one-directional transferer of knowledge to a facilitator of learning. He also shares advice for nurse leaders who want to build on the innovation happening in academia and embed that into their own culture of continuous learning. We also talk about the benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary learning in a hospital setting. 

Links to recommended reading: 

• Meducate Global 
• TEDxMaastricht - Lawrence Sherman - "Turning medical education inside out and upside down" 
• The Future of Nursing Education 

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

Our guest for this episode has some strong opinions on nursing education and nurse leadership, and how we can evolve both of those areas. 

Jannah Amiel became a pediatric nurse in 2007, but quickly realized that her passion was in teaching after seeing that the traditional nursing school model wasn’t setting up many students for success. After working in academia for several years, she ultimately launched TootRN, a one-to-one tutoring program that prepares nursing students for their NCLEX. She’s also a nursing Content Manager at Osmosis, where develops content that’s custom tailored to Nursing students. 

In her conversation with Dr. Nurse Dan, Jannah shares her thoughts on what she thinks is working in nursing education and where she thinks we need improvement. She also talks about why our thinking about nurse leaders is antiquated and causes us to miss out on promising talent and why conversations with nurses about leadership need to start much earlier in their career. 

Links to recommended reading: 

• Osmosis Team Spotlight: Jannah Amiel, MSN, BSN, RN, Nursing Content Manager 
• Osmosis Raise the Line Podcast 
• The NCLEX® Playbook 

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

Today’s guest is someone very special who is working tirelessly to change the field of nursing. 

Andrea Dalzell is a registered nurse and a pioneering activist for people with disabilities. At five years old, she was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder that left her unable to walk. Despite spending most of her life in a wheelchair, Andrea has been determined to make a difference, graduating with honors and receiving many awards for her advocacy work and leadership, including the Cindy Loo Disability Rights Advocate Award. 

In 2018, Andrea became not only a registered nurse, but the only nurse in all of New York City who is in a wheelchair. After the school where she was working closed down in March, Andrea heeded Governor Cuomo’s call for help and began working on the frontlines with the city’s COVID patients. 

Throughout her professional journey, Andrea has had to fight against the preconceived notions that her professors, bosses and colleagues have had about her disability. She has worked tirelessly to promote health inclusion and advocate for people with disabilities. Last month, she was awarded the inaugural Craig H. Neilsen Visionary Prize, which she’ll be using to start a foundation to encourage people with disabilities to get into the field of nursing and to ensure that nursing schools are equipped to handle students with disabilities. 

Dr. Dan speaks with Andrea about her experiences, what she plans to do next and what she wants nurse leaders and other individuals working in the healthcare industry to know. 

Links to recommended reading: 

• Craig H. Neilsen Visionary Prize 
• 'Good Morning America' surprises NYC nurse, disability advocate with $1 million
• This RN Who Uses a Wheelchair Is Treating COVID-19 Patients in NYC 
• Trusted Health Frontline Nurse Mental Health & Well-being Survey 

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

One of the things that many people are surprised to learn about nursing is how strong the culture of bullying can be. It’s an issue that Dr. Nurse Dan feels passionately about addressing, and in this episode he goes deep with Dr. Renee Thompson on this issue and some of the root causes behind it. 

Renee is the CEO and founder of The Healthy Workforce Institute, a training and consulting company dedicated to helping healthcare organizations create a healthy workforce by eradicating bullying and incivility.

In her conversation with Dan, Renee shares advice on the behaviors that nurse leaders should look out for among their staff as well as key confronting strategies. She explains why confronting is actually much easier than you might think. Renee also shares where she sees the most bad behavior happening and the role of self-care in creating a healthy workplace.

Links to recommended reading: 

• A survey of the impact of disruptive behaviors and communication defects on patient safety. 
• What Leaders and Employees Can Do To Eradicate Bullying in Healthcare 
• Enough! Eradicate Bullying and Incivility in Healthcare: Strategies for Front Line
• "Do No Harm" Applies To Nurses Too!
• Share Conflict In Nursing: Types, Strategies, and Resolutions   

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

2020 has been a pivotal year for discussions about race and many of these important conversations 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. 

Our guest for this episode is Ashley Sayles, a pediatric nurse practitioner living and working in Baltimore. Ashley has been very open about her brushes with racism and her experience being the only black nurse on her unit.

In this conversation, she 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 how 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 full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/ashley-sayles 

Over the course of this season, we’ve had several guests on the show to talk about the unique role that nurses play in spurring grassroots innovation within their organizations. Our guest for this episode is putting this into practice and has made innovation a theme of her career. 

Charlene Platon is a rising star in the nursing profession. In under ten years, she’s risen up the ranks to become the Director of Ambulatory Nursing at Stanford Health Care and was recently named as one of the inaugural recipients of Johnson & Johnson’s Nurse Innovation Fellowship. She’s passionate about using technology to transform healthcare delivery and improve patient care. 

In addition to innovation, Charlene is also passionate about leadership, particularly from a millennial point of view. In this episode, she and Dan talk about everything from gaining confidence as a new leader, the importance of soft skills and emotional intelligence in managing teams and how to make time for innovation-related projects as a nurse.

Links to recommended reading: 

• Meet the 12 Inspired Nurses of the First J&J Nurse Innovation Fellowship
• Ambulatory Nursing at Stanford Health Care  
• The Nurse Hack for Health: COVID-19 Virtual Hackathon 
• Association of California Nurse Leaders 
• Episode 18: Why these two design experts think nurses are uniquely well-suited to be agents of innovation 
• Episode 24: Why we need more products designed by nurses 
• Episode 30: How nurses can develop an innovation mindset

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

Our guest for this episode believes that skilled leadership is, first and foremost, about being what he calls a “people whisperer.” Sean Olson is an executive coach with more than 20 years of experience helping individuals and teams reach their full potential. In his role, he has worked with dozens of healthcare and nurse leaders. 

Sean is a firm believer that being a nurse leader is about people, not processes and that knowing and being connected to one’s team is the single most important part of the job. 

Sean and Dan talk about how to cultivate those relationships, particularly when you manage a large team and can’t stay tapped into every single individual. Sean also talks about how he’s coaching clients who have seen their rate of innovation speed up as a result of COVID-19, and want to keep that pace even after the pandemic subsides.  

Links to recommended reading: 

• Renogize Professional Coaching 
• What Are the HALT Risk States? 
• Diffusion of Innovations 
• This Is How I Role

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

In our first-ever live episode of The Handoff, Dr. Nurse Dan is joined by our guest from episode one, Courtnay Caufield, Chief Nurse Executive at Kaiser Permanente’s Sunnyside Medical Center, to talk about all things mental wellness. 

In this conversation, Dan and Courtnay talk about how nursing leaders can support their teams with proven tools to help them build resilience, improve their mental wellness and ensure the best possible outcomes for their patients.  

Links to recommended reading: 

• Innovations for the Modern Nurse Leader: Team Mental Wellness
• The Handoff Live on YouTube 
• Resources for Mental Health & Emotional Support 

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