Hartford HealthCare Podcast
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Hartford HealthCare Podcast
Hartford HealthCare Nursing: Challenges and rewards
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In this episode, Hartford HealthCare’s Steve Coates talks with Laura Bailey, vice president of Patient Care Services at Hartford Hospital. It's been almost three years since the onset of the pandemic and Laura gives us important perspective looking back - where we are now – and what the future looks like for healthcare workers, their patients and the general public.
Laura also addresses the current nursing shortage – how Baby Boomer retirement is affecting the numbers and how new hiring and recruitment efforts are helping.
Learn more about nursing careers at Hartford HealthCare at HHCCareers.org.
Follow More Life to be notified each time a new episode drops. Just search Hartford HealthCare on your favorite podcast platform.
When I think back to all of the pioneers that have walked the halls before me here and every all the innovation that has happened here, I mean, there's just such a great energy here at Hartford and all of our hospitals that I think it's a it's a great place to be a nurse.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to More Light. In this episode, Hartford Healthcare's Steve Coates talks with Laura Bailey, Vice President of Patient Care Services at Hartford Hospital. We're coming upon three years since the onset of the pandemic, and Laura gives us an important perspective looking back at where we are now and what the future looks like for healthcare workers, their patients, and the general public. Lara also addresses the current nursing shortage, how baby boomer retirement is affecting the numbers, and how new hiring and recruitment efforts are helping. Here's Steve Coates.
SPEAKER_02We're over two and a half years, coming up on three years since the beginning of the pandemic. Have you seen a marked change in the nursing profession since then?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think, you know, a lot has changed over the course of the last two and a half years. I think, you know, when we came into the pandemic when it first started, there was this great sense of urgency, call to action, right? We were all in the same place where we we weren't exactly sure what we were dealing with. We were all scared at the same time, and I think we were all very anxious and willing to help too at the same time. I think what's different now is just really how long it's been going on, right? And I think people are much more tired than they were in the beginning. I think that the public is tired too. So while we know and we see the impact of COVID, I think for some people it's a little more out of sight, out of mind, and might not take it as seriously as as we tend to take it here in the healthcare space. So that's been a little bit of a challenge, really kind of leveraging the different realities. I think it's really hard for all of us, even though now we're not seeing people as sick as they were, you know, at the beginning of the pandemic, it was really a lot of patients going to the ICU, a lot of patients being intubated, a lot of patients being placed on ECMO or a CBVH. You know, while we don't see that as much, it's still fresh in our minds, right? We know what it was. And um, it was really hard to just bear witness to all of that.
SPEAKER_02One of the things I noticed during the heart of the pandemic was this calm on the floors. Where does that come from?
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean, I think it it comes from a deep sense of empathy, right? So you're constantly putting yourself in the position of the patient in the bed or the family at the bedside, while COVID certainly heightened certain things. And um, like I said before, you know, a lot of people were, you know, we were scared and and you know, we weren't sure what to expect. I mean, the reality is that, you know, as a nurse and and other healthcare professionals, we we really can't walk around excited all the time. Like, you know, I mean, we see this stuff all the time. It's important for us to maintain our composure and our control of the situation.
SPEAKER_02So coming out of COVID, I guess the elephant in the room now is we see it on LinkedIn, we see it on television, we see it in here it on the radio. There's a need, whether it's a news story or whether it's a solicitation for recruitment, there's a shortage of nurses. Was this, do you think, caused in part by the tribulations of COVID? Was it on the horizon? Is it just a different generation? What what do you think is causing it?
SPEAKER_01No, it's it definitely accelerated. So for as long as as long as I've been a nurse, um, I mean, even when I was in nursing school, there was always lots of talk about the impending nursing shortage, right? And I think that what COVID did was it just really accelerated all of those projections. We knew that we were gonna have a shortage too, because of a lot of the baby boomers retiring. So, as an example, I think we have like 3.9 million nurses in the country, and there's over a million nurses that are slated to retire in the next seven years. So that's you know, that's a large amount of nurses. Um, we we have issues with being able to educate as many nurses or prepare as many nurses that actually want to go into the profession.
