Ensuring That Everyone in The World Has Health Care with Linda Anders, Nurse Leader: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix
Ensuring That Everyone in The World Has Health Care with Linda Anders, Nurse Leader: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Rebecca Love:
Hi everyone! This is Rebecca Love with Outcomes Rocket Nursing, bringing to you some of the most innovative nursing leaders around the United States and the world. And today it is such a pleasure to bring to you, Linda Anders, the nurse who’s joining us today. Linda Anders is a passionate nurse with a community mindset and extensive volunteer experience that is a board certified at nursing professional development. Linda has been identified as a young leader in the profession by receiving the Hundred Great Iowa Nurses Award in 2018 and the 40 Under 40 Emerging Nurse Leaders Award at Illinois in 2020. Linda recently won the Star Search Competition and the Association of Nursing Professional Development at the 2021 Annual Conference. Linda is known for her dedication to doing the right thing and along with her bold approach to change the world to ensure all have health care. With her dedication to high quality patient care, along with a strong desire to help staff and other leaders grow and learn, Linda is blazing the trail of change with every step. Not only that, but Linda has an impressive degree history of not only being a nurse, a nurse practitioner, but also holding an MBA. Linda, we are so glad to have you at Outcomes Rocket Nursing.
Linda Anders :
Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited.
Rebecca Love:
We are so thrilled to have you here because the truth is you have such an interesting background. And I mean, you also have such a list of accolades that the nursing community is recognizing in you, which I think is just such a wonderful spot to start this conversation from because I think that a lot of us in health care or nursing. The question that I think a lot of the audience always wonders is what has inspired you and your work in health and health care, Linda?
Linda Anders :
So Rebecca, I appreciate that question, and I’m going to be fully transparent and vulnerable with you in the audience because I think that’s how we develop and really show who we are. So I would say the people around the world inspire my work in health care. You know, growing up, I did not have much and my family, did not go to the doctor regularly. We were those people who used like the emergency department as our primary care. We couldn’t pay our co-pays and we didn’t have preventative care. That was not even a sentence that we spoke. So I’m an example of the lack of access to health care in America, but I also know that this is not solely unique to America as it extends outside of our borders and across the globe. And my eyes were truly opened when I went to Haiti for the first time in 2017. That trip planted a seed in my heart and soul for increasing health care around the world as I see access to health care as a human right, not a privilege. There’s so much room for growth in this place and space. And so to circle back to the original question, I would say that’s what inspires my work in health care.
Rebecca Love:
Well, it’s fantastic because, you know, I think your story of what you’re talking about is a story that so many people in America can relate to today. Not understanding health care or access to health care as a care continuum of direct points of access across your life, but only accessing health care through the emergency room. And then what you witnessed abroad to take and combine all of that into one vision of how and why you wanted to get into nursing and then keeping that at your forefront of inspiration for going forward, I think is in exactly the right direction that so many of us in health care feel needs to be bridged with nursing, which is this lack of access to care, identifying where these vacancies are in the health care system and how can we do a better job bridging that knowledge gap, that access gap? And let’s be honest, economically disadvantaged gap between those who can’t access and cannot. So tell me, how are you adding value to the health care ecosystem with regards to the work that you’re doing?
Linda Anders :
Oh, you know, that’s such a, I feel like that question is a heavy question. I feel like as a nurse, we are all lifelong learners and I feel that we can maximize our professional growth through our knowledge expansion. And knowledge expansion can be through reading podcasts, webinars or conferences. You know, there’s so many ways to do that. My current organization helps to bridge the knowledge gaps of nurses worldwide by offering free podcasts and free webinars. Through these offerings, nurses around the world can learn and grow. Being able to be a part of that truly amazes me each and every day. When I take a step back and I realize that the work me and my current organization are doing really, we’re pouring into the minds of nurses globally and thus making patient care impacts worldwide.
