Latest / Becker's Healthcare Behavioral Health / Investing in People and Safety: Building a Resilient Behavioral Health Workforce with Kristen Kichefski

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Investing in People and Safety: Building a Resilient Behavioral Health Workforce with Kristen Kichefski · Becker's Healthcare Behavioral Health

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  Welcome everyone back to the Becker's Healthcare podcast
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  series. I'm Mariah Muhammad, writer and moderator of
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  Becker's Healthcare. And I'm thrilled to have with
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  me today the chief nursing officer at Bradley
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  Hospital, Kristen Kaczynski.
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  Kristen, welcome to the podcast. We're very excited
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  to have you join us today. To get
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  us started, would you would you mind please
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  introducing yourself and telling us a bit about
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  your background?
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  Yeah. Absolutely. So thank you so much for
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  having me today. I'm very excited to be
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  here. So as you said, I am the
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  vice president and chief nursing officer of Bradley
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  Hospital,
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  here in Providence, Rhode Island.
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  And I also oversee,
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  behavioral health nursing for the Brown University Health
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  System.
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  We have hospitals in, Massachusetts and Rhode Island
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  and a robust community mental health service.
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  My background
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  has been in, high acuity psychiatric inpatient settings,
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  with special populations,
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  including
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  forensics,
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  developmental disabilities,
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  geriatrics, child and adolescents.
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  And, throughout my career, I've really focused
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  mainly on,
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  really safe environments, violence prevention, staff development,
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  and, leadership development. Those are a few of
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  my passions. I have a lot of passions,
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  I guess, but, those are a few of
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  my passion.
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  Wonderful. Thank you so much for giving us
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  that background. So,
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  with all everything that you're doing within the
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  organization and everything that's happening,
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  in in the world today, what opportunities and
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  headwinds do you kinda have your eye on
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  right now?
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  Yeah. There's really so much happening,
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  in this space, and there's just been so
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  much going on over the last few years.
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  We talk about this post pandemic error, but
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  really before
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  that,
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  for years, we were talking about the impending
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  nursing shortage
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  and, you know, this looming
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  group of individuals getting ready to retire and
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  what were we going to do.
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  And then the pandemic years really sped that
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  up. So we ended up with,
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  a large number of of folks leaving
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  our hospitals, leaving our community mental health services,
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  leaving psychiatric nursing in general.
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  And this really presented a huge challenge. You
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  know, we ended up, with low staffing,
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  really trying to recruit nurses,
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  and really trying to provide the services to
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  this huge influx of people coming out of
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  this very difficult time seeking care.
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  And
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  it's
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  really has been an incredible opportunity.
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  One of the things that we have done
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  is really taken the opportunity here to flip
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  the script
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  and really
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  said, you know what? We're gonna take this
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  and just start building our own workforce, like,
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  building our future team,
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  and our the way the way we wanna
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  build it. Right? And,
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  really start looking for the opportunities, and there
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  are so many out there right now. There
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  are so many talented people coming out of
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  school who
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  actually have such an amazing,
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  passion for mental health care,
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  passion for psychiatric nursing, and I think a
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  lot of that does have to do with
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  where society is right now and the reducing
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  stigma. So it's it's been really exciting, but
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  that it that's been a huge challenge. And
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  also workforce safety, those those are really our
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  our two big challenges right now that we
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  really have our eyes on.
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  Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much for giving
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  us that information. I think workforce safety is
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  something that I I'm hearing a lot more
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  about, I think, especially within the last few
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  years, especially.
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  How are you thinking about growth and, I
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  guess, adding value to your organization this year?
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  You know, what we've been really doing is
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  actually combining the two concepts
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  that I just talked about. Really thinking about
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  how are we going to strengthen our workforce
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  and how are we going to strengthen
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  workforce safety.
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  And
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  they really do work really well together.
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  So we want to create succession plans. We
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  want to create
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  future
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  opportunities
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  for our,
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  individuals entering the workforce, and we also want
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  to create opportunities for people to be involved
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  in aspects that impact their daily work.
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  We are
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  creating new opportunities
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  for individuals. I'm very passionate about
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  creating pipeline positions. We are launching
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  new
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  positions that,
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  allow
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  a very common,
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  thing that you will see in hospitals across
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  the country,
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  a sitter. Like, you might see them on
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  medical units or other units, you know, psychiatric
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  units and emergency rooms throughout the country where
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  if somebody has a concern, maybe for falls
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  or or a psychiatric issue, they'll be assigned
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  someone to help monitor them.
