The Handoff

Meet new host Joni Watson as she dives into what to expect on the upcoming season of The Handoff. 

Dr. Dani speaks with Jeff Doucette, SVP & Chief Nursing Officer at Press Ganey.  Today, they discuss trends in the nursing workforce in recent years, the impact of an engaged nurse leader, and how key subsets of resilience can be used by leaders to support the front-line.  

Dani speaks with Dr. Dana Womack, healthcare informatics consultant. Together, they discuss her pivotal career moments before diving into the power of harnessing ambient data, or ‘digital dust', and turning it into clinical practice insights. They also cover the concepts of resilience engineering and adaptive capacity in nursing.

Dr. Dani speaks with Dr. Angela DiDonato, Associate Program Director of the Nurse Anesthesia Program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. They discuss creative approaches to prepare advanced practice nurses, nurse legislation & advocacy, and planning for and supporting career mobility for nurses.

Dani speaks with Chelsea Rolfes & Sarah Gray, Founding Clinicians of Trusted Health, transitioned from direct patient care to building and scaling a high-growth company tackling the nursing shortage and enabling health systems to transform their workforces. Together, they discuss their transition, learnings and successes, advice for nurses, and perspectives on the future of nursing.

Dani speaks with Karlene Kerfoot, Chief Nursing Officer & Ali Morin, Vice President of Nursing Informatics, at Symplr.  Together, they discuss Karlene & Ali's work with AONL to prepare leaders for digital transformation, as well as the challenges of technology in nursing today. They also cover the past, present, and future of the CNIO role.   

Dani speaks with Dr. Desi McCue, Senior Director of Operations at The Center for Women's Health at Oregon Health & Science University and current President of Northwest Organization of Nurse Leaders.  They discuss workplace violence and the impact of tailored programs and mindset shifts on improved outcomes, nurse staffing laws, pathway to leadership, and how professional organizations shaped her as a nurse leader.   

Dani speaks with Nancy Blake, Chief Nursing Officer at Los Angeles General Medical Center. They discuss key components of leadership, from building currency as a leader and establishing a healthy work environment to navigating transformation and investment in development programs. They also discuss pivotal moments in Nancy's career and her perspectives on the innovations that the future of nursing needs.  

Dr. Dani Bowie speaks with Kasey Paulus, SVP of Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Executive at WellSpan Health. They discuss pivotal moments that shaped her career, the launching of Hospital at Home & a virtual care unit at WellSpan, developing a workforce for those new care delivery models, and the importance of focusing on employee well-being. 

Dani speaks with Ajay Gupta, public health innovator & founder and CEO of HSR.health, a geospatial data analytics company that supports public health and emergency response communities. They discuss emerging healthcare tech and trends, from quantum computing to the role of AI in healthcare and how innovation courage can propel us to achieve the change he wishes to see.

Dani speaks with Rosanne Raso, Chief Nursing Officer at New York-Presbyterian Medical Center, and Editor-in-Chief of Nursing Management. They discuss the core concepts of a culture of inquiry and the key differences between being fearless and fearing less in leadership. They also cover relationship leadership, its impact on a healthy work environment, and how leaders can translate leadership research into practice.

Dani speaks with Nanne Finis, Chief Nurse Executive of UKG. They discuss the importance of nursing leadership in digital transformation, the emergence of technology competencies for nurse executives,  new innovative care models, and the need to get back to the basics and focus on the foundations.

Dani speaks with Rose Sherman, a nationally recognized thought leader and keynote speaker on nursing and healthcare leadership. They discuss universal trends - from the nursing shortage to the increasing span of control of nurse leaders and cover what nursing leaders should be focusing on, what we should stop doing, and how adopting alternative mindsets can help nursing leaders through a new reality. They also discuss team-based care, the focus of Dr. Sherman's recent book, and some of the promising staffing innovations that need to be accelerated and more widely adopted.

We're back with an all-new season of The Handoff! Listen in as Dr. Dani Bowie tells you what to expect this time around.

