Well Beyond Medicine: The Nemours Children's Health Podcast

 

Failure is an inevitable part of life - and something experienced by all three of the Nemours associates in this episode of “Champions for Children.”

SEGMENT 1:

Brandi Raulerson. is an admitting registration specialist at the Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando. Her role put her front and center as  part of a hospital-wide registration team that includes medical translators and other registration specialists across the five floors of the hospital, as well as all of the satellite locations in and around Orlando. -She and her fellow associates may find themselves working at any of these locations from day to day, depending on patient workflow. It a job that takes flexibility, dedication and true teamwork to avoid mistakes - and recover when you do make them.

SEGMENT 2:

Research is an important part of the work that happens at Nemours. Ever since opening our doors in 1940, Nemours researchers have focused on ways to reduce suffering and improve the lives of children, and helping advance life-changing medical care.

As the Director fo the Histochemistry Tissue Processing Core at Nemours, Heather Hardy and her team in at the A.I. Dupont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware make up a very specialized segment of that research within the Nemours enterprise. As with all research, there are many failures before new and life-changing discoveries are made. It’s just part of the job.

SEGMENT 3:

Janice Genke was working for a healthcare system in Memphis, Tennessee when she spotted an ad for an opening at the Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando. The hospital little more than a dirt and foundation when she applied for the job as the hospital’s head of quality and safety. She hadn’t even told her husband that she snagged an interview, so when the offer came to join Nemours, she and her husband had a long Thanksgiving weekend to weigh the pros and cons of relocation for a new job.

Thanksgiving is upon us - and there is much for which to be grateful, as we’ll hear from associates from across Nemours in the segment of the podcast, as well as in-depth associates stories from Jacksonville, Orlando  and Longwood, Florida.

SEGMENT 1: Rachael Linsley is a Patient Services Specialist group lead and preceptor in Jacksonville - and her speaking voice is a familiar one to those who call to schedule an appointment for the Jacksonville clinic. It’s a job that requires grace under pressure - and it turns out she’s another of many talented singers among the Nemours family of associates.

 

SEGMENT 2: About two hours southwest of Jacksonville is the small town of Longwood, Florida, population about 14,000. Nemours serves the kids of Longwood with primary care services, and Ruth Rivera is one of the first Nemours associate kids and families see as a patient services specialist and team lead. From a very young age, she knew she wanted to be a health care professional. Little did she know that she would sit on both sides of the health care table: as professional and patient family member. In fact, it was in caring for her youngest daughter that she experienced the full range of what Nemours could offer.

SEGMENT 3: At the Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando, Melissa Segura works as  a financial advocate supervisor. Her colleague, David Galindo, is a Hospital Registration Manager. Together, they talk about what it takes to create a high-performing and highly engaged team.

There is something to be said about being open to taking risks - to being vulnerable. It’s a valuable lesson that each story in the podcast episode brings to light in different ways.

SEGMENT 1: Nemour’s performance improvement manager Jessica Jordan has a theater background and a passion for community service. Her philosophy of continuous improvement can be summed up on one word: vulnerability - an idea carried forward into healthcare from her days doing improv.

SEGMENT 2: In May 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a gene therapy for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy - a devastating and often deadly neuromuscular disease. In fact,  Nemours was part of the successful clinical trial that led to FDA approval for wider use of this $2 million dollar therapy. It didn’t take long for Nemours to be approached about the possibility of administering the drug to its first SMA patient outside of the clinical trial. But there were challenges: It’s a new treatment. The patient was from outside the U.S.,  and time was short. Not to be deterred,  Nemours pediatrics neurologist Dr. Richard Finkel, and Clinical Research Coordinator Julia Balashkina led a team from across the enterprise to help get a little girl the therapy she so desperately needed.

SEGMENT 3: Pediatric anesthesiologist Dr. Katari Carello is devoted to the kids she serves. Yet soon after arriving at Nemours with her physician-husband and their young child, she learned she was pregnant again - with twins. New job? Pregnant with twins? No problem, said her colleagues- just one of many ways she felt welcomed and supported as a member of the Nemours family.

Hugs are an important part of healing. Employing them across Nemours: priceless!

SEGMENT 1: For 12 years, Myrna Rivera been a Medicaid Enrollment Specialist in Financial Services at the AI Dupont Hospital for Children in Wilmington. She helps families with kids who have special needs apply for Medicaid - and that can be daunting task - but not for Rivera, who truly enjoys her work helping others navigate the healthcare system. Recently, though, Rivera herself became ill - and it was she who needed help navigating the healthcare system - and her fellow Nemours associates were there at the ready

SEGMENT 2: Anesthesiologist Dr. Amy Burns has a unique perspective on how clinicians interact with pediatric patients. It comes from her experiences growing up with two siblings with serious health issues - and inspires the compassion she brings to her work at Nemours.  who brings to her work the compassion of clinicians she saw taking care her siblings while growing up. We’ll also take the time to remember the importance of hugs with a couple of MRI techs from the Deptford, New Jersey facility. Right now, meet Myrna Rivera.

SEGMENT 3: Nemours MRI tech Jenna Johnson and her colleague, Lisa, have 38 years’ experience in healthcare, and 18 years at Nemours. They have each worked in the adult health care setting, but have found that working with kids brings its own unique set of joys and challenges. They have a lot to say about the connecting with patients, letting them go, and the importance of hugs.

Anyone who has ever raised a child knows that different stages and ages bring new and sometimes daunting issues. Kids that don’t sleep, kids whose trust has been shattered by bullying before their arrival at Nemours, and figuring out how to pay for medical costs are just a few of the problems faced by patients and families within the Nemours enterprise. Lucky for them, these three associates were there to help.  