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  And
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  we're taking this concept one step further and
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  giving them a very robust behavioral health training
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  so they can really do a lot of
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  active
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  deescalation and engagement during that time to really
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  get ahead of escalations
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  before they happen, engage patients,
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  and prevent
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  violence before
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  it it can happen. And And that does
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  two things. It actually also offers another career
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  opportunity for individuals in the hospital,
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  and it may give them another flavor for
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  something that they might be interested in
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  and give them another path that they hadn't
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  considered before. So
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  that is one of our things that we're
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  looking at this year. You know, we've developed,
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  behavioral health intern programs.
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  So thinking about our direct care,
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  mental health specialists,
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  behavioral health specialist workers, and,
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  developing internships for,
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  undergrad psychology majors so we can start backfilling
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  those individuals. Maybe they'll go on to get
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  a master's,
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  become a a psychologist.
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  Maybe they'll go on to,
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  be a social worker or a case manager.
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  We have our student nurse intern programs,
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  really engaging people very, very early. And then
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  getting them into our safety committees,
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  getting them engaged
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  and
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  giving us feedback,
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  working on initiatives
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  that impact the units and the hospital as
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  a whole.
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  Yeah. That's amazing. I I haven't heard of
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  that, before. So thank you so much for
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  sharing. And you kinda, already answered this next
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  question,
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  it's kinda touring into investment.
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  But my next question is, what is one
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  risk for investment worth making this year?
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  Oh, people. Right? You know? I think I
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  just said it.
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  People in safety. Right? I mean, I just
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  I think people in safety is just our
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  number one,
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  investment over and over again. And and and
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  when I say people, it's our it's our
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  staff, it's our community, it's the individuals that
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  come to us
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  for care, it's our it's our coworkers.
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  We have to have a healthier environment
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  and
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  it really it really comes from within. And
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  when,
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  as leaders,
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  we
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  model that, we invest in it, and we
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  have that genuine
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  passion for it,
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  when we can walk around our hospitals and
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  people feel it and they know it,
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  that that really makes a big difference.
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  And then investing in
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  our leaders as well. You know, I spoke
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  a little bit about
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  backfilling
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  our direct care teams,
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  but we also had a huge loss in
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  in our leaders. We had a huge loss
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  in unit leaderships
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  and directors.
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  And so we have a lot of
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  really
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  passionate and talented
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  individuals,
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  you know, with really big jobs, and we
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  really need to slow down and help them
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  understand how to balance
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  these really complex environments
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  where on one hand, they're trying to balance
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  staffing models and
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  flow and capacity
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  and,
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  you know, why did why why wasn't that
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  box of whatever delivered. Right? And then
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  also the three safety initiatives and then somebody
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  got hurt and then, you know, and how
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  do I do that, you know, how do
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  I handle that
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  and all of these things altogether. And so
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  we also do very, very robust
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  leader training for our new leaders, and we
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  have a lot of support for them to
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  help them really synthesize
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  all the concepts that we're asking them to
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  do to not only understand their role as
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  a leader,
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  but how to
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  really
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  take a safety culture to the next level
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  and and
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  help them bring their staff up to it,
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  not just give them a project and and
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  tell them to implement it.
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  Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. That makes a lot of
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  sense. And other than safety, I guess, do
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  you see any other,
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  opportunities for growth in the health care space?
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  You know, I I really think that there's
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  a lot of growth
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  for behavioral health
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  in in the outpatient and in the community
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  space. And,
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  especially
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  in child and adolescence,
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  you know,
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  we really would like to see
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  obviously more care outside of the hospital setting,
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  a lot of growth in the virtual space.
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  We have a lot of
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  partial hospital programs
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  in our system, and those are day hospital
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  programs,
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  which,
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  we have a wide variety for the child
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  and adolescent population.
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  So instead of being, on an inpatient unit
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  twenty four hours a day, that is, an
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  8AM
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  to 4PM.
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  Sometimes it's an after school program,
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  maybe a 4PM
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  to maybe a 7PM,
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  five days a week of hospital programming,
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  group programming,
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  and then they go home at night. This
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  is a huge area for growth and our
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  reach program,
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  is actually, you know, just
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  a huge opportunity. That is our
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  virtual partial program,
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  that we have in, in a few,
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  spaces around the country right now, and that
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  has been very popular.
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  The results really have been pretty remarkable and
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  comparable to the in person, and it really
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  is allowing us to reach individuals in rural
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  areas and allow them to participate in this
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  type of treatment.
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  Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you so much for those
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  final thoughts. This has definitely been a very
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  informative discussion. So, again, I wanna thank you
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  so much for coming off Epicurus Healthcare, especially
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  for the first time. And I look forward
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  to connecting with you again soon.
• 10:53
  Alright. Well, thank you so much.