Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Building a Sustainable Nursing Workforce Through Transparency and Growth with Christopher Ruppert

Transcript

Building a Sustainable Nursing Workforce Through Transparency and Growth with Christopher Ruppert · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  - At Insight Global Health, we are dedicated to
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  - the problems that we face in health care.
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  - delivering them. Visit us at insightglobal.com.
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  - Hello, everyone. My name is Francesca Matthews, and
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  - I'm here at Becker's sixteenth annual meeting. Welcome
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  - to the podcast.
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  - I am here with Christopher Rupert, vice president
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  - of patient care services and chief nursing officer
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  - at Mercy Hospital Catholic Health. Thank you for
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  - joining us today. Alright. Thank you so much
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  - for having me. Absolutely.
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  - To start us off, could you briefly introduce
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  - yourself, your role, and the scope of your
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  - organization,
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  - as well as what's currently commanding most of
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  - your attention as a leader? Sure. Absolutely. So
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  - as you mentioned,
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  - Chris Rupert, I'm the CNO
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  - and, VP of patient care services at Mercy
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  - Hospital. Mercy is,
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  - one of six hospitals within the Catholic health
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  - system on Long Island.
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  - So right now, I oversee nursing and clinical
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  - operations.
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  - My focus really on workforce strategy, quality outcomes,
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  - and overall experience for the hospital.
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  - Currently, though, my focus is navigating increasing care
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  - demands in a financially constrained environment.
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  - Right? This is what we struggle with.
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  - So I'm working to try and shift from
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  - day to day staffing management to building a
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  - more sustainable future ready workforce, especially for nursing.
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  - Right. Absolutely.
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  - And in a year marked by rapid change,
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  - what recent decision or pivot required the most
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  - leadership conviction from you, particularly when it came
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  - to aligning people, resources, or capabilities?
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  - Yeah. Great question. So,
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  - honestly, the biggest challenge for me has been
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  - rethinking how we approach staffing in the nursing
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  - department.
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  - Historically, we've relied,
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  - heavily on overtime and premium labor, and we
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  - need to shift that to more sustainable models.
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  - Staffing,
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  - especially in nursing, sits at the intersection of
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  - quality,
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  - experience, and financial stewardship.
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  - So if you staff too heavily, you're not
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  - being financially responsible.
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  - If you staff, too little, now you're putting
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  - your quality and your experience and your and
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  - your patient safety at risk. So we know,
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  - just to continue on that thought, we know
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  - this isn't temporary. Right? Turnover for nursing still
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  - remains in the mid teens,
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  - nationally.
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  - Right? Burnout is closely tied to staffing pressures,
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  - especially in nursing. So the challenge here isn't
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  - just staffing. It's how do we staff, and
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  - how do we be precise about it. Mhmm.
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  - Mhmm. Absolutely. I know staffing is, yeah, just
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  - one of the most important issues there.
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  - How does this moment challenge your assumptions, and
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  - what has it changed about how you approach
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  - decision making, talent, or organizational readiness today?
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  - Yeah. Again,
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  - you know, I'm gonna stay on the topic
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  - of staffing here.
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  - You know, filling shifts is really not the
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  - same as solving the problem.
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  - K? So my focus has shifted toward workforce
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  - design, trying to build pipelines in nursing to
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  - develop internal talent,
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  - creating systems that flex with demand. This is
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  - incredibly difficult, especially in nursing.
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  - But when you consider how many nurses leave
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  - early in their careers, that pipeline is what's
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  - going to help you retain your staff.
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  - So we've also started incorporating a little bit
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  - of IO psych in what we do,
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  - just being more intel
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  - intentional
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  - about how we grow,
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  - individuals within the organization and creating pathways for
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  - them that are clear and transparent from the
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  - day they start and and to help them
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  - achieve the goals that they wanna achieve within
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  - the organization.
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  - Absolutely. And when you think about the forces
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  - reshaping health care or especially staffing right now,
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  - where do you believe leaders need to be
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  - more decisive, especially when balancing speed, risk, and
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  - having the right teams in place?
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  - Yeah. Again, great question. I think leaders need
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  - to be more decisive around
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  - how we redesign that care model.
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  - Right?
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  - So, again,
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  - with demand for patient care rising,
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  - it's a structural issue that we have to
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  - deal with. And,
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  - incremental change to staffing models is not gonna
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  - cut it. Right? We have to rethink how
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  - the care is delivered
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  - and how the workforce is really designed to
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  - support it.
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  - Mhmm.
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  - Nursing relies heavily on the way we used
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  - to do things and the way we used
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  - to staff, and, you know, that mentality is
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  - is just not gonna get us there going
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  - forward.
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  - Absolutely. And that's echoing a lot of themes
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  - I've been hearing at the conference so far.
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  - Has uncertainty becomes the norm?
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  - What leadership habit or mindset has been most
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  - critical in keeping your organization, your people moving
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  - forward? You kind of just touched on that,
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  - leading things in the past, not doing what
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  - we used to do. Yeah. Exactly.
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  - But, yeah, if you wanna You know what
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  - I mean? I don't think my team expects
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  - absolutes, and I don't think they expect certainty.
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  - But they do expect direction, and they do
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  - expect transparency.
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  - And I think, you know, especially when a
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  - significant portion of my workforce is considering leaving,
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  - it's important for me as the leader to
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  - be transparent
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  - really around what are the challenges, how are
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  - we communicating the path forward, and that there
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  - is a light at the end of the
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  - tunnel.
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  - Mhmm. Mhmm.
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  - As labor markets remain tight and care demands
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  - to con continue to grow, how are you
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  - rethinking traditional workforce models, including greater use of
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  - international or contingent talent to build resilience rather
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  - than just fill gaps?
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  - I'm actually not considering international or contingent talent.
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  - Mhmm. Right? I really wanna focus on,
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  - the individuals that I hire
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  - and
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  - actually making it easier for them to grow
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  - within the organization.
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  - Right? Because
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  - as a nurse,
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  - if you don't see that internal pathway for
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  - your career, you'll leave, and you'll find that
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  - pathway somewhere else. So it's up to us,
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  - up to me in my hospital
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  - to be completely transparent with what that pathway
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  - looks like and show them how they can
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  - get from point a to point b in
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  - their career within our organization.
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  - Absolutely.
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  - And thank you so much for for joining
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  - us today. Appreciate it. Thank you for having
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  - me again.