Episode 7 - growing, RN
June 20, 2023
About This Episode
Our hosts are joined by Kristin Ramsey, MSN, MPPM, RN, NE-BC, a nursing and quality leader at Northwestern Medicine, to talk about the different roads nursing can take you down. Are you ready to grow?
Episode Guests
Kristin Ramsey, MSN, MPPM, RN, NE-BC
Kristin Ramsey is the senior vice president of Quality for Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, as well as the Wood-Prince Family Chief Nurse Executive for Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern Medical Group. Her career in health care spans more than three decades and multiple health systems.
Our hosts are joined by Kristin Ramsey, MSN, MPPM, RN, NE-BC, a nursing and quality leader at Northwestern Medicine, to talk about the different roads nursing can take you down. Are you ready to grow?
Episode Guests
Kristin Ramsey, MSN, MPPM, RN, NE-BC
Kristin Ramsey is the senior vice president of Quality for Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, as well as the Wood-Prince Family Chief Nurse Executive for Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern Medical Group. Her career in health care spans more than three decades and multiple health systems.
transcript
Saklak [00:00:05] I'm Alyssa Saklak.
Masnari [00:00:06] And I'm Laurin Masnari.
Saklak [00:00:08] On Better, RN we get real about nursing.
Masnari [00:00:11] The good and the gritty.
Saklak [00:00:12] We talk to real healthcare experts.
Masnari [00:00:15] With the goal of becoming better.
Saklak [00:00:17] For our patients, our colleagues.
Masnari [00:00:18] Our family, our friends.
Saklak [00:00:20] Our partners and ourselves. Hi, Laurin.
Masnari [00:00:26] Can you believe this is our last episode?
Saklak [00:00:28] No, I'm feeling kind of emotional at all. I don't know how I feel.
Masnari [00:00:33] I know this whole thing kind of felt like a dream. It's been such a great experience, and I think we've had some really incredible conversations that I don't know that we would have gotten to have otherwise. I'm sad that it's over.
Saklak [00:00:43] It's over. Or maybe it's just the beginning.
Masnari [00:00:46] Oh, maybe it is just the beginning. And we are going out with a bang today. So we're talking about growth and we are talking with our chief nurse, Kristin Ramsey. A lot of my team, they will know Kristin as "the Alabama lady." She's at Day 1 for orientation. She's “Roll Tide.” That's how people know her. And I love it. I love that. That's like part of her reputation.
Saklak [00:01:08] And what a better force within nursing and Northwestern Medicine than to have Kristin Ramsey. We wanted to bring someone in who's seen the changes in nursing in her career over the last couple of decades. She will not admit to how long she's been a nurse. If we get that answer out of her, we’ll count that as a win. But she's actually witnessed the many changes in the big picture of well-being as a nurse.
Masnari [00:01:29] Yeah, and I'm interested to hear her perspective from a leadership lens at an academic medical center. How does she take care of herself? How has she helped to guide what Northwestern Medicine feels is important with regards to well-being? Because she really is at the forefront of a lot of those conversations and a lot of the decisions that are made that put those things in place. So I'm excited to hear a little bit from her today.
Saklak [00:01:52] And even outside of Northwestern Medicine. Nursing in totality is the nation's largest healthcare profession. With a community that large, it comes with so many opportunities for growth, change and development. I'm excited to hear her take, hear her journey through nursing and hopefully learn some things from her.
Masnari [00:02:11] Yeah, let's bring on Kristin. [music] Today we have Kristin Ramsay in the studio. Kristin is the senior vice president of Quality for Northwestern Memorial Healthcare, as well as the Wood-Prince Family Chief Nurse Executive for Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern Medical Group. Thanks for joining us on the pod, Kristin.
Ramsay [00:02:32] Oh, my gosh, I'm so nervous. Y'all have been rock stars in the podcast. You've been amazing. And I'm so excited to be here. I don't feel worthy enough.
Saklak [00:02:39] Oh my gosh, I think we're more nervous than you are, so.
Masnari [00:02:42] I did a little research, Kristin, and I know that this is not your first podcast. You were on a podcast in 2018 with Dr. Gary Noskin, and I listened to it. So I know that you're a pro at this.
