Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Robert Rose, Market Chief Nurse Executive at Atrium Health

Transcript

Robert Rose, Market Chief Nurse Executive at Atrium Health · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

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  - This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Robert Rose,
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  market Chief Nurse Executive at Atrium Health.
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  Robert, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
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  - Thank you. Happy to be here.
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  - Now, I'm looking forward to learning more about
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  what you're doing at Atrium
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  and how you're really tackling some
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  of the big challenges in healthcare today.
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  But before we dive into my questions,
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  can you tell us a little bit more
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  about yourself and your background?
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  - Sure. Uh, I, as you mentioned, I'm the chief nurse
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  for our Atrium Health, what we call our central market,
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  which is the Charlotte Downtown campuses, uh, made up
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  of our flagship medical center, Carolina's Medical Center,
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  as well as our children's hospital
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  and one of our community hospital.
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  It's called Mercy Hospital.
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  And our clinics and our, um, oncology service line
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  and have been in healthcare.
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  I'm a nurse by background, have been a nurse
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  for a little over 30 years, so a long time.
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  I've seen a lot of evolution in healthcare
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  and have been in leadership for probably 20 of those years.
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  Uh, so great to be here
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  and to chat with you about what we're seeing at the national
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  and the local level as well.
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  - That's fantastic. Well, thank you so much again,
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  Robert, and let's dive right in.
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  What are some of the biggest issues
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  that you're focusing on in healthcare right now?
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  - Well, there is a lot of issues, as you know,
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  but I think I, I sort of call it our, my three Ws,
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  our workforce, our wellbeing of our workforce, and,
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  and then our, uh, workplace violence.
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  I think those are sort
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  of the three things that bubble up to the top.
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  Uh, there's many more, and they're all important,
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  but I think from my focus,
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  those are the two things I'm most
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  passionate about wellbeing.
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  We've done a lot in that space, both at Atrium Health
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  and Advocate Health now.
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  And, uh, excited to see where we continue to go
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  to support the wellbeing of our clinicians.
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  - Well, that's great to hear. And, you know,
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  could you tell me, or,
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  or dig a little bit deeper into something
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  that you do on the wellbeing side that you know,
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  might be interesting or unique, um, to
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  what you're doing at Atrium or advocate,
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  or anything that you've tried new over the last year?
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  I'd just love to hear what that means to you
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  and, um, how it really shows up, um,
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  within the clinical teams.
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  - Yeah, that's great. So in 2020, we actually were one
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  of the first to, um, produce research, uh, um,
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  during the first wave of covid, uh, uh, a study that we did.
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  And we published this study nationally about
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  what our clinicians felt during the COVID Pandemic.
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  And one of the things that certainly came up, obviously
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  changing protocols, staffing, all
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  of those other things did come up,
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  but one of the things that showed up is, um,
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  psychological safety.
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  And when we started looking more into that, we certainly saw
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  a drift of where our clinicians and,
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  and in my, in my space nurses
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  and primarily that, you know,
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  they were really having trouble.
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  I mean, if you think about just all the things
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  that were going on during the pandemic, not only were they,
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  you know, fearful at work, they had their home
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  to balance families to balance.
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  Um, as we continued to get more comfortable taking care
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  of patients during, uh, COVID, it started
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  to shift a little bit from more of a fear
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  to really feeling like burnt out, you know,
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  and, um, our workforces started to have a lot of challenges
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  as we started losing nurses.
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  And so really that sort of, um, for me sparked,
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  it ignited me to really think more about wellbeing.
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  Um, we've always done a lot in that space.
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  We have a wonderful pastoral care, um, department
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  that did a lot with it, like our code lavender
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  and, um, support of that.
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  And that was all done pre covid,
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  but we knew we needed to step it up a little bit more.
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  We did some things that other healthcare systems have done.
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  We get, we, um, gave our nurse managers, um, you know, we,
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  we brought them to a four day work week, um, uh, you know,
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  during that time just to give them
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  a little bit work life balance.
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  Um, and, you know, we did some other things
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  to support our leaders wellbeing,
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  but we really wanted to get to the clinician level.
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  So we brought in, um, a wellbeing coaching program,
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  and we're on our fourth cohort.
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  And what's really excited about that is when we survey the,
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  um, cohorts, each cohort, the, um, the questions, uh,
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  related to wellbeing, re resilience
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  and, uh, burnout, they all have measurable differences from
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  pre-intervention to post-intervention.
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  And the exciting thing about that is we're really looking to
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  embed a wellbeing sort of champion on each
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  of our nursing units.