Rebecca Love:
Wow. I love the way that you’ve taken it upon yourself to basically say this is missing in the world. This is an access pain point that now we can solve if we simply use the technology at our hand. And I’m thinking, you’re probably familiar, maybe or not, is a study out there called Woodhall Study. And the Woodhall study showed that in less than two percent of all health care articles that are published by the media, a nurse is cited or sourced as that health care expert. And what I love hearing is that there are these nurses like you in the world who are taking the reins and saying, if there is not a marketplace yet for us to find this outlet, we’re going to make that marketplace. So tell us, you know, as you’ve started to learn and do this and reach out to the world, what are you doing differently that makes it better than what has been available in the past or even what’s available widely today.
Linda Anders :
Oh, I love that question. I think a million dollar question right there. So I would say coming from nothing and having people pour into me along the way truly made me successful. I’m the only person in my family that graduated from college and has a graduate degree. I give because I have been freely given. When it comes to my leadership style, I embrace the approach that Cy Wakeman has of tending to your people first. At the end of the day, Rebecca, we are all humans with stuff, right, and burdens, and we are heavy laden. So it is essential that we care for each other. I think that in today’s society, we also over manage and under lead like Cy Wakeman says, where we are trying to control the people instead of connecting to the people and helping them develop their potential. If people have not seen the potential in me years and years ago, I would not be where I am today. I think that that’s one thing that makes me truly different and better. I’m approachable, but at the end of the day, I come back to nursing as my profession. It is woven into the fabric of my being, and I am devoted to helping others in all situations and will préserver regardless of the obstacles.
Rebecca Love:
Well Linda, and I know that right when we got on, we found out that you and I, I grew up the Midwest where you do, which is referred to as the area of the Quad cities. And I remember growing up in the Quad cities and recognizing that, there was to your point and our conversation, that there was this gap on itself, felt like sometimes in the world and you have brought this so well together that I haven’t questioned, especially as you sort of look at your own community, your background, what you’ve lived through is your life experiences of what do you think the world around you, your community, specifically those who you see every day of those that lived the life that you did growing up with nothing and not knowing anything about health care. What do you believe that population needs to know about nursing so that they can start seeing health care differently?
Linda Anders :
Oh, that’s so good. That’s such a good question. I think, you know, as community members, we see nurses as we see them in the media, but I want to challenge that and look at it from a different lens that nurses can drive change. And this is such a big concept and a big idea. We are innovative and creative, and I don’t think the general public sees that aspect of nursing. Nurses need to be at the table when decisions are being made and involved in the processes. If we look at health care today, we can see that there’s been a big shift. I personally used to see it as health care facilities that provided a service. Now I think we need to look at it more from a business lens and see it, especially in America, as a service industry that provides health care. And with that being said, nurses need to share their big ideas. They aren’t crazy. The nurse that is sharing their idea is not crazy. I can tell you one day I was sharing with a local colleague that I truly believe before I die, I’m going to change the world through the lens of health care. And she laughed at me. Initially, it was very soul crushing, but then I came to realize it was because her goals and dreams aren’t that big, so she could not understand it. And that’s OK. Big ideas come from forward thinking people who challenge the norm. Think outside of the box and innovate and invent the world they see inside, rather than submitting to the limitations of the current dilemmas. That’s a quote from the ever powerful TD Jakes, and I think it speaks so well to what you asked.
Rebecca Love:
The way you deliver your message and Linda is something so different from what I hear often from nurses of a different generation and you speak with these aspirational insights and conviction about nursing in a way that I think is so absolutely fundamentally necessary to the future of our profession. It’s just so exciting to speak to you and others that have come into nursing even 10 years after I did. And you see the world so differently, you see nursing so differently. And I think that to me gives me such hope for what our profession is going to become. And I know that this sometimes when we talk about these aspirational directions, to your point, nurses haven’t been seen in these roles necessarily as innovators in these kind of directions before. But I’m wondering, could you sort of perhaps give us an example of a time that perhaps gives you this foundation and this belief? It’s maybe more than a belief because maybe you perhaps you’ve actually witnessed it. Were you and your nursing team perhaps created a great solution to a problem that really hadn’t been addressed? Could you talk about a time, perhaps in your life, that this happened for you?