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

Welcome back to Season 6 of The Handoff. In today's episode, Dan speaks with Rayne Soriano.  Rayne has carved out his own path in nursing and continually leaned into his passions in order to build a career that is uniquely suited to him. After an incredible 25 years at Kaiser Permanente, Rayne is currently the Regional Director for Operations and Nursing Professional Practice at Kaiser Permanente Hawaii. It's a role that weaves together his interests and skill sets in education, leadership, informatics, operations and management, and in this conversation, he and Dan touch on all of those topics.  Rayne shares how he's seeing data, technology and informatics impact the profession of nursing, from new grads all the way up to nurse leaders, as well as how living in Hawaii has impacted his experience of being a nurse and how Kaiser is thinking about staffing and scheduling. The full transcript for this episode can be found here: works.trustedhealth.com/handoff/rayne-soriano-kaiser-veteran

To close out season 5 of The Handoff we're actually welcoming back a repeat visitor to the show. Dani Bowie joined us last season to talk about scheduling and staffing, and since that conversation, she's actually joined the team at Trusted Health as their Vice President of Clinical Strategy & Transformation, where she's helping health systems transform their nursing workforce programs.   We're very happy to welcome her back to the show today to talk about a topic that is very close to both our hearts: nurse mental health. For the third year in a row, Trusted Health is releasing its annual survey on frontline nurse mental health and well-being and Dani and Dan talked about the findings, as well as her thoughts on what the nurse leaders, hospitals and the industry as a whole can do to address the issues raised.    Links to recommended reading:  2022 Trusted Health Frontline Nurse Mental Health & Well-being Survey  Episode 65: Solving the “travesty” that is nurse scheduling  Nurse Staffing Think Tank: Priority Topics and Recommendations   The full transcript for this episode can be found here: https://works.trustedhealth.com/handoff/mental-health-survey-2022

Our guest for this episode oversees more than 8,000 nurses in her role as the Senior Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive for NYC Health + Hospitals. In this conversation, Dan and Natalia Cineas talk about what's next for the country's largest public health system coming out of the most acute phase of the pandemic.   Like so many other nurse leaders, one of the things that's top of mind for Natalia is recruiting, and she shares how she's trying to bolster her nursing workforce and encourage nurses to think about a career in a public system. She also shares why she's thinking differently about informatics these days, how her approach to staffing and benefits is changing and what she thinks other health systems can learn from NYC Health + Hospitals.   Links to recommended reading:  Nurse Staffing Think Tank: Priority Topics and Recommendations  NYC Health + Hospitals Careers  The full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/natalia-cineas

Our guest for this episode is Casey Green, also known as “Critical Care Casey.” Casey has been a critical care nurse for seven years working in the emergency department, various ICUs, and critical care ground transport nursing. She is also a LinkedIn Top Nursing Voice, as well as a clinical instructor. Last year, Casey became only the 85th nurse ever to obtain all five emergency nursing certifications.  In her conversation with Dan, they talk about what she's hearing from new grads entering the profession and what nurse leaders need to do to support these individuals at such a challenging and pivotal time in the profession. They also talk about why Casey is passionate about certifications and how she encourages other nurses to pursue them, as well as how she feels about stepping into the nurse manager role for the first time. The full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/casey-green

Our guest for this episode is Alice Benjamin, a board-certified Clinical Nurse Specialist and Family Nurse Practitioner, as well as an author, podcast host, health advocate and a regular on-air medical contributor for CNBC, Dr. Oz, The Doctors, CNN and the BBC.  Alice's career as a nurse was inspired by the death of her father from a heart attack when she was a child. Since then she's been on a mission to educate and empower the public about the pursuit of health and wellness. Alice was the first nurse to chair the American Heart Association Health Equity Taskforce, as well as the first black nurse to serve on the California board of directors for the American Nurses Association. Today she and Dan talk about her career, the portrayal of nurses in the media and patient safety. As a nurse who is still at the bedside and in the wake of the Randa Vaughnt case, this is a topic that Alice is particularly passionate about, and they get into the frequency of near misses in healthcare, why the “just get it done” culture of nursing is ripe for errors, and how nurses can engage with hospital leadership to help create a safer environment for everyone. Links to recommended reading:  Ask Nurse Alice  Episode 62: Creating a strong culture of patient safety  The full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/nurse-alice  

