From Bedside to Boardroom: How Jodi Long is Bridging the Gap Between Clinical Care and Healthcare IT
January 27, 2025 • 31 mins
What transformative impact has technology had on healthcare? Jodi Long, an esteemed healthcare professional from Orlando, Florida, sheds light on her journey in nursing since 1997. Discover how the transition from paper records to sophisticated electronic health systems has not only boosted efficiency and safety in patient care but also introduced new challenges for bedside clinicians. Our conversation navigates the crucial balance between honing clinical skills and embracing technological demands, ensuring that patient care remains paramount despite any tech disruptions.
With the advent of electronic health records, patient care has seen a marked improvement through enhanced communication and accessibility. However, the journey isn't without its hurdles, particularly concerning interoperability between disparate health systems. We delve into the role of professional organizations like the Florida Nurses Association in nurturing career development and advocacy and the importance of continuous learning in this rapidly evolving field. Leadership and gender disparity within healthcare also take center stage, as we discuss how the underrepresentation of women in high-level roles is gradually changing for the better.
Leadership in healthcare technology is not just about bridging gaps but also about empowering the workforce. We emphasize the significance of mentorship and skill development, especially in addressing workforce shortages. The upcoming Women in IT event promises to be a platform for challenging the status quo and fostering impactful change. As we wrap up, we extend a warm invitation for listeners to continue the conversation on LinkedIn, fostering a community that thrives on shared stories and experiences in the healthcare and IT sectors.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Follow The Brand! We hope you enjoyed learning about the latest marketing trends and strategies in Personal Branding, Business and Career Development, Financial Empowerment, Technology Innovation, and Executive Presence. To keep up with the latest insights and updates from us, be sure to follow us at 5starbdm.com. See you next time on Follow The Brand!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello everyone and welcome to 2025.
This is Grant McGaugh on theFollow Grant Podcast.
I am.
First of all, we have a nativeFloridian as one of our guests.
You don't get that all the time.
We're going to kick this yearoff the right way.
She is a wonderful person, shehas been in health care for a
number of years and she's verypassionate around it, and she is
(00:25):
going to be one of our featuredspeakers at the HIMSS South
Florida Chapter Women in ITevent in February at Nova
Southeastern University, and Iwanted to give my audience just
a little bit of familiarity onwho Jodi Long is, why it's
important for all of us to tunein not only to this podcast, but
(00:49):
to join us in February aroundthis particular event.
So, jodi, would you like tointroduce yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Sure, yeah, thanks, grant.
Hi, I'm Jodi Long.
I am from Florida, currentlylive in Orlando, florida.
Been in nursing since 1997.
So I like to tell everybody Istarted when I was 10.
So, but not really.
But I have been in nursingsince right out of high school.
I really wanted to be part ofthat community.
(01:19):
I have a blended family.
We have seven kids, my husbandand I together, two cats and a
dog, because you always have tofill up the house with
everything else and we are veryblessed to have the opportunity
to provide and be part of ourcommunity here as well in
Orlando.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Well, that is, that's the story.
I mean, you know, that's a lotof individuals and people.
That's the story.
I mean that's a lot ofindividuals and people.
As you are a caregiver, I cansee why you fit.
You know, that's a beautifulfamily.
It's a beautiful family, right?
So let's jump in.
I want to talk to you.
I mean, that's a 1997 nursing.
(01:59):
This is 2025.
Now, what is the most impactfulchanges that you have seen over
that span of time?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Wow.
So I would have to saytechnology has been the most
impactful.
I started nursing when we werestill writing on paper.
I was a CNA, a certifiednursing assistant, and I worked
in a long-term care facility andthen worked in the hospital as
well as a CNA, and everythingwas on paper, right.
(02:31):
I remember, you know, when Iwas even a little bit younger
than that, going into thehospital to visit, like my
relatives, where people arestill smoking at the nurse's
station, right.
So, like I started nursing whenthere wasn't a lot of technology
that helped you really likewith your workflow and I would
say, over the years, that's beena really big impact to how
(02:54):
healthcare is, you know,providing care to patients and
to family members, and it's madeit more efficient.