SEGMENT 1: The in-patient rehabilitation unit at the Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando provides physical, speech and occupational therapy for kids who have additional medical needs, and aren’t quite ready to head home. It was here that RN Leonine Nicoleau met a teenager who suffered serious injuries as the result of a car accident. Earning his trust - and that of his mother - proved a challenge due to a post-accident bullying experience before his arrival at Nemours.

SEGMENT 2: At the Jacksonville home office is a group of people who support the direct patient care performed by clinicians across the enterprise: the Central Business Office, better known as the CBO. Samantha Massey is a lead payer dispute specialist with the CBO whose job it is to make certain insurance companies pay for services delivered to Nemours patients. She does it with the parents in mind and a determination to remove as much of the financial burden from them as possible so they can concentrate on taking care of their ill or injured child.

SEGMENT 3: At the Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando, when the EEG team finishes their work for the day, the specialists from the sleep center move into the same space for the overnight. Using the same equipment, they conduct sleep studies on kids as young as two days old.

Respiratory Therapist and Sleep Technologist Lisa DeGuzman reveals how her team discovered and helped treat a toddler who, in her words, sounded like Darth Vader.

Listen to kids, and they can help us to help them in their journey toward better health. That’s what these three Nemours associates have done, in very different ways, during the course of their careers in children’s health.

SEGMENT 1:

Present and engaged - that’s Neressa James each and every day. When she says she understands what a parent is going through with a terminally ill child, she knows the pain all too well - and wants only to help those who stand in the shoes she wore not all that long ago.

SEGMENT 2: Come along to visit a hematology/oncology nurse from the Orlando Children’s Hospital to hear about her efforts to help her young patients maintain their personal dignity as they undergo treatment.

SEGMENT 3: There comes a time when kids become adults - and must transition from Nemours to the adult health care system. At Nemours, a transition plan for each young adult provides a road map of what’s to come, not only for them, but for their parents.

It takes a village to care for an ill or injured child. Everyone within the community of Nemours associates plays an important role in helping kids experience and grow in a safe and healthy manner. That care extends beyond the walls of Nemours building and beyond the time spent “on the job,” as demonstrated by the associates featured in this episode of the Nemours Champions for Children podcast.

SEGMENT 1: More often than not, the staff of the Nemours Emergency Departments have front row seats to the worst days of people’s lives - days when kids come in ill or injured, and lives are changed. Opportunities to put goodness, kindness and selflessness back into the world after performing such difficult work helps bolster morale and build closeness between team members. That’s the case for these staff members from the Nemours Children’s Hospital Emergency Department in Orlando. During their non-working hours, they volunteer their time to help kids at the Children’s Home of Central Florida. It’s become a focal point for building bridges with the community, and creating deep bonds between team members. These bonds they’ve built have helped them celebrate one another during good times, and bolster and console one another when faced with difficult moments - even times of deep personal loss.     

SEGMENT 2: An important aspect of treatment at Nemours is the whole child approach, which ensures that each patient is viewed  as a unique human being whose overall physical and mental wellness is paramount. From the Nemours Deptford, New Jersey outpatient locations come two stories of patients whose routine appointments led to needed treatment for unrelated issues affecting their overall  health and well-being.

SEGMENT 3: On the front lines, there are the clinicians and staff, working directly with the patient to assess their needs, create and execute care plans. For all involved - especially parents, caregivers and the kids - it’s stressful and scary. Behind the scenes, there are Nemours associates like Keona Pittman from the Jacksonville home office, whose sole job it is to remove as much stress from the process as possible.

The paths we take to find ourselves at Nemours are as individual as each associate. The school to career path is the most direct - but not everyone follows that formula.

The associates in this episode of the Champions for Children podcast arrived at their roles here by taking paths less traveled, including a childhood spent largely in a Bosnian hospital, and a career in opera and the theme park industry.

There will be singing, including the Macarena like you've never heard it before. 

Featuring:

MaryAnn Douglas, Respiratory Therapist, Nemours Children's Hospital, Orlando, Florida

Dora Jeffers, Medicaid Claims Specialist, Jacksonville, Florida

Dragona Pillug, Talent Acquisition Partner, Jacksonville, Florida

 

 

 

Families are the people we trust to care for us - and for each other - when times become difficult.

At Nemours, we serve patient families with care, compassion and experience - and we become families within our own teams. 

Nemours associates share the importance of family involvement in the care process, and how the strong bond of trust between teammates ultimately benefits patients. 

Featuring:

Shara Bialo, MD, Pediatric Endocrinologist, Nemours Speciality Outpatient Clinic, Deptford, New Jersey

Keith Fishlock, PhD, APRN, Emergency Department Clinical Specialist, A. I. Dupont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, Delaware

The EEG Neurodiagnostic Team, Nemours Children's Hospital, Orlando, Florida:

Helen Cano
Jennifer Campbell
Jessica Cooley
Gabriel Guzman
Viviana Rico
Leslie Rosa

Chance encounters are those moments when a person is in the right place at the right time, able and willing to do the right thing, with extraordinary results. 

Listen in as four Nemours associates share their chance encounters with patients, family members and colleagues, and how those moments changed their lives. 

Featuring:

John Gossman, RN, Clinical Nurse Educator, A. I. Dupont Hospital for Children, Wilmington, Delaware

Susan Blumenfeld, APRN, Neurology, Nemours Specialty Outpatient Clinic, Cherry Hill, New Jersey

Vikas Uppal, MD, Gastroenterologist, Nemours Speciality Outpatient Clinic, Deptford, New Jersey 

Tova Feehan, Speech Therapist, Nemours Speciality Outpatient Clinic, Deptford, New Jersey