Our guest for this episode is Garrett Chan, the President & CEO of Healthimpact, the nursing policy center for the state of California. Garrett and his team partner with other nursing organizations, health care providers, academic institutions and policy makers to build the nursing profession and support the 400,000 nurses working in the state of California.   Today he and Dan talk about Healthimpact's workforce strategy, including pipeline building, transition to practice, mental health support for nurses and streamlining the state's licensure process, as well as what the state is doing to meet the growing need for nurses in rural areas.    Links to recommended reading:  Healthimpact Resources  California Newly Licensed RN Employment Survey Research Report  Innovation Landscape — Solving Shortages: How Technology Can Help Meet California's Immediate Health Workforce Needs  Episode 51: How COVID-19 has impacted the nursing workforce   Episode 68: The unique challenges of nursing on a remote island chain The full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/garrett-chan

Our guest for this episode is Karen Grimley, Chief Nurse Executive at UCLA Health and Assistant Dean for the UCLA School of Nursing.  In this interview, Karen and Dan talk about the innovations that the UCLA staff developed during COVID, how Karen maintains a high-performing culture and how she's planning to lead coming out of the pandemic. Karen also shares how she's thinking about staffing and scheduling and the concept of flexible work at UCLA, how you can maintain best practices around shared governance in a time of crisis. The full transcript for this episode can be found here:  http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/karen-grimley

Our guest for this episode has her hands in so many things, it's difficult to even know where to start. Bonnie Clipper is 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 on two different continents, the Chief Clinical Officer at Wambi, and someone who is deeply passionate about bringing innovation to the field of nursing.  Most of all, she is a close friend and someone I love chatting with about the profession. Today we tackle some weighty topics, including retention, workforce management, applying more technology and automation to nursing, and why she's no longer a fan of Florence Nightingale.  Links to recommended reading:  The Nurse's Guide to Innovation: Accelerating the Journey The Nurse Manager's Guide to an Intergenerational Workforce   Trusted Works The full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/bonnie-clipper

Our guest for this episode realized early on in her career as a nurse executive that a traditional health system career path was not for her. Since then she's done everything from work as a clinical professor in a college of nursing, serve as the president of a state nursing board, write a number of nursing textbooks, and consult with hospitals and health systems on innovation and leadership.     Given the depth and breadth of Kathy Malloch's career, it makes sense that her conversation with Dan would be similarly wide-ranging. Today they talk about where education for nurse leaders can improve, the tool sets that are needed in complex systems, how Kathy handled cases involving medical errors when she was the president of the Arizona State Board of Nursing and what she sees as the obligation of nurses to continually advance their skills and the profession.    Links to recommended reading:  Introduction to Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare  Quantum Leadership: Creating Sustainable Value in Health Care: Creating Sustainable Value in Health Care  Leadership in Nursing Practice: Changing the Landscape of Health Care: Changing the Landscape of Health Care  Appreciative Leadership: Building Sustainable Partnerships for Health: Building Sustainable Partnerships for Health  Arizona Board of Nursing  The full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/kathy-malloch

Our guest for this episode has the kind of career path that is close to Dr. Nurse Dan's heart.    Rich Kenny started his career in the emergency department before eventually becoming a flight nurse for Duke University Health System. Along the way he discovered that he had both an interest in and a knack for working with data, and specifically how to make data more useful to nurses in their every day. He eventually left the bedside to work in a variety of operational, informatics and innovation roles before landing at SAS, where he's an executive advisor on the Healthcare Strategy, Support, & Innovation team.    Today we talk about all things data and informatics, and how they have the power to change the patient experience, improve working conditions for nurses and help move the healthcare industry forward. Rich also shares why he thinks that every nurse leader needs to be able to use data and information to lead well. The full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/rich-kenny

Our guest for this episode is Sandra Davidson, Dean, Professor and Deputy Provost of the Faculty of Nursing at University of Calgary. Sandra is a long-time educator and shares my passion for bringing innovation and disruption to nursing leadership. She's currently developing a new doctoral program for the University of Calgary that will offer an applied degree aimed at educating and growing the healthcare leaders of the future.    Today we talk about how she and her colleagues are taking the learnings of the pandemic and using them to make nursing education better, more flexible and more student-centric. Sandra shares why she thinks that a relational approach to leadership makes sense, and her advice to frontline nurses who are interested in pursuing leadership roles. The full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/sandra-davidson