Sometimes, like there are a lotof barriers there, right, but
it has made it more efficientfor the providers, for the
patients, for the clinicians andthen looking at the outcomes of
(03:15):
it.
So all the way from electronichealth records to IV pumps, to
how we're really looking at howwe're doing surgery, like none
of this was really around backthen, and so it has really
allowed us to be more safe andprovide safer care but also more
efficient care as well.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Technology game changing, right?
You know, before the AffordableCare Act came out, you know
meaningful use and no one wasdoing electronic health records
at scale.
But then you had to make thosechanges and I'm sure this is the
thing.
That's what I've learned.
I've been in informationtechnology for 25 years and
(03:55):
there's one thing to changetechnological changes within a
business.
But when you're in a professionlike healthcare, life-saving
seconds matter.
Disruption is not somethingthat you want.
So you have a fine-tunedprocess that you're going
through when you're dealing withpatients, especially in
(04:17):
critical care, urgent care,things of that nature and then
you bring in a technologysolution.
Now, we kind of talked aboutthis a little bit even earlier.
Like you know what Tech isgreat.
When it works, it's wonderful,but if it doesn't work, there's
some kind of glitch or anythinglike that.
It can be a real struggle,right?
This friction.
(04:38):
Let me ask you this point-blankquestion have you found that
it's been more friction becauseof technology, or is it friction
less in your world?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
That's kind of a double edged sword, right,
because it does add morefriction and but in the end it
makes it easier on the patientand on other people, right and
when I say other people, thatcan be from, like your payers,
certain providers, but for thebedside clinician it adds more
(05:13):
friction and I'll say this asgingerly as possible, but I'll
be very open about it.
You know, there, I think, inthe clinical environment they
teach you how to be a clinicianfirst.
This is doctors, nursepractitioners, nurses, cnas.
They teach you how to be aclinician first and you have to
(05:34):
do that without technology.
Because what happens iftechnology goes down?
Right, you still have to takecare of that person in front of
you.
So you have to learn how to bea medical provider without
technology.
And then now you have to layerin all of this technology.
That's disparate, it doesn'tintegrate together.
You're taking information fromone system, trying to put it in
(05:56):
another, and then now thatbecomes that impacts and adds
friction to your workflow,because you're trying to be a
medical provider and a clinicalprovider.
And now you're trying to be amedical provider and a clinical
provider and now you're lookingat okay, now I have to take
let's do vital signs very basic.
Here's the machine that's doingthe vital signs.
I can push it into theelectronic health record, right,
(06:16):
there is a way that you can dothat.
You have to integrate it.
Or I can take the vitals andnow I have to manually enter
them, right, and so thateverybody else on the care team
can see those vital signs, andthat's everybody needs to
understand what's going on withthe patient.
But now that is another addedstep that I have to do as a
clinician, right.
So it just depends on how it'sbuilt, which is really where my
(06:41):
passion came from to becomeinvolved in information
technology and these kinds ofhealth systems.
Because, like I told you before,there's two currents in my life
.
You know, what has drove me tobe where I'm at today is
unburdening the bedside providerand reducing friction, right.
So that's like one of myfavorite words is friction,
(07:02):
because it can be anything thatcan cause friction for a
provider or a patient that wereally need to look at right,
and how do we make that less?
And so that is why I got intothis is how, as a clinician, can
I make it better, how can webuild these models or build
these solutions from thebeginning with clinical input,
so it's not something that iscausing more burden on them as
(07:25):
they're using them at thebedside, but allows us to
provide clinical care so thatthere's better outcomes for the
patients and for us as providers.
Right, because we all knowthere's a workforce shortage
going on with providers,physicians and nurses.
How do we make this better sowe're not burning us out as well
?
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Now let's, let's unpack that just a little bit,
because you're into a sweet spothere and I know that my
audience is tuning in becausethey say you know what, Jody?
She's no nonsense, she's, she'sspeaking from, speaking from
experience.
Can you give me two examplesmeaning they don't have to be
long winded, but two examples ofwhere technology was helpful in
(08:09):
the work of either saving a lotor making a better patient
outcome, and an example wheretechnology was a hindrance?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Okay, well, you know I can say it can be the same
example, right, but I will gowith two different ones.
