Coffee Break: Breaking the Cycle of Bullying in Healthcare, One Cup at a Time

What if well-being in healthcare is not just about self-care, but about changing the systems that make people feel depleted in the first place? In this episode, Dr. Tim Cunningham, Vice President of Business Development for the Professional Nursing Validation Company, explores how professionalism, compassion, and systemic well-being intersect in healthcare. He discusses the new Professionally Vali...

Innovation in healthcare works best when nurses are given the time, support, and trust to solve the problems they see every day. In this episode, Dr. Marion Leary joins Dr. Renee Thompson to discuss how human-centered, equity-centered design thinking can empower healthcare leaders to create more practical solutions. Marion explains why leaders must resist the urge to be immediate "fixers" and inst...

One disruptive voice can derail an entire conversation, but only if you let it. In this episode, Dr. Renee Thompson addresses a challenge many healthcare leaders face: staff members who hijack meetings and derail important conversations before they can truly begin. She explores the common behaviors that disrupt productive dialogue, including revisiting old grievances, blaming leadership, interrupt...

Difficult conversations may never feel easy, but leaders can become more skilled and confident in having them. In this throwback episode of Coffee Break, Dr. Renee Thompson speaks with Diane Salter, Director of Surgical Services at WellSpan Health Ephrata and a consultant for The Healthy Workforce Institute, about addressing disruptive behavior, giving honest feedback, and holding employees accoun...

What do you do when employees are glued to their phones during meetings, refuse feedback, or repeatedly communicate with sarcasm and disrespect? In this episode, Dr. Renee Thompson answers leadership questions about phone use in meetings, self-awareness, workplace respect, and disrespectful communication. She encourages leaders to address problematic behaviors directly and to set clear expectation...

Human connection in healthcare does not take more time; it takes more intention. In this episode, Dr. Mary Jo Assi, Associate Chief Nursing Officer and Partner, Strategic Consulting at Press Ganey, discusses the evolving challenges facing healthcare teams and the critical role compassionate, connected care plays in improving both patient and staff experiences. She shares insights from national hea...

Survey results don’t change culture. What leaders do with them does. In this episode, Dr. Renee Thompson shares practical strategies for healthcare leaders navigating difficult survey results and uncertainty about the next steps. Drawing from her experience as a nurse manager, she explains why leaders often take poor feedback personally, how delayed communication erodes trust, and why teams diseng...

A healthy workforce does not happen by accident. It is built through honest conversations, shared ownership, and consistent action. In this solo episode of Coffee Break, Dr. Renee Thompson focuses on incivility as a critical precursor to worsening workplace behaviors and potential workplace violence. Using a powerful, true story of a nurse whose unaddressed behavioral issues escalated from simple...

A healthy work culture does not happen by accident; it is built through shared ownership, visible leadership, and a clear commitment to helping people feel heard. In this episode, Aine Davern, Deputy Director of Nursing at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Ireland, shares how her organization used the Pathway to Excellence framework to strengthen an already positive practice environment af...

Summary:  Leadership isn’t what you say; it’s what your team sees you do. In this episode, Jennylynde Renteria-Packham, founder of Courage Coaching and a Registered Nurse and Coach with more than 30 years of experience in Rehabilitation and Long-Term Care settings, discusses how leaders shape culture through self-awareness, behavior, and intentional communication. She explains that effective leade...

Healthcare doesn’t have a burnout problem; it has a trust problem. In this episode, Hunter Joslin, CEO of Joslin Insight, shares how his company evolved from traditional consumer marketing roots into a healthcare data analytics and workforce engagement platform. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Joslin Insight partnered with organizations like AONL and the ANA to conduct large-scale longitudinal studi...

Healthy culture work does not fail because people do not care. It fails when leaders treat it as a side project rather than weaving it into everyday practice. In this episode, Dr. Renee Thompson reflects on questions she received during the AONL conference and shares practical guidance for some of the most common culture challenges in healthcare. She explains why disruptive executives must be addr...