Ramsay [00:02:54] OK.
Masnari [00:02:55] It's going to be good.
Ramsay [00:02:55] I promise not to let you down.
Saklak [00:02:57] Tell us a little bit about your background and nursing here at Northwestern Medicine.
Ramsay [00:03:02] So I'm not going to tell you how many years I've been a nurse because it just tipped over like a big milestone for me, which is amazing because sometimes I still feel like I'm a new grad. And I've been at Northwestern Medicine — it'll be 20 years July 3rd — so I'm coming up on my anniversary and it just is so funny to reflect on that because, honestly, when I started here in 2003, I had in my mind that I would be here for 3 to 5 years and then go back home to Alabama. I wanted to experience health care in a different part of the country and within a different organization, because I had been at my organization since I was a scrub tech in the operating room, working my way through nursing school. And really felt like it was just a time in my life where I could, you know, stretch my legs a little bit and leave home. And I knew it wasn't going to be permanent. And I came up here and just fell in love with the city of Chicago, fell in love with Northwestern Medicine, enjoyed the new world and the new perspective on health care. But my background, when I was a bedside nurse, again, I started as a scrub tech in the operating room. I scrubbed for three years, working my way through nursing school, working weekends and nights and holidays to pay for my school. And I always thought I was going to be an operating room nurse. And then my last semester of school, I precepted in the neuro trauma ICU and fell in love with neuro trauma. And so I started as a new grad, scared to death, cocky as can be. And then, you know, you get your first day and you're like, "Oh my goodness, I know nothing." And that cockiness went away very quickly. And spent my bedside days in neuro ICU and then went back to school and became a critical care nurse practitioner and did critical care for a while and then decided to go back and get a master's in business. And that's when I crossed into administration and have been in a leadership-management type of role for about 20 years.
Saklak [00:05:04] I'm seeing this theme of growth with your story, lots of growing and trying new things and following passions, which I think a lot of the nurses on the podcast listening can relate to, is that season of growth and the opportunities that you have around you. How do you feel like that's helped support your wellness? You know, if we look at wellness holistically, how has growth and that change helped you in your own health and wellness journey?
Ramsay [00:05:29] When I started nursing, I did not really have a plan, and I didn't really think about what's going to be the next step for me. And if you would have told me that I would have gone down the path of leadership and that I was going to be a chief nurse and a senior vice president of Quality at a system level, that was never my plan, that was never my path. But I always had really good mentors to help me at different times in my career, and I never said no to those opportunities. And so I never left a position when I wasn't happy. I always left when things were going really well, but something else presented and it was a part of growth and development. And I look now at our younger generation of nurses coming in and they are very much interested in becoming a really well-rounded nurse and being able to say, "OK, I'm going to do this for a little while. And then my next step, you know, maybe I want to stay the clinical path or maybe I'm more interested in the leadership path, or maybe I really want to do something different, a different lens to nursing." And the beauty of that is we absolutely can now. There is no area of commerce that, in business and health care, that there shouldn't be a nurse working their way through that or being in charge of it. In most organizations, through the traditional path of nursing, one third of the workforce in those organizations are nurses. We need to have nurses thinking about, "Wow, wouldn't it be great if I ran Supply Chain? Knowing the clinical implications of supplies?" Wouldn't it be great if you had a nurse who also had an MBA or a finance degree being a CFO for a hospital? Think about the implications of nurses growing and developing. And I think the one other important piece, Alyssa, this gets to the second part of your question: being challenged and knowing that you have the opportunity to do something different or if your lifestyle changes and you can lean in or maybe push back because of what's going on in your life is very unique to nursing, too. And I think being able to capitalize that, it gives us so much flexibility and well-being. That's the flexibility I think that this generation of nurses and what they're looking for and working towards in their life, that's what organizations have to do to be able to retain and recruit quality nurses to be able to allow them this opportunity for growing and developing, leaning in, drawing back, depending on what's going on in their life. And it is so important to wellness. You even think of the physical piece of being a nurse. I don't know if I could physically be a neuro ICU nurse anymore. I don't know if physically I could do it. Mentally, I think I could do it. So maybe if I was still at the bedside, wouldn't it be great if I was a virtual nurse or a tele-nurse so I didn't physically have to use my body, but mentally my brain's still there and I've got so much expertise. So finding different opportunities to keep nurses in the workforce and being able to create ,well, safe environments for them is essential going forward.
