The role of a nurse coach and her impact on the nursing community.

 

Episode Introduction 

 

In this episode, Jim Cagliostro, VIE Healthcare’s Clinical Operations Performance Improvement Expert, interviewed Alexcie Sanchez to learn more about nurse coaches. Topics include, taking a more holistic approach to health and wellbeing, the growing need for nurse coaches, the positive impact of nurse coaching on burnout, and why nurse coaches are a ‘’shining light’’ in healthcare. 

 

 

Show Topics

 

• What is a nurse coach? 
• Exploring available options for nurse coaches 
• Partnering with a nurse coach is a powerful experience
• Covid-19 – a tipping point in self-care
• Coping with burnout during a crisis
• Utilizing nurse coaches in a hospital benefits everyone

 

 

02:14 What is a nurse coach? 

 

Alexcie explained that a nurse coach works with any individual who wants to improve their health and wellbeing. 

 

‘’….simply put, a nurse coach is a registered nurse who has specialized training in the art of coaching. We're trained to use a holistic approach, so I love to use the phrase a whole person approach. We really look at the individual's life when it comes to caring for an individual. So their lifestyle, their daily activities, their food intake, sleep habits, everything when it comes to caring for an individual, and I always want to make it clear right off the bat too, because we're called nurse coaches, we don't actually just work with nurses. It just means that we're nurses that are specialized in coaching. So nurse coaches work with anybody and everybody that has any desire to make a change.’’

 

 

03:28 Exploring available options for nurse coaches

Alexcie shared the options open to nurse coaches, from hospitals to private companies, emphasizing that working with a nurse coach not a one-time encounter. 

 

‘’I have my own private practices as a nurse coach. So I work virtually with individuals. If they're local, I'll work with them. If they want to meet in person, I can do that. But basically, nurse coaches can have their own private practice. They're hired by insurance companies to help patients manage chronic or new acute illnesses, especially if it's like a terminal illness. They can provide that emotional support to them and their families. Nurse coaches can be hired by organizations and companies to promote just overall health and wellbeing, which helps not just the employees but the organization in general. And then nurse coaches can also work for hospitals where they not only help the patients while using that holistic approach, but also helping the staff and the employees of the hospital as well. So nurse coaches can really work in any sort of environment. They can work at clinics in doctor's offices, they can work for themselves. It's just really a matter of who they desire to work with and what sort of environment they'd like to work in…..It normally wouldn't be a one time encounter, it will be an encounter that lasts over weeks to months depending on the person's desires.’’

 

 

12:15 Partnering with a nurse coach is a powerful experience

Alexcie said our minds can dictate our behavior. Nurse coaches encourage accountability and offer reassurance. 

 

‘’…anyone that is desiring to make any change in their life can reach out to a nurse coach. Whether it is health or disease related or not. We're really also trained in that mindset modification. Our minds, our thoughts really dictate a lot of our behaviors. So I know we often feel like we can do things on our own, but with a partner, whether it's for accountability reasons, reassurance advice, sharing your journey with a nurse coach can be a really powerful experience. And many nurse coaches specialize in certain niches. So for example, maybe you're a med-surge nurse or a PCU nurse and you're really well versed in type 2 diabetes and you love that education. There's nurse coaches out there that specialize in just working with individuals with type 2 diabetes to help them manage or reverse their disease. There's nurse coaches out there that have OB and maternity experience, so they just work with pregnant women or postpartum nurse coaching. So there's literally so many different niches within the nurse coach community that you can seek a nurse coach that is specializing in whatever you're looking for.’’

 

 

15:31 Covid-19 – a tipping point in self-care

Alexcie commented that Covid raised awareness of the importance of taking care of ourselves. 