A healthy workplace culture does not happen by accident. It takes leaders who are supported, developed, and equipped with practical tools to address challenges in real time. In this episode, Dr. Karen Uttaro, Senior Director of Professional Practice, Quality, and Regulatory at UMass Memorial Medical Center, explains how her organization turned post-pandemic leadership turnover into an opportunity...

Cultivating a nourished environment free from violence.  In this episode, Dr. John Voight, Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at Memorial Hermann Woodlands Medical Center, talks about shifting from infrastructure-based security to clinical prevention strategies. He discusses implementing diagnosis-specific training and using early identification tools such as STAMP to anticipate aggression....

What if HR stopped being the “principal’s office” and became your most trusted partner? In this episode, Shana Scales discusses transforming HR into a relationship-driven business partner at Lake Charles Memorial Health System. She explains how trust, transparency, and frontline engagement reshape HR's support for leaders and employees. She also shares how cultural influencers and continuous feedb...

In a healthcare environment where complexity, uncertainty, and burnout have become the norm, leaders need more than better tactics. They need a different way of thinking. In this episode, Dr. Michael Hein, Senior Vice President at MEDI Leadership, executive coach, and author of Shifting Toward Unorthodoxy, explores why traditional leadership models no longer serve today’s healthcare systems. He ex...

Addressing disruptive behavior at work is not just a people issue; it is a business risk. In this episode, host Dr. Renee Thompson explains why HR should not be brought in only after workplace issues escalate. She discusses how disruptive behavior, bullying, and incivility drive turnover, disengagement, medical errors, and financial losses, and why leaders must stop treating these issues as second...

You can’t build a true culture of patient safety without psychological safety. In this episode, Dr. Renee Thompson sits down with Dr. Stephanie Stovall, Chief Quality Officer at OSF HealthCare, to unpack the very real link between workplace culture and clinical outcomes. Stephanie explains why fear of being “picked apart” or punished makes people less likely to speak up. That silence puts patients...

Are you ready to transform a toxic work environment into a culture of kindness and professional respect? In this episode, Linda Crockett, Founder of the Canadian Institute of Workplace Bullying Resources, discusses the critical strategies needed to identify and dismantle bullying and incivility within the healthcare industry. She shares her professional expertise on fostering psychological safety...

Healthcare workforce shortages won’t be solved in college; they start in high school. In this episode, Dr. Bryan Sisk, Senior Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive for Memorial Hermann Health System, discusses how the innovative HEAL High School is building a sustainable healthcare workforce by investing in students as early as ninth grade. He shares how a first-of-its-kind partnership creates...

Eliminating workplace bullying doesn’t start with policies; it starts with vision. In this episode, host Dr. Renee Thompson discusses why a leader’s clear, intentional vision is the missing ingredient for addressing workplace bullying and incivility. She explains why “vision first, culture second” is essential for shaping consistent behaviors and preventing teams from defaulting to unhealthy norms...

Tolerating one toxic high performer can quietly damage an entire team. In this episode, host Dr. Renee Thompson discusses how leaders can effectively address bullying and incivility from clinically competent but disruptive employees. She explains why vague expectations allow bad behavior to persist and how clearly defined behavioral standards create accountability. Drawing on the “love ’em, but le...

Burnout isn’t a personal failure. It’s often the result of misaligned values, poor boundaries, and leaders who don’t realize they’re running on empty. In this episode, Dr. Andrea Coyle, Chief Clinical and Innovation Officer at SE Healthcare, shares her personal journey through burnout, describing how constant organizational change and exclusion from leadership spaces eroded her sense of value and...

A respectful culture doesn’t happen by accident; it’s built through values, leadership, and systems that hold everyone accountable. In this episode, Dr. Gerald Hickson, Founding Director of the Vanderbilt Health CPPA, discusses what it truly takes to create and sustain a culture of safety and respect in healthcare. He explains why clearly defined core values must guide decisions during crises, how...

You don’t get to choose when the stakes are high, but you do choose how you show up. In this episode, Caitlin Gardner, founder of Blooming Communications, explores how leaders can communicate with calm confidence in high-stakes environments, particularly in healthcare, where what feels routine to one person can be life-changing for another. She explains why human connection matters even more in an...