Masnari [00:08:48] When you talk about keeping nurses in the workforce, this is kind of what Alyssa, I had in mind when we created the idea for this podcast is how do we kind of reinvigorate and give nursing a voice? What would you say to nurses within this institution or within the nursing profession in general who are struggling?
Ramsay [00:09:05] I would say if you are struggling and if you're thinking about what's next or what I can do or what my family needs or what I need, there are great mentors within this organization and within hopefully any organization that a nurse works in, whether it's formal, like a hospital, or in an outpatient setting. Reach out and find people who you want to emulate, you think they have a good perspective, that you watch them and you see them in their life seems to have it somewhat figured out. Now, remember, nobody has it figured out. But you know, there are so many different models and mentors out there and they don't have to necessarily be a nurse. Don't miss the opportunity to sit down and have a cup of coffee with someone and talk about what you need, what you'd like to do. In the traditional sense, hospitals and organizations are going to have to be flexible. When you think about other industries like insurance or case management or being an entrepreneurial nurse, you have the opportunity to kind of pave your own way. And so inpatient or hospital-based nursing, even though that's what we know, because the three of us do that, that's not the only venue. And the beauty of being a nurse is that you are so marketable, you can do so many different things, is that it allows you to really think about what's good for you. Where your values align with a new work environment, new organization, or going out on your own. But tap into people that you see doing things well and learn from them.
Masnari [00:10:40] In our first episode with Faith Hines, she talked a lot about community, and what you said reminded me of our conversation with her about how important and necessary it is for everyone's well-being to have a good community. And I think we're really lucky here within Northwestern Medicine that we do have so many people that want to see other people be successful. And I think, truly, not just saying this, because you're our big boss, but I think that that comes from the top down. I think that you are so accessible and you always are where the action is. Why is that so important to you as a leader here?
Ramsay [00:11:13] I think twofold. One, it's what I enjoy. And you gravitate to what you enjoy. I love being with my colleagues that are at the bedside. I love being with the leadership team. It gives me energy, and I feed off of that. I think I become a better leader when I'm in the throes of everything. I learn, I watch, I listen, I see others. I can provide feedback, but it also gives me great joy and pleasure. And I want to come back to joy and pleasure because we don't talk a lot about that. And I think it's important. And then the second piece of that is that as a leader, you have to be able to bring others along with you. And if you think about the role of a leader, you know, we always talk about servant leadership, and you want to be behind your staff and really giving them what they need to grow and develop. That's probably 80% of my job. There's 10% that you have to be out ahead, paving the pathway, bringing others with you. And then there's another 10% where you're locking arms and you're walking at the same pace going forward. And so being able to be nimble in those environments I think is the most important thing. It's not just about nursing, it's about the whole team and having that mindset around being a team, whether it's the physician, the nurse, the PT, the Environmental Services specialist. We can't do this job alone. Whether you're in the hospital, in the clinic, having that team mentality should bring you joy and pleasure. And I will say you have to have a job, a profession where when your alarm clock goes off, you have to be excited to get up. And I will tell you, my 20 years at Northwestern Medicine, my — OK, I'll say it — 30 plus years in nursing, I've always been so excited to go to work. Now, don't get me wrong, there are days I come home and I'm like, "Oh Lord, I don't know how we made it through today." But that's expected. But you celebrate the great days and every morning or evening, whenever you're turning off your alarm, you have to be excited. I find joy in the people that I work with. I find joy in the mission that we fulfill every day. It makes it fun to come to work, even though what we do is very hard, very complicated, at times very sad and very tragic. But I love coming to a place, to an organization with people that have like minds, like vision and like joy for what they do.