 

‘’I think it's really about health awareness at this point, not just the nurse world. And I'll start with this example. So Covid comes in and I think a lot of people, or at least I especially witnessed that our pre-existing conditions, our comorbidities are playing a substantial role in how covid is managed, treated and recovered from. So my hope is that we can continue to become more aware of how we take care of ourselves and how every aspect of our life plays a factor. What we eat, how we sleep, how we move, how we think, how stress plays a role in our overall wellbeing. So all of these things are exactly what a nurse coach can help with. So I'm hoping that as health awareness increases the ability, the desire for someone to want to make change in asking for help, and that's where a nurse coach can really come into play.’’

 

 

17:15 Coping with burnout during a crisis

Alexcie said that she worked with her own nurse coach to help her work through fatigue and burnout. 

 

‘’…I came to realize that these things were not going to happen overnight. Our system is potentially broken, but nothing's going to change tomorrow. So that's when I started really looking within myself and figuring out, "Okay, how can I cope with this today? Because I don't want to leave the emergency department." I loved where I was, I wasn't ready to leave. So how do I manage it better? How do I deal with the fact that I can't change what's going on around me, but I can change how I deal with it? And that's when I really started looking within and seeked my own coach that I've worked with in the past to really work with me in those moments to figure out, okay, how do I get through this frustration, this fatigue? And it really came down to just self-care in those moments. How do I take care of myself? How do I take care of me right now while this stress and overworking and fear of the unknown is going on?’’

 

 

20:03 Utilizing nurse coaches in a hospital benefits everyone 

Alexcie said leadership, nurses and patients all thrive when hospitals use nurse coaches. 

 

‘’So utilizing nurse coaches in a hospital setting literally is a win for everybody, right? When preceptors and management are trained in holistic nurse coaching, they'll first learn how to develop a truer sense of themselves. Because if they go through this training, it's really about finding within their strengths and how they can capitalize on becoming better mentors and leaders, which is a win for the nurses and the overall staff when we have management that is taking care of themselves holistically. When the staff has strong understanding, compassionate leadership, they will ultimately thrive. And when the nurses thrive, the patients will thrive, retention will improve, nurse shortages will diminish and appropriate nurse to patient ratios will follow. It's literally a win for every single person in the hospital.’’

 

 

Connect with Lisa Miller on LinkedIn

Connect with Jim Cagliostro on LinkedIn

Connect with Alexcie Sanchez on LinkedIn

 

Check out VIE Healthcare and SpendMend 

 

You’ll Also Hear:

 

A journey to nurse coaching working in ER during the pandemic: how Alexcie’s nursing career evolved into a more holistic approach to care. ‘’My mom really raised my brother and I in a more Eastern philosophy manner. So I've always taken that approach when it came to healing and then being an ER nurse, it's two different worlds in a sense.’’

 

The importance of the mind-body connection and how to become a nurse coach. 

‘’You must be a registered nurse with at least two years of working experience and you have to complete at least 60 continuing nursing education hours in holistic nursing. And then you also need 60 mentored or supervised coaching hours. I personally used what's called the Nurse Coach Collective’’.

 

Raising the profile: why education and raising awareness of nurse coaching is vital to the healthcare sector and patient care. 

 

How Alexcie helps nurses rediscover their power and true potential. ‘’Right now, my mission is really to help nurses…..I love to go really deep with these individuals to figure out how to create happiness.’’

 

Shining a light on a broken system: How the pandemic highlighted the flaws in the healthcare system. ‘’… unfortunately along with the patients, the nurses were at the center of it all. We were in the middle of chaos in a sense. Unknown fear, I think a lot of fear also comes to play. I can share personally, it was scary.’’

 

Why nurse coaches are a ‘’shining light’’ in the lives of individuals. 

 

 

What To Do Next:

 

• Subscribe to The Cost Advantage for Healthcare Leaders and receive a special report on 15 Effective Cost Savings Strategies.
• Learn more about the simple 3 step process to work with us.
• If you are interested in learning more, the quickest way to get your questions answered is to speak with one of our margin improvement experts. Schedule a call with our team here.