The same example, right, but Iwill, I will go with two
different ones.
So where it's made, you know,our, our work easier is the
actually I'm gonna probably justuse the same one is the
electronic health record havinga place.
(08:38):
So before, when it was allpaper, there was these huge
charts that you had to flipthrough and try to understand
and try and put the clinicalpicture together.
And so having an electronichealth record, where things go
into a system that now I can bein one part of a hospital, a
provider or doctor could be inanother part of the hospital, a
(08:59):
respiratory therapist can beanother part, and we can all
document on the same patient totry and figure out what's going
on with them.
Right, we can all look at thesame information, we can
understand what's going on, wecan get the clinical picture,
and before that you couldn't,right, you just have this big
clunky paper chart.
However, that's also thehindrance, right, because now,
(09:20):
as a patient, if I'm in onehospital or health system and I
want to go to another hospitalor health system, my records
don't follow me.
Now there is.
People will say well, there'sEpic care everywhere and there's
all of these other things thatnow are supposed in health
information exchanges where thatinformation flows.
As a clinician I can tell youit's not that easy, right, like
(09:43):
you're still having to dig,you're still having to look for
information, and so a lot ofthat can be very burdensome on
the patient, right.
So now they're trying toremember everything.
What if you come in a tundit,right, or you're in a coma?
You can't like dispel all theinformation, right.
But if we could have it allflow easier and have that
integration to where thatinformation comes in, you know
(10:06):
it would be a lot easier for thepatients and the providers for
more efficient care.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Wow, great example.
Great example of showing thegood and the bad things that we
need to do to get better.
Because, again, technology isgreat when it works very good.
I always look at as twodifferent windows when I'm
looking at deploying atechnology solution, meaning if
you're looking to collapse thewindows of time, you need to do
(10:32):
something quicker.
It's a great tool, it'sfantastic.
Hey, we had done this better.
We had this information, youknow, just seconds before, a
minute before, whatever it is.
Or decision making supportthat's wonderful Also.
That's that communication layer.
Making support that's wonderfulAlso.
That's that communication layer.
So, collapsing the windows oftime, then having better
communication Technology isfantastic for communication.
(10:54):
So many different ways you cancommunicate across those windows
of time.
You can do it at lightningspeed.
I love it.
Now you gave me a great examplearound it.
Now you're also part of theFlorida Nursing Association.
Tell us a little bit about thatassociation and what it's,
what's it for and how that hashelped you in your career
(11:16):
journey.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, I am a huge advocate of people being part of
their professionalorganizations.
What your career is or whatyour goal career is, what your
career is or what your goalcareer is right.
Like I always, I mentor forAmerican Nurses Association and
for HIMSS as well for people whoare getting into this space.
So Florida Nurses Associationis the state run nursing
(11:37):
association that's part ofAmerican Nurses Association.
So I am a member and I've beena member for oh gosh, I couldn't
even tell you how long so it'sbeen a while, because you know,
I believe in professionalorganizations for your growth,
for your development.
You know, as healthcareproviders, we are lifelong
(11:57):
learners.
Things come at us and changeevery day and so we always have
to stay up on the you know,evidence-based practices.
What is the best practices thatwe need to be doing?
How do we not only protectourselves but protect our
patients?
Florida Nurses Associationhelps guide that for the state
of Florida and for the nursesthat are in Florida.
They're very involved inadvocacy and legislation,
(12:21):
looking at special interestgroups to figure out what is
going on in the healthcarecommunity and how can we best
support the nurses who areworking in Florida and the work
that they do.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
This is important, very important, because
everybody was aware of theirnursing shortage.
You kind of alluded to thatearlier.
There's a lot going around inthe COVID time frame.
There's traveling nurses.
There's just a lot of changeoccurring.
And I want to talk aboutleadership in nursing, and not
(12:54):
just in nursing itself, but inthe health care profession,
because I see the nursingprofession is heavily female
dominated.
Am I right?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
correct.
Yes, right, I think Correct.