Linda Anders :
I love that question, Rebecca, and I could say yes to it. I could provide an example, but then we would be here all day and I would be just be yammering on and on. So I’m going to kind of give a more umbrella type answer to that question. Nurses come up with great solutions each and every day. You and I know that, but not everybody knows that. I can speak to how great the minds of nurses are. I truly saw this when we initially met at the Nursing Act for Health Hackathon that I participated earlier this year. There was such beauty in that work, as it was a concentrated time and effort to drive change. I think as a leader, it is our role to cultivate great cultures to allow for creative thinking and implementation of those creative ideas that come from the minds of nurses. The techs lead like a nurse. That’s a book put out by the American Nurses Association, talks about pruning the weeds that really destroy an innovative culture. And sometimes that’s hard. But it’s our role as leaders to de hire those who do not fit within our culture and do not meet the metrics and the job description that’s put before them. Also, Jim Collins says that the right people will do the right things and deliver the best results they’re capable of, and that is not driven by incentives. So if we get the right people in the right places, they will truly make an impact and you’ll see those great solutions in every place in space and health care.
Rebecca Love:
Wow. You know, Linda, it’s true. I think that the beauty of hackathon for nurses are that there’s so much power in that weekend where nurses, all those restraints that are usually piled upon us, all those no’s, all those dream crushing statements that you’ve even heard in your career and have shared even on this this podcast today, they remove themselves those limitations at hackathons and nurses bloom in such ways and those experiences that I’m glad that you experienced it and felt it as well. And then really, to your point, taking it further, as the AMA has stated in that book, prune the weeds that sort of cause innovation to stop happening at that fundamental set. There’s so many of us in nursing, and I talked to so many nurses even weekly that I just look at and think, Oh my gosh, we are driving the best way. But Linda, I think you’re an example of those nurses that we need to keep in this profession. And you started with nothing. You didn’t know anything about health care. You’re the first in your family to go on to college and then even go beyond that and get your master’s twice. But I think that sometimes there’s this perception that sometimes success just happens for people like you, like you, that some people are are sort of fortuitous in this and that life just keeps moving in that direction. But I think what we realize is that we’ve all had setbacks and it’s how we come through those setbacks that drive us forward. So can you perhaps share with the audience other nurses and young nurses who today may have come from a background similar to your own that feels the odds are against them? And could you share a setback and how you use that setback to perhaps define how you moved forward?
Linda Anders :
Yes, absolutely. I love how you set that question up because I do think that people perceive me as being very well to do and that I had everything put together and placed on a silver platter before me, but I have to say that I’ve worked so very hard and have come up against setback after setback, and I would say the first one is from my I’m going to articulate here anyways is from my first semester of nursing school. I was struggling. You know, if you think about how young you are straight out of high school, you go into a less structured environment of the college setting. I didn’t know my learning style and I didn’t know how to teach myself the material, and I also didn’t know how to control my anxiety that I was experiencing. And a plus, you know, you add caffeine into the mix and it just makes everything so much worse. But there was one professor who told me that I would not make it as a nurse, that I did not have what it took. And I don’t know if that was her way of trying to light a fire under me or not, but I would say, here I am, you know, over 10 years later, making waves, saving lives, and I’m an established nurse that is highly respected. Through her lack of ability to guide me I learned about my inner yearning to change and save lives. This desire has driven me to change how seasoned nurses teach and train students in early career nurses. Like Bernie Brown says, at the end of the day, at the end of the week and at the end of my life, I want to be able to say that I contributed more than I criticized. I learned that I was going to contribute from that conversation with that professor so many years ago, and I wish that professor could see me now and see that she was wrong because I’m here and I’m here to live a big life and a big nursing life.