Masnari [00:13:43] I agree. I think that that's part of the reason why I made it through the pandemic. And I'm still in nursing and, and, now in a leadership role. I read an interview from 2021 where they interviewed ten CNOs from different hospitals and asked them, "What's the one word you would use to describe your team?" And you said, "Resilient." Do you stand by that? Would you change that answer?
Ramsay [00:14:05] 100%. And resilience is — you have to have a little bit of that innate in you. But it's also a learned behavior. And I don't think you can do it by yourself. So I think resilience is a definition of the team and it's a trait that folks carry. You have to have a little humor thrown in there, too, because sometimes you just have to laugh. COVID forever changed the way that we work and that we provide health care. You never let a crisis go without really learning something. And I think we had great learning from COVID. I'd like not to do that again. Right. Let's all agree that we're good. We're good, but we did have great learnings from there.
Saklak [00:14:45] I feel like we've hit on holistically a lot of those domains. And then ending with you talking about really growth and development, that's been amazing. I feel like I got a one-on-one coaching session from Kristin Ramsay, so we're adding it to my resume. But if you could say anything to our nurses who are listening, who are really great, knowledgeable, amazing nurses, what would be the one thing you wish you could say to them and reach all of them that would help with their wellness and well-being when it comes to growth and development?
Ramsay [00:15:11] So maybe I'll get it back to the very first podcast and what Faith said, and it does come back to community. Community can be defined in different ways or your community looks different. You have a community at work, you have a community of your family. You have a community of friends outside. You also have a community of healthcare professionals. You shouldn't have to struggle. Recognizing that things aren't right for you is the first step. And it's amazing when people can do that because there's nothing more frustrating than being unhappy or unwell in a position. I would also say the community, family, friends, coworkers also have a role to play in that because we should be cognizant and aware if we see people struggling. And then it's our responsibility to lean in and say, "Hey, how can I help you? What do you need?" You know, wellness is a very personal thing. What we have to do is provide different ways that our employees can tap in to what works for them. Maybe growth and development is not what somebody wants. They just want to come to work every day and be the best darn nurse they've ever been, and they just want to be left alone. And that is absolutely wonderful. So do they need a career ladder? Do they need career counseling? No. They want to stay at the bedside. So how do we make wellness for them resonate? You know, when you've got a brand new grad coming in and I'm shaking their hands at orientation and they're telling me their whole career path, I'm like, "Wow, we got to put some money with this person just to make sure we're mentoring and coaching them the right way, and we better have opportunities for them or we're going to lose them." So wellness is a very vague but personal issue. It's our responsibility as leaders to make sure we have a wealth of different opportunities to be able to meet the needs of our workforce where they need to be met, not what we say as wellness. And I think that's our challenge going forward.
Saklak [00:17:14] I love that, and I could feel like probably a collective exhale from nurses to being like, "OK, they're going to meet me where I'm at." And I think that is so, so important. We talk about individualized patient care. Individualized nursing care is the same, you know, and how we lead courageously forward.
Masnari [00:17:30] Yeah, I was just going to say I love the concept of meeting people where they are. I talk about that with my new nurses a lot, where if you tell me what you need, we will get you there. And that's one of the greatest things I think about working here is that we have that opportunity and we can do that for people. And again, it comes from the top down because you have set an example that this is important and this is what we do. I know that even seven years ago when I was a new nurse, I felt that, and I can't imagine now how much more people are feeling that because of all the work that we've done around our onboarding and our residency program and this big push that Alyssa I have talked about, the good thing that came out of COVID is this focus on well-being and wellness. And we feel that here a lot more than I have in previous years, which is so great.
Ramsay [00:18:10] Well, and if you think about it, it's no different than what we do for our patients. You know, we talk about putting the patient at the center of all we do in creating an individualized care plan for patients. We should be doing that for every member of our organization. They should have an individual care plan on what they want to do, how do they want to retire? I think that's fun, though. It really is fun to learn what makes somebody tick and what they need and what they want and be able to personalize that plan for them.
Masnari [00:18:40] I agree.
Saklak [00:18:41] Thank you, Kristin, so much for showing up, for being here and taking us through this journey. I couldn't think of a better person to conclude this first season. I can't say enough how much you support our dream and visions as nurses and even this coming to life. There's no one else I could think better to end this episode on.