Yes, I think the last statisticwas like 70 percent around 70
percent are female 70 percentRight Of that, 70 percent, and
you have to be totally accurate.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
But think about this how many are actually leaders in
leadership in health care orhospital policy?
Government?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Oh, I would say probably less than 20% of that.
And you know, and it depends onwhat kind of leadership you're
looking at right, if you'retalking about on the units as a
charge nurse, it's higher.
Right, but as you're climbingthe ranks through a hospital or
health system I'll put a littleasterisk here it's changing, but
(13:48):
and that's only been changingin the last maybe three to four
years but as you're climbingthose ranks through the hospital
or health system it gets lessand less.
We also see that there's lessclinicians and some of those C
suite positions within hospitalor within those health systems
and that is, you know, changingas well.
(14:08):
But before that was really likehurtful to the nursing
profession because you didn'tother than a chief nursing
officer or chief medical officer, so your chief medical officers
are physicians who are guidingthe practice of the physicians.
And then your chief nursingofficers were over all of, like
the nursing operations and soyou kind of had those two who
(14:28):
would be like have a voice.
But you know it's you'reoutnumbered, right, like you
have a bigger, your boards areusually don't have a lot of
clinicians on them, and so thatreally impacted that leadership
of especially women in nursingright, or women in those
leadership positions because itreally was only one, which was
like a CNO position.
(14:49):
So if you look at how big ahospital is and how many nurses
are in a hospital, most of themare women.
You know there wasn't a lot ofopportunity to get up to those
higher level positions and sothat was.
You know that was a little bitdaunting.
As you're like, wanting to be aleader, you're wanting to make
change is how do I get there?
Someone either had to retire orpass away and you don't want to
(15:10):
.
You don't want to wish that onanyone, right?
So you're like how do I getthere and how do I get my voice
heard, which is really important?
Speaker 1 (15:17):
This is an important topic and I look at even the
household you just described atyour head, and I'm sure you're
the primary caregiver of thathousehold.
If your husband had to make allthe care decisions and you only
had a 20 percent input on that,how do you think your health
(15:37):
care outcomes would be?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, that's a good point, Right?
Yeah, I'm lucky that my, mycurrent husband now is able to.
We've had those conversations,Right.
But you know it is.
It is a man, right?
He?
He works in constructionmanagement and he and
procurement.
He doesn't have a healthcarebackground, Right?
So if I told him I need you tomake the healthcare decision, he
(16:03):
would be like I have no ideawhat you want me to do.
I don't know what those wordsmean.
I don't understand, like, whatthese things are.
He's very educated and he couldpick up on it and thank
goodness for the Internet now,but you know, there it could.
It does impact and so you cansee how, as a health system,
that could really be impactfulof how nurses and physicians
(16:25):
work when other people aremaking those decisions without
the input of them at the table.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
So important and that's why, from a technology
lens, we have seen projectseither fail or they're wildly
successful because you have allthe key stakeholders at the
table.
I've seen so many tech whereyou have a group of people, they
bring it together.
Like you know, we're going tosolve this big problem.
I've seen so many tech whereyou have a group of people, they
bring it together.
Like you know, we're going tosolve this big problem.
And on paper and it soundsgreat and the technology works,
(16:51):
and then you get it out in thefield and it fails miserably
Because you did not bring theprimary key stakeholders, the
people that are doing theblocking and the tackling.
Can you imagine?
I always use sports analogybecause I like sports right.
Right, where you know you'vegot the GM of, let's say, a
football team we're in footballseason, right and the coaching
(17:14):
staff.
They all know, oh yeah, youknow what that's a great play,
right, that's wonderful.
But they never share it withthe players.
They never share it.
And by the time you share itwith the players, they got to
learn it.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Like you know, within a week You've been working on
this for maybe a year andthey're like all right, this is
what we're going to do.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Go out there and implement it.
You're like what?
Wait a minute, you know?
I mean, remember what we saidearlier.
These are critical situations.
One misstep and a person canexperience either a positive
outcome or a medical error.
This is important to bring allthe stakeholders together.
