Caring Greatly

“Getting Rid of Stupid Stuff,” or GROSS, is a healthcare improvement approach first introduced by Dr. Melinda Ashton at Hawaii Pacific Health in a 2018 New England Journal of Medicine article. Originally focused on empowering clinicians to identify and eliminate unnecessary EHR tasks to reduce administrative burden and improve joy in practice, GROSS has since gained momentum as a broader movement...

When a workplace violence (WPV) event occurs in a healthcare setting, physicians can be good de-escalation partners for nurses and other care team members. In this episode of Caring Greatly, Jason Stopyra, MD, MS, Enterprise Vice President of Public Safety at Advocate Health, talks about how his experiences as an emergency medical technician (EMT) and an emergency physician shaped his perspective...

Deborah Visconi, CEO of Bergen New Bridge Medical Center was one of the first healthcare CEOs to sign the  Heart of Safety Declaration of Principles , which expands the definition of care team safety to include psychological and emotional safety, dignity and inclusion, and physical safety. In this episode of Caring Greatly, podcast host Liz Boehm talks with Deb about what it means to lead across t...

The Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act is a first-of-its-kind law that supports healthcare workers’ mental health and wellbeing. Since its enactment in 2022, the law has helped transform processes, improve systems and save lives.  This law and the ongoing work by the  Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation  and its ALL IN Coalition have also helped reduce or eliminate the structural,...

Having a mental health condition, including depression or substance use disorder, does not automatically mean that a physician, nurse or other healthcare professional is unable to provide patient care in a competent, ethical and professional manner. Chris Bundy, MD, MPH, FAPA, FASAM, and other leaders of state-based professional health programs (PHPs) support physicians and other healthcare profes...

What if we could bridge the divide between healthcare leaders who understand that team member safety and wellbeing is essential and those who view it as nice-to-have with a small shift in focus? That’s what happens when Carlton Abner, DNP, RN, NBC-HWC, reframes wellbeing goals as protecting capacity – whether capacity to learn or teach, perform or recover, or empathize and connect.  In this episod...

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Liz and Shannon revisit the mastery model of human-centered leadership in this new context. Shannon shares her views on what’s the same, what has changed, and how leaders can continue to find joy in their work and use that joy to help improve the safety and wellbeing of their teams.    Shannon Connor Phillips, MD, MPH, has a diverse range of healthcare experience...

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Sarah-Marie Baumgartner, RN, talks about ways nurses can protect themselves in the emergency department (ED )and other healthcare settings and how organizations can reduce the likelihood of both physical and verbal assault on care team members. She shares a pragmatic approach to zero tolerance that focuses not on zero-incidences of violence, but on zero tolerance...

Since 2020, the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation (LBF) and members of its ALL IN: Wellbeing First for Healthcare Coalition have worked tirelessly to raise awareness about the mental health care needs and rights of healthcare workers.   In this episode of Caring Greatly, Corey Feist, Co-founder and CEO, and Stephanie Simmons, MD, FACEP, Chief Medical Officer of the LBF, talk about the work they’v...

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Amanda Choflet, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, Dean of Nursing at Northeastern University, shares the path that led her to studying mental health, substance use and suicide risk among clinicians. Dr. Choflet’s research underscores the importance of creating access to mental health care and substance use resources that center around human-centered care and wellbeing rather than...

Since 2019, Caring Greatly has beena destination where listeners can be inspired to innovate and help transform healthcarefor the better. All 100 episodes have been thoughtfully created to bring morevisibility to the importance of care team safety and wellbeing, which the Heartof Safety Coalition defines as psychological and emotional safety, dignity andinclusion, and physical safety.   To commemo...

In this episode of Caring Greatly, K. Elliott Higgins III, MD, is Director of Health and Wellbeing for UCLA’s Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, shares the origin of the Wellbeing Influencers Survey for Healthcare (WISH). The survey initiative began when Dr. Higgins and his team wanted more insight into specific drivers and barriers for wellbeing. He describes the process by...

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Jeremy Segall, MA, RDT, LCAT, FPCC, inaugural System Chief Wellness Officer at NYC Health + Hospitals, shares his personal journey of advancing into a health system leadership role with a unique background, learning to leverage skills from his diverse experience and strengths to lead with purpose. He shares what it means to lead authentically and embrace one’s fu...

In this Caring Greatly episode, Terri describes how overwhelming and difficult experiences get recorded in a person’s body and psyche as trauma. She explains how trauma coping skills such as compartmentalization and detachment can serve care team members in the short-term, but can lead to trauma triggers later that result in emotional overwhelm or physiologic distress unless the traumatic experien...

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Dr. Cipriano explains the 2025 International Nurses Day theme, “Our Nurses. Our Future. Caring for Nurses Strengthens Economies.” She describes ICN’s call to value, protect and respect nurses as a foundational requirement for patient safety and outcomes, as well as a critical part of supporting the overall welfare of nurses and the organizations for which they wo...

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Mark describes his career journey and what it means to be a liaison between the system’s security team and clinical professionals they help protect. He talks about day-to-day experiences of healthcare professionals as they learn new situational awareness, de-escalation and other skills in response to the national rise in workplace violence. Mark explains the impo...

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Sadie shares the core concepts of trauma-informed leadership and care, including realizing the prevalence of trauma, recognizing its signs and symptoms, responding in a trauma-informed way, and resisting re-traumatization. She talks about how embracing these principles creates safer healthcare experiences for patients and clinicians. She also talks about how to l...

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Molly talks about the importance of bridging perspective gaps between clinicians, technologists and business leaders. She describes how engineers need to see clinical workflows first-hand in different care settings to understand real-world applications for technology. In turn, clinicians benefit from directly experiencing software and hardware solution developmen...

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Diane talks about the research exploring why women physicians tend to reduce work hours or leave their profession at higher rates than their male counterparts. The reasons are far more structural and cultural than biological, including differences in expectations and accountability – both on the part of fellow team members and of patients. She shares the underlyi...

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Jennifer talks about how the core concepts of training from med-peds (internal medicine plus pediatrics) hospice and palliative care have informed her systems thinking and transformation approaches. She shares how palliative care challenges the notion in medicine that death is a failure and what can happen for team member wellbeing when leaders upend that assumpt...

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Christina and Christine share the details of the Psychological First Aid (PFA) training they created and launched at ChristianaCare. Their training, which has reached more than 50% of leaders at ChristianaCare, uses an easy-to-remember three-step model of recognizing signs of stress or distress, supporting immediate recovery and referring team members to addition...

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Linda and Tria talk about how culture affects team member safety and wellbeing. They share specifics about recent process and technology changes that have helped to build trust, connection and belonging between leaders and team members across clinical, operational and administrative teams. Linda and Tria talk about the data they use to direct cultural transformat...

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Dr. Batson shares the changes he and his leadership team have made at Hattiesburg Clinic to support team member wellbeing. He talks about a physician onboarding process that supports new physicians through their first three years at the organization, the time when they are building leadership credibility, teamwork and habits that will support them throughout thei...

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Daniele talks about the small and large actions that create diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging at the structural, institutional and individual levels. She shares the ways that privilege, in any form, can be leveraged to undo structural inequities and to create safety for individuals. She outlines the ways that BIDMC reaches out to the surrounding communit...

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Mr. Miller talks about the increase in workplace violence in healthcare settings and how he and his team of security professionals respond to the rising threat. He describes how the role and responsibilities of security professionals have evolved as our understanding of trauma-informed care has grown. Mr. Miller talks about de-escalation approaches that try to mi...