Ramsay [00:19:00] Well, I have to say thank you. I'm humbled. But let me tell you, Laurin and Alyssa, y'all are rock stars, and I'm so proud of you and your creativity and the topics that you've covered and the different people that you have brought on. I'm just so proud of you and so honored to be a part of this. And I look forward to next season.
Masnari [00:19:17] Thank you. Thanks for tuning in.
Saklak [00:19:24] Better, RN is brought to you by The Woman's Board of Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Masnari [00:00:06] And I'm Laurin Masnari.
Saklak [00:00:08] On Better, RN we get real about nursing.
Masnari [00:00:11] The good and the gritty.
Saklak [00:00:12] We talk to real healthcare experts.
Masnari [00:00:15] With the goal of becoming better.
Saklak [00:00:17] For our patients, our colleagues.
Masnari [00:00:18] Our family, our friends.
Saklak [00:00:20] Our partners and ourselves. Hi, Laurin.
Masnari [00:00:26] Can you believe this is our last episode?
Saklak [00:00:28] No, I'm feeling kind of emotional at all. I don't know how I feel.
Masnari [00:00:33] I know this whole thing kind of felt like a dream. It's been such a great experience, and I think we've had some really incredible conversations that I don't know that we would have gotten to have otherwise. I'm sad that it's over.
Saklak [00:00:43] It's over. Or maybe it's just the beginning.
Masnari [00:00:46] Oh, maybe it is just the beginning. And we are going out with a bang today. So we're talking about growth and we are talking with our chief nurse, Kristin Ramsey. A lot of my team, they will know Kristin as "the Alabama lady." She's at Day 1 for orientation. She's “Roll Tide.” That's how people know her. And I love it. I love that. That's like part of her reputation.
Saklak [00:01:08] And what a better force within nursing and Northwestern Medicine than to have Kristin Ramsey. We wanted to bring someone in who's seen the changes in nursing in her career over the last couple of decades. She will not admit to how long she's been a nurse. If we get that answer out of her, we’ll count that as a win. But she's actually witnessed the many changes in the big picture of well-being as a nurse.
Masnari [00:01:29] Yeah, and I'm interested to hear her perspective from a leadership lens at an academic medical center. How does she take care of herself? How has she helped to guide what Northwestern Medicine feels is important with regards to well-being? Because she really is at the forefront of a lot of those conversations and a lot of the decisions that are made that put those things in place. So I'm excited to hear a little bit from her today.
Saklak [00:01:52] And even outside of Northwestern Medicine. Nursing in totality is the nation's largest healthcare profession. With a community that large, it comes with so many opportunities for growth, change and development. I'm excited to hear her take, hear her journey through nursing and hopefully learn some things from her.
Masnari [00:02:11] Yeah, let's bring on Kristin. [music] Today we have Kristin Ramsay in the studio. Kristin is the senior vice president of Quality for Northwestern Memorial Healthcare, as well as the Wood-Prince Family Chief Nurse Executive for Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern Medical Group. Thanks for joining us on the pod, Kristin.
Ramsay [00:02:32] Oh, my gosh, I'm so nervous. Y'all have been rock stars in the podcast. You've been amazing. And I'm so excited to be here. I don't feel worthy enough.
Saklak [00:02:39] Oh my gosh, I think we're more nervous than you are, so.
Masnari [00:02:42] I did a little research, Kristin, and I know that this is not your first podcast. You were on a podcast in 2018 with Dr. Gary Noskin, and I listened to it. So I know that you're a pro at this.
Ramsay [00:02:54] OK.
Masnari [00:02:55] It's going to be good.
Ramsay [00:02:55] I promise not to let you down.
Saklak [00:02:57] Tell us a little bit about your background and nursing here at Northwestern Medicine.