You're also part of HIMSS andyou talked about the HIMSS
(17:49):
Health Informatic SystemsSociety.
You're a mentor for them.
You understand not only theclinical view but the technical
view.
So you, as what I would call akey stakeholder, first talk to
us about your role at HIMSS, whyyou are doing that, why you
(18:09):
think it's important, and thentalk to us about how you're
using this platform forleadership.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Sure.
So HIMSS is important to mebecause it allows me.
So I have my nursinginformatics degree so that I
could understand technologybetter.
When I first got that degree, Iwas like, where's that
professional organization?
Right, so there's ANNI, whichis American Nursing Informatics
Association, but I really wanteda bigger reach.
(18:39):
I wanted to be able tounderstand how it all works
together.
So I found HIMSS when I wasworking at an EHR company, and
they sent me to thatorganization, and I fell in love
with the ideas of how they allreally work together.
I know you've probably been tosome of their conferences, right
?
Like?
That floor is insane to be ableto walk through and see what's
(19:03):
going on, but then be able toask those very hard questions to
them of like okay, so how wasthis created?
You know who was at the table?
How does it now talk to?
You know, from a hospital to apost-acute system?
Right, Because you know not allpatients go home, they go to
some post-acute care, and thenyou can really start to
understand where this comes fromand how it impacts.
(19:31):
Himss is great about making sure, though, that they are doing
the right thing, not only forthe technology vendors who are
part of that association and howthey're wanting to get their
message out, but also for us asmembers, for our growth, for our
leadership, to give us a littlebit more of that edge of
understanding what's coming,where we've been, where we're
going and what's upcoming right.
And I really like that.
And being a leader in myorganization now and within
(19:54):
HIMSS, it really does help methen to bring in a different
point of view, right?
I was a nurse, I was apracticing nurse, still a
practicing nurse all the waythrough all of this.
And now how do I guide the nextwave, right?
How do I guide this next waveof people who are going to come
in Because I'm not going to workforever, I'm going to retire,
and you know, how do we carry onthat mission for nursing and
(20:18):
for providers to be able to usethis like undisparated systems,
right, like being able to useintegrated systems to actually
help us.
And then, how do we eloquentlyspeak about it?
How do we get in front ofexecutives who sometimes don't
want to listen to that?
They don't understand it.
We need to speak their language,just like we wouldn't ask, you
(20:38):
know, a information systems for,like, an IT person at a
hospital to run a code in the ER, right, it's the same thing.
We have to come to this middleground and that understanding.
So, using HIMSS and using thatplatform, using the clinical
background, we're able to thenblend that and have these really
meaningful conversations ofwhat needs to happen within this
(21:01):
technology so that it will work.
You know we don't want peopleto use technology, especially
nurses and doctors and thencreate a workaround right,
because workarounds we all knowwe do them as clinicians because
if it's not created the rightway, we're going to do a
workaround and that's whenpatient harm happens and we need
to make sure that we're notdoing that.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
So important what you do, that you've got to have the
right stakeholders at the tableat the inception of the idea.
Right, and then understandingall the different factors is
very, very important.
As you look at from theleadership lens and we talked
about this a little earlier thatwe're not.
(21:42):
There is a disparity of womenin leadership roles at some of
the higher levels, where thesedecisions are truly made.
What can we do?
Because this is going to besome of our conversation that
we've got to move the needleforward.
Some will say, well, it'sexperiment, we just don't have
(22:09):
the experience, we don't havethe exposure.
You're not, uh, understandingall the different factors of the
, of the, of the business.
Remember the business of healthcare.
The finance uh, you might knowthe operational but you're not
familiar with the finance.
You don't understand theculture and the relationships.
Relationships are so, soimportant.
(22:30):
A lot of people might have thesame technical acumen let's just
say they might understandoperationally how certain
healthcare situations operateand move, but do you have the
relationships to truly impactchange?
Talk to us about what you feel,from your lens, can move the
needle.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I'm going to be a little vulnerable here for a
second and say I was a nightshift nurse for 15 years.
I was a charge nurse in anemergency department.
I worked my way up to thehighest level I could on nights.
But I had to work night shiftbecause I was what you said.