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  Um, somebody that could really work with the team to,
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  you know, wellbeing's a continuum.
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  There's poor wellbeing and there's good wellbeing.
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  And we really wanted to make sure that we, um,
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  have resources for the clinicians
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  and the nursing staff to be able to really, um, balance that
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  and have sort of a, a positive outlook on things
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  and have a resource, uh, that they can go to.
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  We do have a very strong EAP, um,
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  but we do know that nationally, uh,
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  EAP services are only sort of, um, used about 35%, uh,
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  of the time nationally, and you have to go to them.
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  And so what we really wanted to design is a model
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  where there is somebody at the unit level appear,
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  a colleague that the nurses can go to, to learn really about
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  how to balance, how to have a, a better outlook, how
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  to improve their wellbeing.
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  And so we've really been trying to spread this model
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  and it's been really, really exciting work for us.
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  We also have a peer-to-peer support, uh,
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  that started in our children's hospital.
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  And we, um, are also spreading this work
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  where we're able to train people.
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  It's a six hour course.
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  Um, and again, it's another way for people
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  to have a resource in their units, um, to go to, to be able
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  to have some support from a psycho,
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  from a psychological wellbeing perspective.
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  So those are just a couple of the things that we're doing.
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  There's many, many more.
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  Uh, but, uh, those are the things
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  that I'm really most passionate about
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  and excited about to really be
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  able to support our workforce.
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  - I love it. I, I think it's so important, as you mentioned,
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  to have that kind of support
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  and really that the whole team knows, you know,
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  you, um, have their back.
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  And that psychological safety too, um,
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  makes a really big difference in terms
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  of your experience in the workplace, as well as ability
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  to have the flexibility to innovate
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  and really do some cool things for patients.
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  So that's really great to hear.
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  Thank you for sharing with us.
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  - Yeah, and then we, we try to keep ourselves whole, meaning
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  that we really want to make sure that we continue to,
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  to have a flavor of the month
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  and that we're, that we're sustaining the results.
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  So we do have a very, uh, committed wellbeing committee, uh,
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  made up of, uh, uh, staff, nurses
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  and others throughout the area that, um,
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  we get together monthly and we go over our programs,
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  we go over our results, uh,
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  we make sure we have people in the right places.
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  So we really try to take a strategic, um, viewpoint, uh, uh,
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  approach to this so that we're able
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  to really sustain the program.
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  'cause as, you know, things happen
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  and some things go by the wayside,
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  so we really wanna make sure that we,
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  that this is important.
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  - Absolutely. That makes a ton of sense and,
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  and really is helpful to elevate
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  and keep in that elevated position.
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  Now, when you look ahead,
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  what are you most excited about and what makes you nervous?
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  So
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  - I think from, you know, one of the things
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  that I'm excited about is really transforming healthcare.
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  You know, if, if we learned anything, uh,
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  we were just talking about this
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  before we got on, if we learned anything during,
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  during the pandemic, is that, you know, there is a lot
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  of things that we, um, do virtually,
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  which when you think about it saves us time
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  and saves us energy, um, it's more efficient.
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  Um, you know, but at the same time, we know that we have
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  to transform healthcare in a big way.
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  And so while I think that's exciting, it's also nervous
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  because we're going into uncharted territories,
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  and we do, I do know that, you know,
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  technology is gonna continue to be with us.
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  And so for somebody
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  that's been in the healthcare a long time
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  and probably spent most of their bedside nursing practice
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  with paper and pencil, um, we certainly, for me anyway, uh,
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  the comfort level on using
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  technology and getting used to it.
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  But this is something that we do know that, uh,
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  the new gener, you know,
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  the generation in the workforce is
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  something that they're comfortable with.
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  So we really need to do that.
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  If you think about acute care hospitals, we sort
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  of do the same thing we've been doing for the,
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  since I was at the bedside, you know,
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  not a whole lot has changed.
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  And so we really need to use that now.
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  We brought, we've brought in a lot of technology.
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  Our electronic medical record is, is superior.
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  We do a lot of things with that,
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  but we know we need to do things with, um,
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  artificial intelligence and other things to really start
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  to transform the, the work environment.
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  So it's exciting, but I think it's a little scary too,
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  - That that makes a lot of sense.
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  And certainly the technology component of it
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  and throwing artificial intelligence in there, you know,
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  it's almost like the wild, wild west in some ways of trying
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  to figure out how really to harness the, the power
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  of these types of technologies
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  and innovations, um, will also be extremely mindful of,
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  you know, the real world consequences that they can have,
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  um, if something isn't done correctly.
