Higher Education for Healthcare Leaders | E. 114

The Healthcare Leadership Experience

Higher education plays a vital role in preparing and developing healthcare leaders. Dr Giuseppina Pagnotta explains why to Jim Cagliostro.

Episode Introduction

Giuseppina shares her inspiration for going back to her doctorate during Covid, the importance of giving back to the world and how higher education can support career aspirations in nursing and healthcare. She also explains the role of connection, and why time is one of the most precious gifts leaders can offer.

Show Topics

• Higher education can open doors

• Paying it forward: sharing your knowledge

• Offering inspiration and guidance through mentoring

• Self-regulation and building connection

• Leadership tip: Giving the gift of time

04:00 Higher education can open doors

Giuseppina encouraged people to understand how further education can support your career aspirations.

‘’And I tell people now, young people or anyone that's getting their nursing degree, whether it be from an associate or a baccalaureate program, to go on for the MSN. It's really important in today's world to get that advanced degree because you can keep it in your back pocket, and then it will allow you to have doors opened for different opportunities in your facility or in education or even as an entrepreneur. There are so many nurse entrepreneurs out now. So I attained my MSN in 2020, and our graduation was outside because of COVID, so we ended up having the graduation outside in August of 2020. And then, during that COVID spring, I realized, "What will I do with the MSN? Will it get me where I want to go?" So on that note, I evaluated, "What would I do with it? What doors will it open?" You always have to consistently evaluate, and I even tell my children, "What doors will your degree open? Where will jobs proliferate? Where can you get employment? What do you want to do with that degree, and what is the propensity of getting a job?" So then, you have to evaluate what employment opportunities does that degree align with.’’

08:44 Paying it forward: sharing your knowledge

Dr Pagnotta explained why sharing skills and knowledge can help others.

‘’I think that if you have a skill, knowledge, skill, abilities, whatever you have, and I don't want to keep them for myself. I am on this earth for this many years and if I can share my knowledge and share my path with you, then you can take it forward and go take it somewhere. I realized in the past few months that it's not about me. It's about what tools I can give to you and what tools you could run with. And I don't even have to hear from you ever again as a teacher-student, but just to know that I impart with you with the skills to learn and to grow and to get excited about learning, that's enough for me. And also, with recent times and my recent role in the Monmouth County School Nurses Association, I realized that I'm giving my leadership skills to others, and I'm teaching them school nursing leadership and nursing leadership, and they're rolling with it. It makes me so happy to see others flourish with the skills that I'm giving them and the excitement and fostering that relationship and creating an excitement in them in the role in nursing leadership.

14:06 Offering inspiration and guidance through mentoring

Giuseppina said it’s important for leaders to examine their motivation behind mentoring.

‘’I think it's dual fold. It takes a lot of work, but yet it's so rewarding. For myself, I started out as an American Nurses Association mentor. I think it was two years ago, and I was matched with a mentee across the U.S., and we would meet, I think, once every two months for 15 minutes and talk and then give each other... I would give strategies as to what her aspirations were or their aspirations, and we would continue the conversation there. It was interesting because I tend to want to inspire you. I want to inspire you in your path, and I want to look up possibilities for you. If you want to go back to college, I will look up colleges for you and look up different programs that you may like to attend in your area or that have the specific degree or certification program where you would like to go….And also, it's important for you to examine why you would like to be a mentor and what purpose does it serve for you. For me, it just serves the purpose of guiding. I love to guide colleagues into their path, colleagues, students, friends. I really get excited and happy about doing that. It gives me joy, lots of joy to do that, to help others and discover what their potential is because sometimes you don't know your true potential. And I have had several colleagues that have shown me my true potential.‘’

18:49 Self-regulation and building connection

Dr Pagnotta highlighted two key elements to support academic success.

‘’…. as a student and as a nurse already advancing in your degree, even if you are in an inpatient unit with a BSN, and you would like to be on a committee, shared governance committee, there are a lot of opportunities. In academia, I think initially, the administration and the chairs and your professors guide you, but then at a certain point, you kind of take over, and it's all you because you yourself, especially in a DNP program, you have to be self-regulated and to regulate your time and to really understand, "I have this much time today. What can I get through?" So it's important as a doctoral student for me to write down what I need to attain and also the deadlines. When is everything due and when am I going to revise? So definitely in that path. In addition, I think that it's really important for academia to set up paths to have the students connect, especially in an online platform. MSN programs are online. DNP programs are online. They have to have a coffee place online, its own place for students to connect to each other. So the nerd that I am, and friends, colleagues can say this that I've had in class with, I would email all of my classmates in the beginning of the semester, say, "Hi, my name is Gius. Nice to meet you all. If you want to connect and chat about the course, here's my number." And so I've met amazing people throughout my time as an MSN and DNP and actually some classmates that I can call friends today.’’

22:03 Leadership tip: Giving the gift of time

Giuseppina said empathy, guidance and giving time through mentoring is highly rewarding for leaders.

‘’I think the connection with family and friends and colleagues is very important. And also, to have that empathy and caring aspect about yourself, I think that is a big part. I tend to be very empathetic and very caring, even with students and colleagues to guide them in the right direction even if something is... You lost a lot of points on a paper, or something happened, and I will tell them how to get most of the points next time or how to prepare so that it doesn't happen again. I'm that type of person. And also, with mentorship, with my role, with inspiring others, you give yourself, and you give others your gift of time because your time is so important. And you give a gift to others, and you give them a gift of your time because your time is really precious. I think by me giving the gift of time to others, it's rewarding. And you had said nurses burn out…. It's difficult, and you're always giving, giving. But when you are a mentor, you're also getting that feedback from somebody else that's saying, "Thank you. Thank you for your time. I appreciate talking to you. You inspire me." And I think that's important.’’

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You’ll also hear:

Gaining a doctorate during Covid: ‘’There's nowhere to go. There's nothing to do… So instead of watching Netflix and binge-watching and discovering new shows out there, I decided to go back to my doctorate. So then, I was immersed in leadership classes, mentorship, and population health, epidemiology. And so, I never looked back.’’

Giving more back to the world: ‘’Do you like your current position? Do you feel like you can give more back to the world? And if you feel like you can give more back to the world in your particular profession, well then, you have to consider ways to give back, either it's with a certification or teaching CPR or teaching others or entrepreneur or patenting something.’’

Why face-to-face connection matters: ‘’I think we're realizing the importance of that face-to-face connection. It's great to have the digital ability, but to meet in a coffee shop, to meet someone, go for a walk, and to really get to know someone, I think that's huge.’’

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