Well Beyond Medicine: The Nemours Children's Health Podcast

Most of the time, we conduct one-on-one interviews for the podcast, with the occasional duo, trio, or larger group. So it was no surprise when Tracy Dill and Jordan Guthridge stopped by the mobile podcast studio at the Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando in early March 2020. The big surprise came when we learned that their relationship goes well beyond the walls of Nemours. 

Featuring Nemours associates:

Tracy Dill, Executive Assistant to the Chief Medical Officer, NCH-Orlando 

Jordan Guthridge, Interprofessional Education Coordinator, NCH-Orlando

Carol Vassar, Producer

Carol Vassar, Producer

If there is one theme that runs through today’s conversations in our pandemic-dominated world today, it is that working in healthcare is exhausting but rewarding. But don’t just take my word for it - here’s how a few of your fellow associates described how they feel when they leave work at the end of the day

Featuring Nemours associates:

Shalese Bennett, Certified Child Life Specialist, NCH-Orlando

Martin King, RN, Emergency Services Department, NCH-Orlando

Michelle Reed, Nutritionist, NCH-Delaware
Carol Vassar, Producer

Carol Vassar, Producer

Travel back in time to what may seem like eons ago: January 2020. A new year. A new start. A time when terms like “social distancing” and “quarantine” were rarely used, and when wearing a mask was exclusively for skiing. 

Planning for the 2020 Nemours Proms had begun in earnest in Florida and Delaware. The idea that a prom can be a normative experience was front and center for Dietician Michelle Fulmer and hematology/oncology nurse Julie Reegan when they entered the traveling podcast studio in Delaware in January 2020 and for Child Life Specialist and Florida Prom Chair Emily Bradley when we spoke in Orlando in early March 2020. 

Carol Vassar, producer

In this episode, we’re taking a look at the culture at Nemours through the eyes of three different specialties: Child Life, Nursing, and Pediatric Sports Medicine. 

Featuring:

Emily Bradley, Certified Child Life Specialist, NCH-Orlando

Susan Soderberg, Nursing Professional Excellence Coordinator/Nurse Educator, NCH-Orlando

Sarah Gibson, MD, Pediatric Sports Medicine Orthopedist, NCH-Orlando

Carol Vassar, producer

Building a strong structure or system of any kind requires a solid foundation. That is equally true for building a structure, or healthcare system like Nemours, where the foundation comes directly from the Dupont family. Featuring Nemours Associates Riva Brown, Dr. Alfred Atanda, and Janet Krossman.

SEGMENT 1: Nemours Associate Riva Brown is an interpreter and tour guide at the Nemours Estate and Gardens in Wilmington. She helps us connect the Nemours of yesterday  - and the Dupont family - with the Nemours Children’s Health System as we know it today.

SEGMENT 2: Children often explore career possibilities through play: dressing up as doctors, pretending to be truck drivers, or singing into a hairbrush with the idea that they'll be the next Beyonce. Dr. Alfred Atanda thought his career would be in construction - and in many ways, it is. Only he doesn’t build buildings. As an orthopedic surgeon at the A. I. Dupont Hospital or Children, he helps build, or rebuild, people.

SEGMENT 3: Janet Krossman is a patient liaison with the Emergency Department at the Nemours Children's Hospital in Orlando. She is the patient’s voice within the vast Nemours system. It’s a role that takes a great deal of patience, compassion and diplomacy. It’s a job that Janet sees as intricate to the overall Nemours mission. 

Carol Vassar, Producer

Doing the right thing doesn't always mean doing what's most convenient or expeditious. It takes sacrifice, cooperation, and shared accountability. It requires trust between patients and staff, and between associates and leadership. Sometimes it means staying all night to get the job done because others are counting on you!