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  So it's just, it's been fascinating to watch.
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  - Exactly. - Now, you know, in looking at
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  how much healthcare has changed,
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  and I know you've had some really great experiences both on
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  the clinical side as well as in leadership.
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  I'm wondering, you know, what do you think will be the most
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  effective way that healthcare leaders will need to grow
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  and evolve in order to be successful in the next
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  two to three years or so?
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  - Yeah, great question.
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  You know, I think, I think we've always,
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  I think strong leaders
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  and leaders that sort of stand out, you know, sort
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  of stand out are ones that are adaptable.
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  And I think that's probably has not changed.
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  But I think that adaptability also now comes
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  with a strong sense of innovation.
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  For instance, at Advocate Health, we are, um,
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  putting our nurse managers through an innovation academy.
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  So we know that our nurse manager, the frontline to a lot
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  of our nursing teams, right?
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  They're the ones that do the hiring.
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  They're the ones that see that the,
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  that the nurse nursing teams see every day.
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  We want to be able to give them flexibility
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  and also excitement in their role.
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  So I think when you think about innovation, we're trying
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  to change them, um,
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  and give them the tools to be able
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  to be innovative at the front line,
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  because innovation sort of is a big word.
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  And when you think about innovation, you sort
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  of think big things, but there are small things
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  that I think our nurse managers are certainly capable
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  of doing that's in their hands.
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  So that's one of the things that we're doing.
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  So I think from a leadership perspective, it's
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  that adaptability with the innovation, you know, being able
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  to drive improvements in patient care,
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  operational efficiency and healthcare delivery models.
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  But, you know, using technology, technological approaches
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  to be able to do that, which I think is something
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  different than in the past.
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  Um, the other thing is we certainly want to use data, um,
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  and make decisions based on data.
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  And now with our electronic health records in,
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  in healthcare anyway, there's a lot
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  of more data at our fingertips.
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  For example, we, uh, we implemented a protocol, uh, uh,
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  technology with our, uh, false program.
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  We're able to get really discreet data that we're able
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  to see, um, a lot more about what happens
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  to our patients when they fall, meaning not what happens
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  to them physically,
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  but like the time of day, what would the staffing look like?
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  So really discrete data so that we're able
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  to make those improvements.
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  So I think that is another sort of comes together.
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  And then lastly, I would say that isn't necessarily new,
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  but I think it's certainly something
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  that we have paid a lot more attention with at Atrium Health
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  as our diversity, equity, inclusion,
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  and really making sure that we have, uh,
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  that we have leaders
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  and teammates that look like our communities,
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  and that we make sure
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  that we have accessible healthcare for all.
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  Um, you know, I love, uh, atrium Health's Mission,
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  health Hope and Healing for all
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  because, uh, our doors are open for everyone,
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  but we do know that there's health disparities depending on
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  where you live, what zip code you live in, and,
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  and you know that, you see the national data on that.
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  And we really gotta be able to, to, uh, um, you know,
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  do something with that and be able to, um,
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  meet the patients where they are.
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  And I think that's something that I'm really excited about
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  that at Advocate, that we really do, we do innovative things
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  to really reach out to our communities
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  and be able to, um,
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  give them accessible healthcare when they need it.
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  - That's amazing to hear. Robert, thank you so much
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  for joining us on the podcast today.
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  This has been a fascinating conversation.
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  I, I've learned a lot from talking to you
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  and really seems like you've got, uh,
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  fun things going on there, um, atrium and,
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  and certainly I love the idea
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  of having all the new nurse managers going
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  through innovation training
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  and really making that part of their role, part
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  of their mindset, and part of what it means
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  to be a nurse manager, um, you know,
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  in going throughout the organization.
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  So that's just fascinating
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  and I love the idea of bringing all of that into, um,
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  building a better, um, and,
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  and more sustainable health system
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  in the future. Thank you.
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  - Well, you're very welcome. And I'm, I'm glad
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  that we're able to connect and thanks for your questions.
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  Really excited about where healthcare is going,
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  but we do have a lot of hard work,
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  and I appreciate that Becker's is always there to inform us
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  and to help, uh, promote a lot
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  of the things that we're working on.
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  - Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Robert.
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  Look forward to having you back on the
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  podcast sometime again soon.
• 13:16
  - Look forward to it. Thank you so much.
• 13:21
  - It's so important for leaders at the top of organizations
• 13:23
  to keep learning, stay sharp, grow their networks,
• 13:26
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• 13:29
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• 13:31
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