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In the final episode of season seven, Dani speaks with Jackie Ward, the Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at Texas Children's Hospital (TCH). Jackie shares her insights on developing a strong nursing workforce, supporting frontline nurses and managers, and fostering a culture of growth and retention. She highlights TCH's efforts to maintain an efficient workforce during the pandemic, including innovative nursing roles, partnerships, and flexible scheduling. Jackie emphasizes the importance of wellness, work-life harmony, and professional advancement in shaping the future of the nursing profession. Tune in to learn about the inspiring story of TCH and the impact of collaboration and innovation in nursing. And don't miss Dani's note about season eight!

Dani is joined by Dr. Kristin Shelley, Senior Consultant of Workforce Management at Trinity Health. Kristin shares her experiences with workforce flexibility, international nurses, incentive programs, and technology implementation in healthcare. Kristin discusses the impact of hiring hiring international nurses, and details a revised incentive program she helped launch. 

Dani speaks with Bryan Sisk, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Executive at Memorial Hermann Health System, to discuss their transformative work in the healthcare industry. Bryan shares insights about the Memorial Hermann Nursing Institute, which is designed to accelerate innovation and support nurses in their professional development. He also highlights their community-centric approach, with a focus on impacting health holistically through unique programs, initiatives, and partnerships. Bryan calls for nurses to embrace their roles as innovators and problem solvers in the ever-evolving healthcare landscape.

Dani welcomes Brian Weirich, the System Chief Nursing Informatics Officer for Banner Health. Brian shares his thoughts on the future of nursing, and how technology can reduce the burden on nurses and improve the overall healthcare experience. Brian shares his experiences in developing a natural language processing tool that can help reduce the documentation burden on nurses and automate some of the physical tasks they are responsible for. He emphasizes the need for human oversight in this process and acknowledges that technology can never replace critical thinking in nursing. He also shares his passion for the importance of being a lifelong learner.  

Dani speaks with Lisa Summers and Kimberly Gordon, the cofounders of Healing Politics, a nonprofit dedicated to getting more nurses into elected office. Hear how nurses' experiences in clinical settings, their ability to establish trust, and their systems thinking make them ideal candidates for elected positions. Lisa and Kimberly also share stories of nurse legislators, emphasizing the importance of health considerations in policy-making. The conversation highlights the need for mentorship, support, and civic engagement among the nursing community to amplify their voice and promote positive change in the political environment. Join us as we dive into the world of nursing and politics, and envision a future where nurses can bring healing and innovative solutions to a divided political landscape.

Dani speaks with Rudy Jackson, the Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer of UW Health in Madison, Wisconsin. Rudy talks about the challenges faced by healthcare leaders in providing flexibility to their nursing staff, while also meeting the needs of patients. He discusses the importance of self-scheduling and work-life balance, as well as the need to stay informed and up-to-date with changes in healthcare. Rudy emphasizes the importance of listening to frontline staff and supporting them in finding solutions to problems. We dive deep into the challenges faced by healthcare organizations in providing high-quality care while also supporting their staff.

Aries Limbaga is the CEO of Rancho Amigos National Rehabilitation Center and System Chief Nursing Officer. He joins Dani to discuss his career journey, the importance of flexibility in nursing, and the implementation of a new staffing model. Aries shares how his immigrant background and passion for serving marginalized populations led him to the county's health services. He also discusses the aging nursing workforce and the importance of attracting and retaining new talent through residency programs and flexible staffing solutions. Aries also emphasizes the potential benefits of technology in creating more nimble scheduling processes.

In this insightful episode, Dani shares inspiring story of Lavender, a mental health practice that was founded and launched in just 45 days during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Co-founders Brighid Gannon (DNP, PMHNP-BC) and Pritma Dhillon-Chattha (DNP, MHA, RN) share their journey of starting from scratch, creating a unique and accessible mental health service that combines psychotherapy and medication management in a single appointment. They discuss their nurse-founded and nurse-operated business model, the challenges and advantages of remote work, and their vision for the future of nursing and mental health care. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in mental health, nursing, entrepreneurship, and the rapidly changing landscape of healthcare.