SPEAKER_02Is it a case where the younger generation isn't seeing nursing as a profession as much as it was, say, 20 or 30 years ago?
SPEAKER_01No, I think I think that there's still a desire. I think a large number of people still want to pursue it as a profession. I think it starts with the ability to get into a program. So we know that there's not enough slots at nursing programs to accommodate the folks that want to attend, right? So, for an example, one of the colleges or universities in the state, they had over 2,000 students apply to their nursing program, and they accepted a little bit over 120. So there's certainly qualified applicants out there. It's a matter of creating enough slots at our academic institutions and then also having enough uh professors and enough clinical instructors in the clinical sites and having clinical sites where we can prepare the nurses as well.
SPEAKER_02Hartford Hospital and Hartford Healthcare have built some partnerships to really enhance recruiting. Tell us a little bit about some of the things you're doing at Hartford to recruit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so um we're we definitely have very strong relationships with many of the uh programs in the state. So we have um strong academic partnerships where we're really trying to work with the schools and the universities, hiring individuals while they're in school as patient care associates or certified nursing assistants. So we can really try to get them in early, even prior to them graduating, to really develop that relationship with them. Because we do find that individuals that you know work here throughout their schooling tend to do a lot better in the environment once they do become a nurse. Because, like you said, it's it's a difficult environment to be in. I think we have a great package in terms of the whole value proposition, very invested in the growth and development of somebody who comes here and wants to have a career in nursing. As an example, there's a very what I would call healthy tuition reimbursement policy. We have a clinical ladder program here. So for new nurses, as they advance in their career, they have the opportunity to be part of a clinical ladder where they are recognized for their accomplishments and their professional development. We do have an internal fill rate. And what I mean by that is many of our positions are filled by nurses that already work here. So overall, we have about a 60% internal fill rate for our specialty areas, like the ICUs or some of our procedural areas. That could be as high as 80%. So that means that that's a real good indicator of opportunities for growth and development. Like once you once you come into the system, you know, there's lots of opportunities for that.
SPEAKER_02What about nurses who are looking to move to a different specialty, a different area of expertise, say go from med surge to kind of a specialty floor. How do they do that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we have a couple of different pathways for people to do that. Like I said, we have the clinical ladder program, um, and that that's actually great for people that even want to stay in their current role. So it's a way to keep uh nurses at the bedside and recognize their growth and development. We do have bridge programs. So we have medicine to the ED bridge program, we have a cardiology fellowship, we have medicine to the ICU bridge program. So that's a formal pathway for individuals. If they know that ultimately they want to end up in one of those specialties, they'll start on a medical floor. And we, you know, we have certain milestones that we expect them to achieve at certain points in time. And then somewhere between around the 18-month mark, a year to 18 months, we start to kind of assimilate them into the critical care culture or the ED environment.
SPEAKER_02Let's talk a little bit about your journey to become a nurse. And when you talk to a lot of people in healthcare, especially those that work at the bedside, doctors, nurses, um, advanced practice practitioners. There's always like this moment where they where when they were in their teens, where they were taking care of a loved one or a relative, you know, relative where it just this is what they wanted to do. Was there a moment when you got into bedside nursing, when you first got into it as a career, what was that choice like?
SPEAKER_01So I'm smiling because nursing actually for me was a second career. So I worked in the hospital for about five, five or six years before I actually decided to go to nursing school. And one of the reasons why I decided to become a nurse is is actually, you know, in my my previous role, I was I went to my first degree was in healthcare administration. I worked in the Department of Planning at my previous organization. And it was in that role where I did have the opportunity to work with a lot of nurses. I I just have to say that, you know, for me, I've always wanted to be, I I like being connected to people. And um, I just really saw it as a way for me to to connect with others, but I also saw the nurses that I saw in action, they had such a command of what needed to be done. I thought that they were brilliant, and I just was just so impressed with just everything that they did. So I was able to go to nursing school while I was still in my administrative job, which was always interesting. I was just telling somebody the other day I would show up to um my class in a in a suit. And I think I had one of my professors ask me, you know, Laura, are you sure this is what you really want to do? I'm like, yes. So I was a planning associate. So I worked in the office of at the time it was called the the planning department. So I was a planning associate. So I did a lot of, yeah, I did a lot of work with certificate of need, applications, um, data analytics, that type of thing. I did have an opportunity to work with clinical folks in that role. And that's really where my introduction to them, I became kind of, I guess, a little enamored with them that in that way.
