Fontana Medical Center

Linda J. Bodell has a simple formula for being a good sponsor of unit-based teams: Show up. Be of service. Clear a path. Bodell, a former clinical nurse specialist, spent much of her career in critical care settings where patient cases are often unstable and complex. She learned to be watchful and attentive. Today, those lessons define her as a sponsor of four teams at the Fontana Medical Center. She meets with her teams and her labor partners each month. Her personal goal is to understand what works and what doesn’t—and to get to the “why.” Bodell’s teams praise her for guiding them through facility and regional business goals, yet trusting the teams to find solutions that deliver needed results. She talked about being a sponsor with LMP senior communications consultant Anjetta McQueen.

Bodell was clinical director of Medical-Surgical Services at the time this article was written; she is now director of Clinical Care.

Q. Please share one of your best practices.

A. Show up at every team meeting, even if it’s only just one 15-minute window. It’s once a month per team. It’s essential. There is no substitute for being present. Let your teams tell you what they are currently working on. You tell them what’s going on…because they need it to complete their projects successfully. They haven’t had a bloodstream infection in 16 months? They need to hear where they are being successful.

Q. Would you describe an instance when you removed a barrier?

A year and a half ago, an RN and PCA (personal care attendant) from one of my teams asked to get a blood pressure machine that could stay in the patients' rooms. I did that—we had a department closing. I acquired a unit that could stay in one of the isolation rooms. It’s just those little things that make a difference in their work experience every day.

Q. Are there aspects of your past experience that have enhanced your sponsorship?

A. I have served on several nonprofit boards and as a volunteer, in different areas of health care and in Oman and South America, and that’s about taking a service to people, and it’s the same thing I do here as a sponsor. It’s my job to serve them so that they have everything they need to do their job the best they can. I know they care about their patients and their colleagues. They need to know that I care about them and what they do, and that it matters.

Q. Have your teams ever solved something you thought was unsolvable?

A. I would ask them! But the 4 West Med-Surg team was having a difficult time with workflows and getting to their supplies. They work where there are long hallways, where the 34 beds are arranged in a rectangular shape around the unit. This did not look like a process that could be fixed. They did the spaghetti diagram on how many steps nurses take. And the staff, together, made decisions about how to change, where they have their supplies, and how they were arranged. They worked on their workflow. Now the service scores are phenomenal.

Q. What inspires you each day in your duties as a sponsor?

A. So when you know what the goals are and what the actual plans are, and you go out and round on the department, and you can see those in living proof. It’s just exciting to see that this process really affects practice and activity at the unit level.

Words from the front line

“She really has an open door and an open heart. Linda has been a wonderful mentor. She is patient and stays calm under pressure. She knows how to lead you without just handing you the answers. She keeps you focused on what’s important.”—Letty Figueroa, RN, assistant clinical director and management co-lead, 4 East Med-Surg UBT, Fontana Medical Center

Three years ago, when Joann Horton learned her job might be eliminated when HealthConnect™ came online, her first response was fear.

A medical clerk at the Hayward Medical Center in Northern California, Horton needed the income, but she also loved her job. “I was terrified,” she says.

Joyce Lee, an imaging transcriptionist at the Fontana Medical Center in Southern California, found herself in the same boat last year. With KP shifting to a new voice-to-text technology for transcribing radiology results, Lee’s skills were becoming obsolete.

“All of us were figuring out how we were going to do the transition,” she says.

Both of these “changing workplace” stories could have ended badly, especially in today’s shaky economy.

But now, Horton and Lee are fans of the job counseling and retraining provided to partnership union employees through the Employment and Income Security Agreement that allowed them to stay with KP.

Successful retraining 

The two women received one-on-one guidance from career counselors who helped them identify and train for in-demand positions.

Horton, who is now the department secretary for Home Health in Hayward, says career counselor Martha Edwards “gave me what I needed to build my skills up, but she also gave me a lot of emotional support.” Edwards works for the Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust, established under the 2005 National Agreement to provide career counseling and job training to members in 12 of the unions that are part of the Labor Management Partnership.

Lee, who now works as a phlebotomist at the Fontana Medical Center in Southern California, also received services through the Ben Hudnall trust. She says counselor Michele DeRosa “has a gift for networking; for figuring out all the pieces of the puzzle, for being the encourager.”

Ongoing outreach

The partnership’s career counseling benefits have benefited thousands of employees in a short amount of time. From its inception in 2007 through March 2011, roughly 10,000 employees had seen career counselors through the Ben Hudnall Trust, with many more attending workshops or promotional events.

The SEIU UHW-West & Joint Employer Education Fund offers similar services to SEIU-represented employees in the Northern California, Southern California, Colorado and Northwest regions. Since 2006, almost 16,000 KP employees have enrolled in training through the program and 6,885 have received counseling and referral services. 

Those who have used the programs’ services are enthusiastic proponents; however, ongoing outreach is required, Edwards says, especially since the concept of career counseling is new to many employees. 

“I think there’s a lot of mystery around the words ‘career counselor,’ ” she says, “and perhaps some intimidation and confusion.”

Obstacles to career counseling include a fear of being seen as vulnerable or needy, difficulty finding the time for training while working and concern that some managers might not appreciate an employee who is seeking to advance from their current position, Edwards says.

It’s an important part of the counselor’s work to help employees get over these hurdles so the program works best for their needs, she says.

Many employees first learn of the services when facing a major challenge, like Horton and Lee.

However, the programs are designed to offer help in many situations, from employees seeking to change careers to those wanting to gain skills in their field; from those struggling with a manger or co-worker to those struggling with work-family balance.

All services are confidential.

“Our goal is to have something for everyone,” says Lucy Runkel, director of the SEIU UHW fund. “We reach many employees, but we always want more.”

Managers are educational partners

Data from the programs show most employees learn of career counseling through word of mouth. Information also is available at events and online.

Both programs have started boosting educational outreach to managers, whom they view as key allies in spreading the word about the services.

“With a manager, we get more bang for our buck, because they can educate all of their staff,” says Runkel. 

Both Kaiser Permanente and its union-represented employees stand to gain, she says. “We think people who are better trained, happier, and have greater longevity on the job are going to provide better care than someone who is new, or unhappy or poorly trained.”

Career counselor Edwards put it this way: “It helps with Kaiser’s ‘best place to work’; seeing employees vital, motivated, moving and growing is a plus for the whole team.”