Ramsay [00:03:02] So I'm not going to tell you how many years I've been a nurse because it just tipped over like a big milestone for me, which is amazing because sometimes I still feel like I'm a new grad. And I've been at Northwestern Medicine — it'll be 20 years July 3rd — so I'm coming up on my anniversary and it just is so funny to reflect on that because, honestly, when I started here in 2003, I had in my mind that I would be here for 3 to 5 years and then go back home to Alabama. I wanted to experience health care in a different part of the country and within a different organization, because I had been at my organization since I was a scrub tech in the operating room, working my way through nursing school. And really felt like it was just a time in my life where I could, you know, stretch my legs a little bit and leave home. And I knew it wasn't going to be permanent. And I came up here and just fell in love with the city of Chicago, fell in love with Northwestern Medicine, enjoyed the new world and the new perspective on health care. But my background, when I was a bedside nurse, again, I started as a scrub tech in the operating room. I scrubbed for three years, working my way through nursing school, working weekends and nights and holidays to pay for my school. And I always thought I was going to be an operating room nurse. And then my last semester of school, I precepted in the neuro trauma ICU and fell in love with neuro trauma. And so I started as a new grad, scared to death, cocky as can be. And then, you know, you get your first day and you're like, "Oh my goodness, I know nothing." And that cockiness went away very quickly. And spent my bedside days in neuro ICU and then went back to school and became a critical care nurse practitioner and did critical care for a while and then decided to go back and get a master's in business. And that's when I crossed into administration and have been in a leadership-management type of role for about 20 years.
Saklak [00:05:04] I'm seeing this theme of growth with your story, lots of growing and trying new things and following passions, which I think a lot of the nurses on the podcast listening can relate to, is that season of growth and the opportunities that you have around you. How do you feel like that's helped support your wellness? You know, if we look at wellness holistically, how has growth and that change helped you in your own health and wellness journey?
Ramsay [00:05:29] When I started nursing, I did not really have a plan, and I didn't really think about what's going to be the next step for me. And if you would have told me that I would have gone down the path of leadership and that I was going to be a chief nurse and a senior vice president of Quality at a system level, that was never my plan, that was never my path. But I always had really good mentors to help me at different times in my career, and I never said no to those opportunities. And so I never left a position when I wasn't happy. I always left when things were going really well, but something else presented and it was a part of growth and development. And I look now at our younger generation of nurses coming in and they are very much interested in becoming a really well-rounded nurse and being able to say, "OK, I'm going to do this for a little while. And then my next step, you know, maybe I want to stay the clinical path or maybe I'm more interested in the leadership path, or maybe I really want to do something different, a different lens to nursing." And the beauty of that is we absolutely can now. There is no area of commerce that, in business and health care, that there shouldn't be a nurse working their way through that or being in charge of it. In most organizations, through the traditional path of nursing, one third of the workforce in those organizations are nurses. We need to have nurses thinking about, "Wow, wouldn't it be great if I ran Supply Chain? Knowing the clinical implications of supplies?" Wouldn't it be great if you had a nurse who also had an MBA or a finance degree being a CFO for a hospital? Think about the implications of nurses growing and developing. And I think the one other important piece, Alyssa, this gets to the second part of your question: being challenged and knowing that you have the opportunity to do something different or if your lifestyle changes and you can lean in or maybe push back because of what's going on in your life is very unique to nursing, too. And I think being able to capitalize that, it gives us so much flexibility and well-being. That's the flexibility I think that this generation of nurses and what they're looking for and working towards in their life, that's what organizations have to do to be able to retain and recruit quality nurses to be able to allow them this opportunity for growing and developing, leaning in, drawing back, depending on what's going on in their life. And it is so important to wellness. You even think of the physical piece of being a nurse. I don't know if I could physically be a neuro ICU nurse anymore. I don't know if physically I could do it. Mentally, I think I could do it. So maybe if I was still at the bedside, wouldn't it be great if I was a virtual nurse or a tele-nurse so I didn't physically have to use my body, but mentally my brain's still there and I've got so much expertise. So finding different opportunities to keep nurses in the workforce and being able to create ,well, safe environments for them is essential going forward.
Masnari [00:08:48] When you talk about keeping nurses in the workforce, this is kind of what Alyssa, I had in mind when we created the idea for this podcast is how do we kind of reinvigorate and give nursing a voice? What would you say to nurses within this institution or within the nursing profession in general who are struggling?