Rex Lomboy joins Dan to discuss the Integrated Resource Center's mission to put people in the right place at the right time — while easing the way for nursing leaders. Discover how the center manages schedules across multiple hospitals, leverages data and technology to optimize staffing, and addresses challenges faced by nurses. We explore the importance of partnership and collaboration with various stakeholders, from nursing staff to IT and human resources. Learn about the evolving staffing model, the role of per diem and contract labor, and how Providence's Traveler Conversion Playbook aims to turn temporary workers into long-term assets. Rex also shares insights on remaining open to change, adopting innovation, and the power of community in advancing the profession of nursing.

Gladys and Dani discuss the nursing workforce and the impact of an overemphasis on symptom management. Gladys explains the importance of nurses looking upstream to find the root cause of problems in the workforce. She argues that nursing is reducing itself to a series of tasks and ignoring other important factors like job growth, autonomy, recognition, and pride in work. Gladys also discusses the impact of contract labor on nursing, and how nurses could follow the lead of physicians and set up their own practice groups to increase flexibility and specialization.  

Brie Sandow, the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Nursing Officer at St. Luke's Meridian Medical Center, discusses the importance of understanding seasonality and the benefits of using a closed calendar year to inform staffing. She highlights the importance of communication, and dives deep into the problems with attempting to legislate staffing standards and ratios, and the need to focus on data, analytics, and experts to best determine scheduling and staffing. 

Dani Bowie, the new host of The Handoff, speaks with Daniel Hudson, the Vice President of Nursing Administration and Operations for Jefferson Health.   Daniel tells Dani about Jefferson Health's SEAL team, which stands for Service, Excellence, Advocacy, and Leadership. It's a team of flexible nurses who work across Jefferson's clinical enterprise, including its 18 hospitals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The SEAL team approach offers nurses the flexibility to move around and work in different environments while still having a home within the team — with great compensation. Daniel also shares details on Jefferson Health's upcoming virtual care pilot program, which will involve SEAL nurses as dual-licensed virtual nurses. The program aims to augment care delivery rather than replace it, and will focus on improving nursing care planning, patient education, and discharges, among other things. The organization is looking at various KPIs to measure the program's success, including documentation time, nurse and healthcare team retention, and patient experience. Daniel also shares his thoughts on flexible scheduling, and the varied needs of different nurses and how best to accommodate them. It's a great conversation to kick off this exciting new season of The Handoff. Please rate and review in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen!

Host Dani Bowie shares a quick teaser for the upcoming season of The Handoff, launching March 8, 2023 — available wherever you get your podcasts. 

Our guest for our last episode of this season is Bonnie Clipper, a nurse futurist and thought leader, a former chief nurse executive, a fellow at the American Academy of Nursing, a startup coach, a consultant, a faculty member at multiple schools of nursing and the Chief Clinical Officer at Wambi. Bonnie is a repeat visitor who came on the show last season to chat with Dan about the future of nursing in a conversation that got pretty spirited at times but seemed to resonate with many of you, as it became our most downloaded episode ever.  Today she’s back to talk specifically about the skill set, attitude and competencies that nurse leaders need to survive in a post-COVID world based on her experience consulting and working with a variety of hospitals around the country.  Links to recommended reading: Episode 73: A candid conversation about the state of nursing The Nurse's Guide to Innovation: Accelerating the Journey The Nurse Manager's Guide to an Intergenerational Workforce   The full transcript for this episode can be found here: works.trustedhealth.com/handoff/bonnie-clipper-nurse-leader

Our guest for today’s episode was just weeks into her new role as a nurse leader at Lehigh Valley Health Network when COVID-19 hit. Nichole Persing turned to her experience as an Ironman and an endurance athlete in order to cope with the logistical, physical and emotional challenges of managing an ICU in the middle of a once-in-a-generation pandemic.  She and Dan talk about the team-based approach to nursing that she pioneered to manage severe understaffing on her unit and how she’s navigated her own mental health struggles coming out of the worst of the pandemic. Links to recommended reading:  The Strength to Heal  The full transcript for this episode can be found here: works.trustedhealth.com/handoff/nichole-persing-endurance

