Balance your goals
Despite the push for increased uniformity across the Mount
Carmel Health System, the market still plays a role in how things are
done at times.
“You have to be able to recognize the value of interdependence and
recognize the value of market independence,” von Zychlin says.
“When I look at our College of Nursing, I’m looking not only at how
can it benefit Mount Carmel Health System, but how does it benefit
nursing education and the growth of nursing education in the region
that we serve. I can’t just look at how it will help me fill my nursing
vacancies; I also have to concentrate on how it can be responsive to
its students and the community that needs more nurses. How do we
take it to the next level?”
That’s where having the head of Mount Carmel’s College of
Nursing reporting directly to von Zychlin — rather than two levels
removed from him — comes in handy. Ann Schiele, president and
dean of the college, now has the resources and attention she needs
to constantly look ahead to what’s next, stay competitive and, by
doing so, help the system as a whole.
“Can we build into the curriculum and the practical, clinical experiences a way to show how doctors work with nurses in partnership
and nurses work with doctors in partnership rather than just training
nurses to be nurses and doctors to be doctors?” von Zychlin says. “We
can take it beyond just the corridor of training in their respective professions.
“We have lots of ambulatory sites. Does it make sense to open
nursing education into those sites and create a broader experience? Same thing with physicians.”
The winners in all of this, again, are the customers. With better,
multifaceted training upfront, nurses are apt to adapt more quickly to any medical environment in which they are called to serve.
Therefore, patients should receive better care.
“Those are some of the things we are looking forward to in creating the synergy between the hospitals and the College of Nursing
and graduate medical education,” von Zychlin says.
Still, it’s a continual balancing act.
“You have to be able to weigh internal benefit with external benefit,” he says. “If you concentrate too much on the outpatient or
external side, then you have to question what’s the value of having
that division as part of your health system. Does it add value?
Because it takes management time, it takes capital, it takes lots of
things; so if it can’t add to the value of the system and all it’s doing
is external, then you have to really question whether that division
makes sense for you to have or not.
“Vice versa, if you only concentrate on how it supports your
organization, you may lose the value and quality of the best students and its success in the community. If students perceive us as
being 100 percent internal-focused around how do we fill our own
vacancies, then they’re going to say that doesn’t give me the broad
experience I’m looking for as an individual nurse for my future
growth and career path. So we have to look at it and say, ‘How can
we do both?’”