Ramsay [00:09:05] I would say if you are struggling and if you're thinking about what's next or what I can do or what my family needs or what I need, there are great mentors within this organization and within hopefully any organization that a nurse works in, whether it's formal, like a hospital, or in an outpatient setting. Reach out and find people who you want to emulate, you think they have a good perspective, that you watch them and you see them in their life seems to have it somewhat figured out. Now, remember, nobody has it figured out. But you know, there are so many different models and mentors out there and they don't have to necessarily be a nurse. Don't miss the opportunity to sit down and have a cup of coffee with someone and talk about what you need, what you'd like to do. In the traditional sense, hospitals and organizations are going to have to be flexible. When you think about other industries like insurance or case management or being an entrepreneurial nurse, you have the opportunity to kind of pave your own way. And so inpatient or hospital-based nursing, even though that's what we know, because the three of us do that, that's not the only venue. And the beauty of being a nurse is that you are so marketable, you can do so many different things, is that it allows you to really think about what's good for you. Where your values align with a new work environment, new organization, or going out on your own. But tap into people that you see doing things well and learn from them.
Masnari [00:10:40] In our first episode with Faith Hines, she talked a lot about community, and what you said reminded me of our conversation with her about how important and necessary it is for everyone's well-being to have a good community. And I think we're really lucky here within Northwestern Medicine that we do have so many people that want to see other people be successful. And I think, truly, not just saying this, because you're our big boss, but I think that that comes from the top down. I think that you are so accessible and you always are where the action is. Why is that so important to you as a leader here?
Ramsay [00:11:13] I think twofold. One, it's what I enjoy. And you gravitate to what you enjoy. I love being with my colleagues that are at the bedside. I love being with the leadership team. It gives me energy, and I feed off of that. I think I become a better leader when I'm in the throes of everything. I learn, I watch, I listen, I see others. I can provide feedback, but it also gives me great joy and pleasure. And I want to come back to joy and pleasure because we don't talk a lot about that. And I think it's important. And then the second piece of that is that as a leader, you have to be able to bring others along with you. And if you think about the role of a leader, you know, we always talk about servant leadership, and you want to be behind your staff and really giving them what they need to grow and develop. That's probably 80% of my job. There's 10% that you have to be out ahead, paving the pathway, bringing others with you. And then there's another 10% where you're locking arms and you're walking at the same pace going forward. And so being able to be nimble in those environments I think is the most important thing. It's not just about nursing, it's about the whole team and having that mindset around being a team, whether it's the physician, the nurse, the PT, the Environmental Services specialist. We can't do this job alone. Whether you're in the hospital, in the clinic, having that team mentality should bring you joy and pleasure. And I will say you have to have a job, a profession where when your alarm clock goes off, you have to be excited to get up. And I will tell you, my 20 years at Northwestern Medicine, my — OK, I'll say it — 30 plus years in nursing, I've always been so excited to go to work. Now, don't get me wrong, there are days I come home and I'm like, "Oh Lord, I don't know how we made it through today." But that's expected. But you celebrate the great days and every morning or evening, whenever you're turning off your alarm, you have to be excited. I find joy in the people that I work with. I find joy in the mission that we fulfill every day. It makes it fun to come to work, even though what we do is very hard, very complicated, at times very sad and very tragic. But I love coming to a place, to an organization with people that have like minds, like vision and like joy for what they do.
Masnari [00:13:43] I agree. I think that that's part of the reason why I made it through the pandemic. And I'm still in nursing and, and, now in a leadership role. I read an interview from 2021 where they interviewed ten CNOs from different hospitals and asked them, "What's the one word you would use to describe your team?" And you said, "Resilient." Do you stand by that? Would you change that answer?
Ramsay [00:14:05] 100%. And resilience is — you have to have a little bit of that innate in you. But it's also a learned behavior. And I don't think you can do it by yourself. So I think resilience is a definition of the team and it's a trait that folks carry. You have to have a little humor thrown in there, too, because sometimes you just have to laugh. COVID forever changed the way that we work and that we provide health care. You never let a crisis go without really learning something. And I think we had great learning from COVID. I'd like not to do that again. Right. Let's all agree that we're good. We're good, but we did have great learnings from there.