SEGMENT 1: Dr. Lonna Gordon is the associate chief of adolescent medicine for the Nemours Children's Hospital in Orlando. Adolescents can be a tough crowd, but for Dr. Gordon, working with the 10-25-year-old age group is exactly where she wants to be. It started with both an early desire to pursue medicine, and an encounter with a teenaged patient who demonstrated that, for adolescents, trust is a precious commodity.

SEGMENT 2: Anesthesiologist Dr. Jay Deshpande serves as the Chief For Quality and Safety for the Nemours Florida operation. He is aa champion and leader in implementing "Just Culture"  here at Nemours. He talks about what is meant by "Just Culture," and how it impacts the work done by Nemours Associates across the enterprise. 

SEGMENT 3: When it comes to all things related to the heating, cooling, and ventilation of Nemours facilities throughout the Delaware Valley, Jeff Harris is the Nemours Associate to know! He is a facilities maintenance supervisor heading up the HVAC team responsible for Nemours newest location, such as those in Deptford, New Jersey and Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, to the A.I. Dupont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, portions of which date back to mid-twentieth century. Each presents it’s own challenges for Jeff and his team, and its love of the challenge, care for the kids and the feeling of being  a the overall Nemours team atmosphere - working in unison to keep kids health - that had kept Jeff coming back day after day (sometimes night after night) for over 15 years.

Holding a baby can be a life-changing experience for both the baby being held as well as the person holding that tiny infant. It is in these simple experiences where the Nemours Associates featured today find solace, healing and purpose. Featuring Nemours Associates Lynda Harriss, Dr. Meg Frizzola and Dr. Gary Josephson. 

SEGMENT 1: Volunteer Lynda Harriss has been dubbed by no less than the Division Chief for the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at the A.I. Dupont Hospital for Children in Wilmington as the “best baby holder ever!” During her 26 years as volunteer Lynda has spent the vast majority of her time working with babies and families in the PICU. It is here where Lynda finds solace in giving back after losing two of her own children. 

SEGMENT 2: Pediatric critical care physician Dr. Meg Frizzola came to Nemours 17 years ago for her medical school rotations - and she stayed for her residency, her fellowship, her career.  She is currently the Division Chief of the AI Dupont PICU, and interim chair of pediatrics as well. Dr. Frizzola considers herself a Nemours “lifer,” having come to the conclusion pretty early on as to what kind of culture would best suit her  - and Nemours checked all the boxes.

SEGMENT 3: In Episode 21,  surgeon Dr. Gary Josephson, Chief Medical Officer for Nemours Children’s Speciality Care in Jacksonville revealed something unusual: that he shares his cell phone number with the associates who work for him, so they can reach out to him anytime about anything. In this episode, we learn that Dr. Josephson employs that same policy with his patients, all of whom have access to his cel phone number. It’s just one of the many ways he goes above and beyond to support a family-centered culture at Nemours.

The ability to clearly see where you'd like to point your career or simply recognizing your own mother can make all the difference in how a life unfolds. 

SEGMENT 1: Pediatric dietician Michelle Reed was in high school when her father became gravely ill, inspiring her to a career in dietetics, yet she had little interest in either clinical work or pediatrics. That soon changed when she met a cancer patient after taking a part time job at in food services at the AI Dupont Hospital for Children in Wilmington.

SEGMENT 2: In the 1990's, Managed Care Manager Judy Jackson moved with her husband and infant daughter to Delaware smack dab in the middle of a mid-Atlantic winter. She and her young family piled into their car all those years ago for a drive, and came upon the exquisite Nemours Mansion and Gardens: the 300-plus acre estate of AI Dupont that includes the AI Dupont Hospital for Children in Wilmington. It was Judy Jackson’s introduction to Nemours, and she set for herself a goal to become a Nemours associate. 

SEGMENT 3: Kelly Rogers is the Nemours associate who makes the connection between healthcare and public health in Central Florida. She manages the Florida Prevention Initiative for enterprise, and her day-to-day work involves creating community partnerships that aim to improve the health of all children who live there - whether or not they are patients with Nemours.  

Carol Vassar, Producer