Rebecca Love:
Nursing school. How many dreams have been shattered in those halls? I think that I remember my years of teaching, and I remember the statistics saying 30 percent of all nurses that enter nursing school will fail out within their first two years. And not unlike you, Linda. I had a situation because nursing was a second career choice for me, but I was in my master’s program, also having a similar conversation with a professor of mine who told me I was not what was needed in the field of nursing. And just like you said, you have those moments in time where someone can define your future for you. And sometimes those people have the ability to, for a period of time, derail you on what you thought was going to be a straight path. And I don’t talk about it a lot, but I ended up failing that nursing course, and I had never failed anything before in my life, and it was the most humbling experience for me to go back and repeat that course. But in my following years of teaching at a community college in Boston, I went on to teach the class for all those students who were failing and were told they had to take a remediation course. Every day I stood at the front of that classroom when I opened up that and I said, I know how you feel because I too was in your seat before and it is something I’ve never forgotten. And you know what? Thank God it happened to me and probably thank God it happened to you because it just made us all that more determined that we’re going to do something for nursing and never let that derail future nurses from what they’re going to accomplish. So I thank you for sharing that personal story because that is a hard thing to talk about. And you know, life is hard and nursing is hard, and there is a ton of things challenging the profession right now. But Linda, to our audience and to other nurses, we’re going to tune in because they know you are this rising rock star and all these nurses across the Midwest and from the Quad City who are thinking, can I do this? Should I do this? Why should I do this? Why? What is there in the future for me? Tell us, what are you excited about today?
Linda Anders :
Well, Rebecca, before I answer that, I want to thank you for your vulnerability and sharing your personal a little bit of your personal story. I really appreciate that. When it comes to what I’m excited about today, that’s so hard to think about because there are so many great things in the midst of the mire and the muck, right? We have a lot going on in the world today, but I think that, I feel like the world is thirsty and starving for nurses to take a bold, innovative stance to enhance patient care. It’s our time to take a posture of caring for humans around the world. Because good ideas can come from anywhere, but it’s about having a bold approach to get those ideas heard. I think that’s what I’m most excited about being able to stand and empower others that have these great ideas and just don’t feel like they have a voice.
Rebecca Love:
Wow. I think I’ve said this way too much in this interview, but my gosh, Linda, I mean, you capture it so well in terms of what this voice of nursing is going to look at, and I’m so honored that you joined us today, and it’s so much fun to meet rising leaders in the future of nursing ahead of us. It gives me such hope. So, Linda, everybody here is going to want to know where they can find you. Like where and how can they find you on social media, email? Where would you want them to come and track you down so that if they have questions or want to invite you to speak or collaborate on something, where can they find you?
Linda Anders :
Yeah, absolutely. I would love to be in touch with anyone and everyone, and I can be a little chatty Cathy if I get really fired up about something. So of course you can find me on LinkedIn. You can just search for Linda Anders and you’ll find me there. And then if you do have direct questions or want to communicate directly, lindamarie.anders@gmail.com would be an excellent way to contact me.
Rebecca Love:
I apologize. Linda, is there any series or podcasts that they should follow you on or anything else that we should be looking you up and engaging with you?
Linda Anders :
Not yet. Not yet. More to come from Linda Anders in the future.
Rebecca Love:
I love this. Linda, thank you so much for being with us on Outcomes Rocket Nursing. It has been an inspiring time and I hope for everyone else who hears your story. They, too, get inspired that it doesn’t matter where you start in life, and it really is just all about appreciating that journey along the way. Because the end the destination is really just part of that entire journey of life. So to everyone at Outcomes Rocket Nation Nursing who tuned in, thank you so much for being here and tune in for further episodes as we meet other incredible, innovative nursing leaders that are transforming the future of health and health care. Thank you so much for being here.
Sonix has many features that you’d love including powerful integrations and APIs, collaboration tools, share transcripts, world-class support, and easily transcribe your Zoom meetings. Try Sonix for free today.