SPEAKER_02That move to administration is a crossroads for many nurses, whether to go into administration or stay at the bedside. Was that a tough decision for you?
SPEAKER_01So I think at the time, right, because I had a business background and I loved data, what really appealed to me is I had the ability to really connect the business side of the work with the clinical side of the work. And I think that was a little unique at the time for a nursing leader. And I was always I was always preoccupied with how we could do things better as a nurse at the bedside. So I think that's kind of what led me into leadership is being able to kind of be the liaison between the two aspects, I guess, of providing care for patients.
SPEAKER_02What's the definition of a nursing leader to you?
SPEAKER_01You know, I think somebody that's not afraid to really challenge the status quo, right? I think somebody that serves as a strong role model and a mentor. Again, the other day I was sharing with somebody that I, you know, when I came into the profession when I when I was on orientation as a nurse, I was surrounded by nurses that had 20, 30, even 40 years of experience. And um, that's not the case now. So I think we're finding people that have to be in these leadership roles or or have to be just really strong nurses a lot sooner than maybe they expected. So I think, you know, holding our teams accountable, holding each other accountable for always doing the right thing.
SPEAKER_02What would be your advice to someone thinking about going into the nursing profession today?
SPEAKER_01What I would say to them is I would say, you know, do your research on the programs, right? Make sure that they have a good success rate for their students passing the NCLEX exam. Make sure you go to a place where you're comfortable, uh, where you feel like you're going to be able to develop relationships and you know, you have good peer support. I think it's important who those programs might be affiliated with. You know, make sure that you know that you'll have good clinicals, good solid clinicals. You know, just really explore the amount of support that the program has available to you and make sure that you vet it out. I think in some cases, you know, what people might advertise might not be what's actually there. So I think just really do your homework and and just know that you're gonna need the support and um just make sure you got some good friends along the way to help you.
SPEAKER_02And why should nurses come work for you for Hartford Hospital for Hartford Healthcare?
SPEAKER_01You know what? There is absolutely no reason to ever leave the system. So there's so many different, so many different career pathways you can go here. There's tremendous support for an individual's growth and development here. The culture, I love the culture here. When I think back to all of the pioneers that have walked the halls before me here and every all the innovation that has happened here, I mean, there's just such a great energy here at Hartford and all of our hospitals that I think it's a it's a great place to be a nurse.
SPEAKER_02And your team here at Hartford Hospital and must fill you with such pride after two and a half, almost three years after the pandemic, to see them work every day with patients. Uh it just must fill you with so much pride.
SPEAKER_01So there's boy, um we might have to continue this over several several podcasts actually to answer that question. But just in general, I think that the caliber of the nursing teams here is is really impressive. And I feel like it it hasn't been easy. And the teams come back, the staff comes back every single day. And what I'm most proud of is how no matter what's being asked of them, no matter how hard it is, they come back and they care, and they come together with each other in spite of what sometimes feels like everything in the universe going against you, right? They still find ways to come together and support each other, and none of us can do this job alone. We have really solid teams here, we have great nursing leaders. I I I give them a lot of credit. I'm so proud of the individuals that have chosen a role as a nurse manager or a director or any kind of uh, you know, leadership role, because it's been particularly challenging for those individuals and for them to, you know, really keep their teams motivated and the morale up. And, you know, when they themselves are feeling it inside, it's nothing short of impressive.
SPEAKER_02Laura Bailey, thanks so much.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Thank you, Steve and Laura. Learn more about nursing careers at Hartford Healthcare at hhccareers.org. Follow more life to be notified each time a new episode drops. Just search Hartford Healthcare on your favorite podcast platform. For Hartford Healthcare, I'm Enron DePierre. Thanks for listening to More Life.
SPEAKER_03I'm ready for my clothes. You know, I love this feeling. I got more life in my life.