I was the breadwinner for myfamily, right.
(23:11):
I had daughters I was raising,I was trying to keep food on the
table and I was constantly inmy heart, driving to be a better
leader, driving that growth,wanting to be at a higher level,
to have that voice.
But working nights constantlyoverlooked, right.
And it really hit me one daywhere I was like you know, if
(23:37):
you really want a strong leaderand you really want somebody who
understands how to operate thisER or this hospital without any
outside influence, you got togo to your night shift, right,
because they're the ones who arereally like looking at, you
know, a hospital that's runningon a skeleton crew, there's not
administration walking aroundtelling them how things need to
be done, things get done right.
And they're actually likereally strong willed people,
(23:59):
right, number one be able tostay up all night.
But also, they're strong willed.
They're there for a reason.
Not everybody wants to worknights, right, but they're there
for a reason.
And so I, as I grew the ranks,I started like saying to people
like who can we start thatsuccession planning from night
shift right, because I thinkthey are overlooked.
When you're working during theday, administration walks around
(24:20):
.
They know everyone's name duringthe day you bring them on night
shift and half the time theydon't even know, you know, the
housekeeper from the chargenurse, right, because they're
just like we don't deal withnight shift.
And so that was really like.
One of the things I startedchanging when I became a
director in the emergencydepartment is how do I really
look at people across all shifts, across all divisions?
(24:41):
Because when you kind of likepeg hole yourself into that and
only wanting certain people, acertain education, certain
people with certain degrees,certain certifications, you're
really starting to block outthat experience that they bring
in.
Right, you know, I always say,like we're subject matter
experts in our field, and sowhen you're sitting there
looking for somebody who cancarry all of these types of like
(25:04):
subject matter expertise, right, like I shouldn't have to be an
expert in finance, right,because we have a CFO that can
do that, we have a wholedivision who can do that, and I
shouldn't have to be an expertin marketing, because I'm not a
marketer, but I do understand it.
Right, I've worked with them,I've been able to like
understand what they're doing,but do they understand the
clinical side of it?
(25:25):
Right, like it is a lot of giveand take and that's what we
have to start changing is wecan't expect somebody to be a
subject matter expert ineverything just so that they can
get a leadership title.
That's not what we're here todo.
Right?
Like some people are bornleaders.
They could become great leaders, you know, and I think that we
have to look at that and say wecan always teach them what we
(25:52):
need them to know.
But if they have a knack to beable to lead and get people to
do things in very hard anddifficult times and they can
create calm out of chaos,they're a leader.
And then that's how we reallystart making that change and not
expecting everybody to knoweverything from the beginning.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I love how you said that, not letting those things
become a barrier.
Let's widen the lens,especially today when there is
such a workforce shortage.
You can't afford to only look athalf the team that's out there,
right, you can look at all ofthem and understand their
capabilities.
(26:26):
And, as you said, who can weteach to actually expand their
role?
Because they got to get better?
And there's always a succession, as you just stated.
We're not always going to behere, we're all moving on, right
?
So who are we teaching?
How do we get the bench filled?
You're a mentor at hand becauseyou're helping like hey, I
(26:48):
understand there's someone outthere that's you know, getting
into this profession, that youcan only get so much from what
you call book knowledge.
When you hit the floor, as yousaid, you hit the floor, you're
like give me that book, you know.
You throw it on the floor likethat's not going to get it done.
You have a general idea.
Is what you have?
(27:09):
but you don't have a skill set.
That comes from experience.
It comes from exposure andexpanding your reach.
I want you to talk to us whyyou want to be a part of this
Women in IT event that we'regoing to have in February, and
who do you think should be thereand what do you think they're
(27:30):
going to get out of this.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
I want to be a part of this number one because I
love having a voice for myprofession and for clinicians
across the whole country, right,but especially here in Florida.
And, you know, I love beingable to have that voice.
I love being able to speaktruthfully and say how things
are without fear of, you know,any type of you know
(27:53):
repercussions.
Right, because I want to makesure that people understand
what's really going on.