Our guest for today's episode oversees what she calls a one-stop shop for nurse staffing within Johns Hopkins. Built 30 years ago as an internal float pool, Johns Hopkins Intrastaff is now both a VMS and a fully licensed staffing agency that manages thousands of nursing contracts for the health system. Its executive director, Laura Fricker, speaks with Dan about all things contingent staffing, including how she thinks about pricing and finding a rate that makes sense in the current market, and the unique benefits that Johns Hopkins is able to offer to its nurses. Laura also shares why she thinks nursing is becoming more respected as the technical profession that it is and why it will be valued differently in the future.  Links to recommended reading:  Leadership in Nursing Practice: The Intersection of Innovation and Teamwork in Healthcare Systems  The full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/laura-fricker

Our guest for this episode is Laura Reichhardt, the Director for the Hawaii State Center for Nursing. As the most remote inhabited island chain in the world, Hawaii faces a unique set of challenges when it comes to nursing, including a high cost of living, a diverse patient population, difficulty transferring in nurses from out of state, and access to supplies that can be disrupted by natural disasters and other logistical issues.  During the pandemic, these challenges became exacerbated and the state's supply of nurses was severely limited. Laura and her colleagues at the center for nursing worked closely with the state government on their COVID response plan and to enact changes that would facilitate the flow of nurses into the state.  Today Laura and Dan talk about that work, as well as Hawaii's nurse residency program, the first statewide residency program in the nation. She also talks about what she sees as the future of the workforce, the need to train more specialist nurses and her advice for nurses who want to get more involved in policy making at the state and local level. Links to recommended reading:  Hawaii Center for Nursing  Hawai‘i Nurses Play Major Role in COVID-19 Pandemic Response  The full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/laura-reichhardt

We're back for season 5 of The Handoff with a very special guest, Dr. Sheldon D. Fields. Dr. Fields is the inaugural Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion at Penn State University, where he is also a research professor in the College of Nursing.  Dr. Fields was the first-ever male Registered Nurse selected for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellowship, in which he served as a policy adviser to Senator Barbara Mikulski on the Senate HELP committee during the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Dr. Fields is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, and the National Academies of Practice.  After more than 30 years in the healthcare industry, Dr. Fields has said that it is his personal mission to do everything he can to help nursing move forward with a plan to diversify the profession. Today he and I talk about what that plan looks like, what nurse educators need to do to help combat racism in the field, how we can recruit more diverse students into nursing and how we can teach nurses and nursing students to be anti-racist. Links to recommended reading:  The Future of Nursing 2020-2030 National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing  The full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/sheldon-fields

Dr. Nurse Dan and the rest of The Handoff team are busy recording new episodes for Season 5, which will be launching next week.  We've already lined up some great guests to talk about everything from new approaches to staffing and workforce, the opportunity that nurses have to shape policy decisions coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, and inspiring initiatives aimed at making nursing more diverse. We still have a few openings in our line-up, so if you have a great guest idea, please feel free to email us at thehandoffpodcast@trustedhealth.com. We look forward to sharing new episodes with you very soon!

Today's episode is our last of season 4 and it's with one of the leading voices in the conversation around the nursing workforce. Dr. Peter Buerhaus is a healthcare economist and a Professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Montana at Bozeman.  Today we talk about his research on the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on the nursing profession and some of the historical precedents that can give us hints at the future. Peter also shares what keeps him up at night, specifically how the constant negative messaging around nursing could ultimately dissuade young people from pursuing it as a career path. Links to recommended reading:  Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies at Montana State MSU to lead study examining COVID-19's effect on U.S. nursing workforce Peter Buerhaus on Google Scholar    The full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/peter-buerhaus

Our guest today for this episode is here to talk about an issue that is very close to our hearts here at Trusted Health: nurse staffing. Dani Bowie has built a career around solving this issue and cutting down the time that nurse managers spend creating schedules. She earned her doctorate in Nursing from Yale with a particular emphasis on the issues of staffing and scheduling and is now the Vice President of Workforce Development at Bon Secours Mercy Health, where she is helping to build the nursing workforce of the future. At the center of this is a truly game-changing approach to scheduling, which takes the burden off of nurse managers and instead enlists a team of workforce professionals who are specially trained in this area. Today Dan and Dani talk about that program, what she's seeing other health systems do in this area and what she thinks a truly flexible workforce looks like.  Links to recommended reading:  How Legacy Health improved nurse satisfaction & cut costs with a new approach to workforce management  Trusted Works The full transcript for this episode can be found here: http://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/dani-bowie