Hello, Nurses!

Addison Hennrich is a nurse manager at Liberty Hospital. He began his career as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) while earning his BSN at William Jewell College. Since becoming a Registered Nurse, he’s spent the last seven years in various nursing roles throughout the hospital. Addison, what initially drew you into nursing? 

ADDISON: That’s a long story. Like any teenage boy, I had no idea what I wanted to do. Initially, I thought maybe a firefighter, which is still under the umbrella of helping people. And around that same time, my grandmother had a stroke. My mother and I would switch shifts caring for her, and she had a really special nurse who took care of her. I wanted to be like him. He was very cool. He brought everything down to a level that a teenage boy could understand. That made such an impact on me that it affected everything moving forward. Everything came from this one moment when it was just something he did every day for every patient, not just my grandmother. 

REGENIA: When I was growing up and going to nursing school, nursing was primarily female, and there weren’t many men. In fact, when I was in nursing school, there was one male student who brought a whole different perspective and showed me it had nothing to do with gender or race. It was about knowledge and compassion, and if you have those two things, you should consider nursing. What made this nurse so cool? What caught your attention and convinced you to go into nursing? 

ADDISON: One of those cool things was that he was just himself. He had a beard. He looked like a lumberjack in scrubs, so I had that same thought you did. Even though we went to nursing school at different times, that male vs. female stigma was there. So that was a game changer for me. 

He made things normal. We had conversations that I could understand. He made it very natural to sit down on the edge of the bed with her while I was at her bedside. He was just like any other person, except he had all this knowledge. 

REGENIA: So fast forward from that nurse to you becoming a nurse and the experiences that you've had. What makes you remain in nursing and what keeps you excited about nursing? 

ADDISON: As a new graduate in nursing, five or six years ago, I was able to look at patients and their family members and bring it down to the level of someone who’s not in healthcare and let them know that it’s okay. It’s okay to ask questions, and it’s okay just to be yourself in a very chaotic hospital environment. Now, as a nurse manager, my role revolves around getting the right patient to the right spot, providing the proper skill set for that patient, and making the experience perfect for them on what is possibly the worst day of their life, being in the hospital. 

REGENIA: I agree. Sometimes, it’s easy for those of us who are in a hospital setting every day to forget this isn’t normal for most people. It’s a strange and unfamiliar environment for them. What do you do as a manager to make the experience less overwhelming for patients and their families? 

ADDISON: To normalize what’s not normal, to act like we act every day. We talk to each other like we usually would. You know, I could see that Joe is the patient in 380, and I go in and ask Joe, what would you be doing if you weren’t here? What does your day typically look like? And we talk about that. Because we’re not that different. Then we bring in the nurse caring for Joe, and then they talk about the same things, and we develop that relationship. And that relationship is everything. We might not seem like we’re the same. We’re at different life stages but live in the same community and are here together. And I’m here for you. 

REGENIA: That is one of the aspects of nursing that keeps it alive. What strikes me about nursing is that you can do many things within nursing, from a hospital setting to critical care, the nursery, or surgery. Outside of a hospital, we work in long-term care or in schools. So many opportunities. What are some things that you find challenging throughout your day, and what are some things you’re really hopeful about for the future of nursing? 

ADDISON: Staffing is a huge component of nursing and taking care of the bulk of patients at any given hospital. You could be at any hospital, and staffing is an issue. So, we have to plan for the proper skill set to care for patients on each floor and ensure we have the right nurses and the right number of nurses on each shift. And then we deal with everyday illnesses, emergencies and life events just like the ones our patients are experiencing. People call in for the flu. They have family emergencies. They take a day off. So, we plan for that. 

But I am excited about the future of nursing. As we gain more nurses and more knowledge in the field, demand is so high, right? I hope we keep putting nursing on the map and keep making nursing cool. Because nursing is really cool. 

REGENIA: Yeah, there's a shortage. In the Kansas City area alone, we're about 5000 or so nurses. I don't have an exact number. But we're seeing many baby boomers retire who have been nurses their entire careers. And we only have so many nursing schools in each city, and they only have so many seats that they're allowed to fill, and that's on the state legislature level. 

And we also see a shortage because nurses get burned out. Or bored with what they're doing, so they go into a different nursing field. And then, we have to bring a new nurse in to fill that vacancy. We have to train them and then go from there. 

REGENIA: There's also a lot of concern in our industry about nursing programs. They're not filling classrooms like they used to and need more instructors. What are some things we have done at Liberty Hospital that have been well-received and are exciting for our nurses? 

ADDISON: So professional governance jumps out. This is the most significant thing our organization has done for the nurses to have a voice and make a difference in their daily workflow. Our professional governance model consists of multiple councils. Staff members either volunteer or are elected to become on those councils. You have a chair and co-chair, and it's a revolving door of decisions being made by those councils. 

We ask, what do we think as a group? We evaluate the pros and cons, and we listen to our nurses. At that moment, we say, I'm not the one working on the unit. I'm the one who is in this role because that's a part of my duty. And then we pass it, roll out with a date of that decision, and make it happen. So, the end result of all that is that the nurses are happier. They have a voice. And secondly, they get what they need and want. And thirdly, we have an organization constantly promoting new leaders. 

REGENIA: Addison, I love how you talk about the professional governance model we’ve implemented and how it helps people go into leadership or start considering the different aspects of each decision made as an organization. If you were to speak to nurses or prospective nurses or students, what would you say is something that they could be thinking about doing that could impact their career, that could affect the lives of someone else or even the entire country of health care?

 ADDISON: If I could speak to anyone considering a nursing career, I would tell them to volunteer at a hospital. Or give blood. I need you to be a person who is compassionate and who cares. And that’s the heart of every issue because we keep patients at the center of every decision. That’s not an exaggeration. That is what every nurse will tell you. Whatever decision we make, it’s about the patient. 

REGENIA: Thank you, Addison. We invite you to tune in for our next episode, where we will be discussing the culture changes that are currently happening here at Liberty Hospital. We’ve spent the last year working on the fundamentals of culture. What's working well, what's not working well, what we need to improve upon, and all that we have accomplished under the direction of our President and CEO, Dr. Raghu Adiga, who will be joining us.