An exclusive interview: Empowering nurses to build careers for better lives

I think there's a lot. Healthcare is broken, and there are a lot of ways we’re not given the support and resources we need to grow. Professional development is scarce in nursing, and I don't understand why we don't start that at the collegiate level - really push that and develop them as leaders and professionals so if they want to make an impact beyond the bedside they're able to. Right now, we train nurses to be at the bedside, because we need nurses so desperately at the bedside, but we're limiting them. I've seen so many nurses leave health care. If we just trained nurses a little bit better and gave them the education to succeed elsewhere, we could at least keep them in healthcare, and nurses have been shown to make such an impact in healthcare. Nurses are there for the patient journey. All these companies will look at physicians and hire physicians to help guide them - they should be hiring nurses. We need nurses in other parts of healthcare to drive change, we need them to be a part of decision-making at all levels. If we only train nurses to be at the bedside, it's going to be so much harder to get them there. I would love to get into education and help make that difference down the road. I'm not quite sure but that's definitely something on my horizon, hopefully. Going back to the broken system, from an operational standpoint hospitals are really old school, they don't have the technology they need to bring us into this decade, so that ultimately hurts our nurses and patients. If we spent more time focusing on retention and really supporting staff, hospitals and patients won't be better off.

Casey Smith, BSN, RN, is a former pediatric ER and trauma nurse passionate about reimagining and changing healthcare for the better - for her fellow nurses and their patients. She synthesized her love for science and people into a career in nursing. Her career began as an RN at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Tennessee, where she served as a charge nurse and member of the specialized trauma and critical care team. Wanting something new, she spent a few years as a travel nurse - cultivating a love for the outdoors - and eventually settled in the Pacific Northwest. She joined the Trusted Health team just before the pandemic, and has been building community and empowering nurses to take ownership of their careers ever since.

PLUS: Hear from Michelle Lemmons, RN, BSN, PHN, CNOR, CCSVP, for an an exclusive look at surgical nursing.

Michelle Lemmons has 10 years of healthcare experience and has worked in nearly every aspect of the patient experience, including admissions, surgery, acute care, and post-acute care. She has over seven years of nursing experience, including more than two years as an operating room nurse on the cardiovascular/thoracic/general team at the University of Minnesota. Michelle plays an active role in the surgical industry, speaking around the United States. She is a member of IAHCSMM, AORN, and works with perioperative professionals to share, develop, and implement best practices to improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare associated infections.

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