Our guest for this episode is Joni Watson, a healthcare and leadership consultant who also teaches Advanced Decision Making in Healthcare for PhDs at Duke University’s School of Nursing. She was also previously the Senior Vice President for Strategic Nursing Transformation at Ascension, where she and Dan worked together.    In this conversation, Dan and Joni talk about how she crafted her thoughtful and deliberate approach to nursing leadership. She shares why she thinks that every leader should have a manifesto, and how hers has helped her identify and stay true to her values over her two decade long nursing career. She also talks about the concept of a “challenge network,” why they’re important and how she cultivates one at work. Links to recommended reading:  Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know  In Defense of Troublemakers: The Power of Dissent in Life and Business   The Future of Nursing 2020-2030  The full transcript for this episode can be found here: works.trustedhealth.com/handoff/joni-watson-leadership-manifesto

Our guest for this week is Josh Wymer: an all-star nurse leader with deep expertise in change management, information governance, and digital innovation. Josh is currently the Chief Health Information Officer for the San Diego Market at Defense Health, and is also pursuing his Doctor of Nursing Practice in Executive Leadership program at Johns Hopkins, where he is looking at the impact of specialty certification in the context of professional development and impact on nursing practice. He and Dan cover a range of issues related to nurse leadership, with a deep dive into the eight essential nurse leader competencies, how they’ve evolved in light of the pandemic, and which one Josh thinks is the most important.   Links to recommended reading:  Preparing nurse leaders for 2020 Nursing Leadership and COVID-19: Defining the Shadows and Leading Ahead of the Data Progressing toward specialty certification as the National Standard for Nursing    The full transcript for this episode can be found here: works.trustedhealth.com/handoff/josh-wymer-nurse-leader-competencies

In today’s episode, we’re talking about a subject that we haven’t really gotten into in the previous five seasons of the show: the payer side of healthcare and its impact on nurses. Our guest, Judy Kunisch, has a lot of experience – and a lot of opinions on this topic – and even Dan learned quite a bit during their discussion.  Judy is a former bedside nurse turned vice president for a Fortune 100 insurance company turned consultant who primarily works with payers and is passionate about serving as a bridge between those two worlds. She believes that nurses don’t have enough exposure to this side of the business and she wants to change that. Today she gives us a deep dive on the evolution of value-based payments and how they intersect with nursing, as well as how nurse leaders can use this information to make the case for more resources within their organization.  Links to recommended reading:  What are the value-based programs?  Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP)  Systems Thinking for Strategic Leadership  The full transcript for this episode can be found here: works.trustedhealth.com/handoff/judy-kunisch-payers

Our guest for this episode is one of the leading voices in LinkedIn on all things healthcare recruitment and she has some strong opinions about today’s hiring market and what both sides need to do to succeed. Krista Whiting is the Vice President of Healthcare Recruitment for Parkwood International, where she specializes in acute care leadership in Southern Texas. Today she and Dan talk about what candidates can do to stand in the hiring process, including those with non-traditional backgrounds, the skill she’s seeing more and more hospitals look for and her advice to hiring managers on how to get talent in the door faster.  Links to recommended reading:  Karaoke for a Cause Understanding & Addressing Nurse Turnover A Look into Retaining Your Nursing Workforce Forecasting Hospital Hiring Needs    The full transcript for this episode can be found here: works.trustedhealth.com/handoff/krista-whiting-healthcare-recruiting

According to a survey put out by Trusted Health earlier this year, half of all nurses have been the subject of an attack, intimidation or assault by a patient or patient’s family member since the start of the pandemic.  Our guest for today’s episode, Mel Cortez, experienced this first hand working in a Baltimore area ICU. Later, when she saw how many nurses were leaving the profession because of workplace violence, she was inspired to start Cortex Gold, a joint venture between two nurses and a Marine Corps veteran whose mission is to help hospitals create a safer, more secure workplace for nurses and other healthcare workers. Today she and Dan talk about what a culture of safety actually looks like, Mel’s protocol-based approach to handling incidents of violence and the role that nurse managers and nurse leaders play in making hospitals a safer place to work.  Links to recommended reading:  Fact Sheet: Health Care Workplace Violence and Intimidation, and the Need for a Federal Legislative Response Toolkit for Mitigating Violence in the Workplace   The full transcript for this episode can be found here: works.trustedhealth.com/handoff/mel-cortez-violence-against-nurses