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