Q&A with Lori Herndon of AtlantiCare: ‘Teamwork is the dream work for me as a person, but also as a leader’
Kindness is a really important trait to you, both in leadership and in clinical settings. You’ve previously said that we should consider kindness as a social determinant of health. Why do you feel that way?
I feel that way because being in this journey these last few years, as well as being in healthcare for several decades, it became so clear to me that we were blowing through that simple human reaction and response. I wanted to use that phrase about kindness being so important and a social determinant.
In my mind, kindness is one of those things that’s really the foundation of our humanness. Sadly, we’ve all seen the short fuse of many of our community members and each other. We’re quick to judge, we’re quick to jump to a conclusion. Everyone was tired and frustrated and missing their vacations, missing all the things that bring them joy. To center yourself and recognize that if you could just think about being kind, and have that be your go-to, you could potentially change that interaction and have a little joy coming back to you, as you work on things that are complicated and difficult. Healthcare is very serious and intense, involving a lot of things that the average person never has to go through.
When you think about just trying to be kind, when you project a certain way of talking to somebody, most of the time that will come back to you.
How do you encourage healthcare leaders to add kindness to how they care for their staff and patients?
I had a chance to do a little intro to our new slate of officers for the New Jersey Hospital Association. I wove that into my talking points and that was played quite a bit around the region. We’ve talked about it at great lengths, in our board meetings, both internally and externally. There is some legislative activity around trying to create more recognition of what’s going on in healthcare right now. We don’t like the aggressive behavior of some of our patients and families, and we’re not going to take that behavior. Behind all that is if we could just be kind to each other and give everyone a break, we would end up with a much better outcome.
I understand that it may not be as exciting and dramatic as some other things that I could be talking about. But it really matters. At the end of the day, healthcare is a personal and very hands-on connection to another human being. Thinking about kindness is worthwhile at a personal level, but also organizationally.
That speaks to your background as a nurse and being in critical care. There aren’t many other nurses who are CEOs of health systems. What advice do you have for others who would want to follow a similar path as you?
I really respect those individuals who do this job who aren’t clinical, but I think having a clinical background is really helpful for me specifically. I didn’t aspire to be at this point in my career. I wanted to be a great nurse, and give compassionate, appropriate and supportive care to my patients and their families. I always had something to say, I always wanted to make things better. I was very focused on trying to improve and make a difference. That just opened doors for me.
Most leaders are looking for people who are interested in improving the work environment, improving patient care, the family experience and the clinical team care. If anybody has a passion for doing that, this is a great field to be able to map out a career path that will take them where they want to go.