Saklak [00:14:45] I feel like we've hit on holistically a lot of those domains. And then ending with you talking about really growth and development, that's been amazing. I feel like I got a one-on-one coaching session from Kristin Ramsay, so we're adding it to my resume. But if you could say anything to our nurses who are listening, who are really great, knowledgeable, amazing nurses, what would be the one thing you wish you could say to them and reach all of them that would help with their wellness and well-being when it comes to growth and development?
Ramsay [00:15:11] So maybe I'll get it back to the very first podcast and what Faith said, and it does come back to community. Community can be defined in different ways or your community looks different. You have a community at work, you have a community of your family. You have a community of friends outside. You also have a community of healthcare professionals. You shouldn't have to struggle. Recognizing that things aren't right for you is the first step. And it's amazing when people can do that because there's nothing more frustrating than being unhappy or unwell in a position. I would also say the community, family, friends, coworkers also have a role to play in that because we should be cognizant and aware if we see people struggling. And then it's our responsibility to lean in and say, "Hey, how can I help you? What do you need?" You know, wellness is a very personal thing. What we have to do is provide different ways that our employees can tap in to what works for them. Maybe growth and development is not what somebody wants. They just want to come to work every day and be the best darn nurse they've ever been, and they just want to be left alone. And that is absolutely wonderful. So do they need a career ladder? Do they need career counseling? No. They want to stay at the bedside. So how do we make wellness for them resonate? You know, when you've got a brand new grad coming in and I'm shaking their hands at orientation and they're telling me their whole career path, I'm like, "Wow, we got to put some money with this person just to make sure we're mentoring and coaching them the right way, and we better have opportunities for them or we're going to lose them." So wellness is a very vague but personal issue. It's our responsibility as leaders to make sure we have a wealth of different opportunities to be able to meet the needs of our workforce where they need to be met, not what we say as wellness. And I think that's our challenge going forward.
Saklak [00:17:14] I love that, and I could feel like probably a collective exhale from nurses to being like, "OK, they're going to meet me where I'm at." And I think that is so, so important. We talk about individualized patient care. Individualized nursing care is the same, you know, and how we lead courageously forward.
Masnari [00:17:30] Yeah, I was just going to say I love the concept of meeting people where they are. I talk about that with my new nurses a lot, where if you tell me what you need, we will get you there. And that's one of the greatest things I think about working here is that we have that opportunity and we can do that for people. And again, it comes from the top down because you have set an example that this is important and this is what we do. I know that even seven years ago when I was a new nurse, I felt that, and I can't imagine now how much more people are feeling that because of all the work that we've done around our onboarding and our residency program and this big push that Alyssa I have talked about, the good thing that came out of COVID is this focus on well-being and wellness. And we feel that here a lot more than I have in previous years, which is so great.
Ramsay [00:18:10] Well, and if you think about it, it's no different than what we do for our patients. You know, we talk about putting the patient at the center of all we do in creating an individualized care plan for patients. We should be doing that for every member of our organization. They should have an individual care plan on what they want to do, how do they want to retire? I think that's fun, though. It really is fun to learn what makes somebody tick and what they need and what they want and be able to personalize that plan for them.
Masnari [00:18:40] I agree.
Saklak [00:18:41] Thank you, Kristin, so much for showing up, for being here and taking us through this journey. I couldn't think of a better person to conclude this first season. I can't say enough how much you support our dream and visions as nurses and even this coming to life. There's no one else I could think better to end this episode on.
Ramsay [00:19:00] Well, I have to say thank you. I'm humbled. But let me tell you, Laurin and Alyssa, y'all are rock stars, and I'm so proud of you and your creativity and the topics that you've covered and the different people that you have brought on. I'm just so proud of you and so honored to be a part of this. And I look forward to next season.
Masnari [00:19:17] Thank you. Thanks for tuning in.
Saklak [00:19:24] Better, RN is brought to you by The Woman's Board of Northwestern Memorial Hospital.