Learn why nurse advocates can benefit from new, cost-effective leadership models to engage and retain the nursing workforce with ANA\California Member and media-trained nurse, Grace Kistner, RN, MMHA, BSBA, BSN, CCRN, CSSLHPM.
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Jared Fesler 0:16
Welcome to the Amplified RN News Show where we're turning up the volume on nursing news in California. I'm your host, Jared Fesler. And today we're going to be diving into to the topic of empowering nurse leadership, and discussing how we can make accessible and affordable pathways for all levels of nurse leaders. We're joined by ANA\California member and media-trained nurse, Grace Kistner. Grace, thank you so much for being here today. Can you tell us a little bit about why you're an expert on this topic?
Grace Kistner 0:44
Yeah, thank you for having me. My name is Grace Kistner. I'm a registered nurse. I've been in healthcare since 2007. I've got 10 years of clinical experience in the ICUs. I've worked across the country as a traveling nurse. But I've also traveled the world. That's give me some keen insights into the way that health systems work. And I'm passionate about lifting up the nurses and the nursing profession and those health systems and advocating for health and all policies.
Jared Fesler 1:10
Awesome. Thanks. So let's talk about the problem. You know, obviously, nurse leadership, is, you know, a strong place within the backbone of the healthcare system. Walk us through this problem, who is it affecting, and why is there a lack of accessibility and affordability?
Grace Kistner 1:29
Yeah, sure. So in the current environment, accredited nursing leadership training is unaffordable, it's inaccessible, and it's really undeveloped being our profession, nurses are leaving at unprecedented rates, from the bedside to the boardroom. And new to practice nurses aren't getting support that they need an orientation to the workplace, or mid career nurses are not any longer willing to work in the current environment, and they're decreasing their hours are leaving the professionals together. And the ones who are left are strained and the current shortage, they're often pushing to management before they're ready. And it's been sent that people don't leave their jobs, they leave their boss, but I think that the nursing workforce is facing both in this shortage.
Jared Fesler 2:08
So how widespread is this problem? What do we is there a number of nurses that we're expecting to see go through some of these leadership pathways? Or can you define it further for us?
Grace Kistner 2:20
Yeah, um, so nurses, very beginning of their career, you know, we're seeing nurses and first or second, maybe the third year of their, their job leaving the profession right away, they are seeing that it's not what they thought they were getting into. And although at the same rate nurse leaders are actually leaving up to 30% of nurses are leaving the profession.
Jared Fesler 2:46
So essentially, there's a gap here that needs to be filled.
Grace Kistner 2:49
Yeah, exactly. And mid career nurses are looking for that professional and personal satisfaction. In the US. We love specialty training and certifications. And in healthcare, we highly regard accreditation nurses seeking that personal professional satisfaction and getting that most specialty accreditation. But for the leadership, specialty accreditation. Current models require that nurses to be eligible to access accredited nursing, tailored training and certification, you must have some combination of an advanced degree, sometimes pay up to 1000s of dollars, or already be in that leadership role with organizational support, and that's backwards.
Jared Fesler 3:27
So if current options are unaffordable, and lack of accessibility, then what is the new solution to be able to bridge that gap and make this more accessible for nurses to step into leadership roles or to lead more effectively?
Grace Kistner 3:46
Yeah, we definitely need to open up programs. The Future of Nursing report actually calls for broadening models for nursing leadership development, to have more diverse nurse leaders in our workforce. So we need to be better developing the nurses before they're expected to enter those roles as managers or executives. And we also need to be supporting nurses at all levels so we can lead up. This provides them with the environment, the empowerment and the influence, even without authority to take ownership of that workplace to affect change, and instead of feeling where our heard and leadership is out of touch in the modern realities of our frontline, we also need to be better at supporting nurse leaders through all stages of their career and go beyond the basics from things like staffing matrices or budgets, to really embody what Transformative Leadership is to keep nurses in the workforce.
Jared Fesler 4:38
So what would it take for institutions or health systems to implement these solutions and transform their leadership models? What would be the first step you're asking these institutions to take?
Grace Kistner 4:52
I see the future of nursing leadership training as one that's kind of broken down into bite sized pieces and I See this through things like micro credentialing. And we can start to integrate this into baccalaureate programs and leaved indicate education's that we're developing and graduating nurse leaders right into the workforce on day one. And as we kind of go through our profession, and we kind of get that specialty, we're comfortable at the bedside. But we see that we want to affect more change in one patient at a time, we can still continue to develop those leadership skills. And we can choose models that are relevant to our current setting, maybe we're going to a management program. And then even at the executive level, we can bring that transformative kind of 360 degree leadership around to keep nurses at the bedside. And the way that we can do that is by having our organizations provide that training for us on the job.
Jared Fesler 5:48
I feel like a lot of our listener base would be interested in knowing more about micro credentialing and some of the solutions that you're proposing. Briefly, and you know, the minute we have left here on this show, could you talk a little bit more about the micro credentialing and explain that to our audience? Yeah,
Grace Kistner 6:08
I think this is something that people just in general, in any industry are getting more comfortable and familiar with the idea of a short course, or a program that you can train online, on your phone in your home to learn today and do tomorrow. That kind of accessibility and bite size. Affordability is what's really modern for any nurse to be able to learn on the go. And I think that working with organizations, professional organizations to build these models and partner with the healthcare institutions to bring them to the nurses is the way to go. I think that we've seen a lot of that with our professional organizations and specialties. And I think we can broaden that to leadership.
Jared Fesler 6:48
Well, Grace, it has been a pleasure having you on the Amplified RN News Show. This is seemingly a very interesting solution perhaps to a widespread problem that we're seeing not only just here in California, but across the nation in nurse leaders will need to fill that gap in order to make sure that the workforce is able to achieve what it's supposed to achieve and provide the care that it needs to provide. So thank you Grace for being on the show today. And for those that are tuning into the Amplified RN News Show. We'll see you in the next episode.
Grace Kistner 7:15
Thank you so much.
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