Right, I don't want tosugarcoat anything and I want
people to be able to hear thatstory and I want people to be
able to hear that story and Iwant people to be able to say
and walk away and be like youknow what, even if I change one
thing about how I'm running mybusiness, setting up my
technology solution or workingwithin a health system or
(28:15):
working within the healthcarefield, if I've changed one
thought process or one thing,that is a huge win for me and
that's what I'm out here doing,right?
And so, being at this event andbeing able to talk to other
women or other people who areemploying women within their
services or within their line ofbusiness, you know, I want to
make sure that I'm that voice.
(28:36):
I want to make sure that theyunderstand that you know there
is opportunities there, and thenfor the clinical providers,
that there's ways that we canimpact our profession, not only
working at the bedside andtaking care of patients, but
from a bigger lens.
How do we impact our professionand have that voice?
And so that's really why I'mexcited to be here.
(28:57):
I'm really excited to betalking with you today, being
able to be there, because themore people hear what's going on
and they understand, the morethat we're going to be able to
be there, because the morepeople hear what's going on and
they understand, the more thatwe're going to be able to make
that change, and that's reallyimportant for me.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Well, I want to thank you for being on the podcast.
I want to thank you again thatyou're going to be on our panel
for HIMSS on the program chairfor the HIMSS chapter.
We're a gold winning chapterand this is why we are a winning
chapter, because we bringtalent like Jody Long, the voice
we need to bring these thingsout.
(29:30):
So you're not just in yourcircle.
I'm sure everyone knows Jodyright, but we want to expand
your reach because it'simportant for people to hear
these stories, because this ishow we get better.
We cannot just succumb to thestatus quo.
We've got to make change, animpactful change, a better
change, a more positive outlook.
Let the audience know how toget in contact with you, because
(29:52):
I'm sure a lot of people arelike I.
Was on the night shift.
I know exactly what she'stalking about.
I don't want to be overlooked.
I want to get my voice outthere because I know a lot of
different things.
Tell us how to contact you, Iknow a lot of different things.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Tell us how to contact you.
So I'm very active on LinkedIn,so anyone can go to my LinkedIn
profile.
It's very easy.
It's just Jody Long with my youknow all of my certification
behind it, because nurses loveputting our initials behind
everything, and so it's JodyLong on LinkedIn.
I'm very active on there.
I do respond to messages andthen I have my email address.
(30:24):
I can give it here or we canput it up afterwards, but people
can contact me.
You know, I love being able totalk with people and just work
through problems, like if theyjust have a question I'm able to
assist.
I will, or I'll, get you incontact with the right person
too.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Well, this has been wonderful.
I want to thank you again forbeing on the show.
I want to invite your entireaudience to view all the
different episodes of FollowBrand.
You can do so at five.
That's the number five,startbdmcom.
There is a library ofinformation there for you to
improve, to listen to leaderslike Jody Long.
(31:03):
So you're like oh wow, grant, Ijust listened to Jody, I'm
ready for 2025.
So many other people that arethere, so continue to tune in to
the Follow Brand podcast onFive Star BDM.
This has been wonderful.
Thank you again for being onthe show.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Thank you for having me.
I enjoyed it.
You're welcome.
Hello everyone and welcome to 2025.
This is Grant McGaugh on theFollow Grant Podcast.
I am.
First of all, we have a nativeFloridian as one of our guests.
You don't get that all the time.
We're going to kick this yearoff the right way.
She is a wonderful person, shehas been in health care for a
number of years and she's verypassionate around it, and she is
(00:25):
going to be one of our featuredspeakers at the HIMSS South
Florida Chapter Women in ITevent in February at Nova
Southeastern University, and Iwanted to give my audience just
a little bit of familiarity onwho Jodi Long is, why it's
important for all of us to tunein not only to this podcast, but
(00:49):
to join us in February aroundthis particular event.
So, jodi, would you like tointroduce yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Sure, yeah, thanks, grant.
Hi, I'm Jodi Long.
I am from Florida, currentlylive in Orlando, florida.
Been in nursing since 1997.
So I like to tell everybody Istarted when I was 10.
So, but not really.
But I have been in nursingsince right out of high school.
I really wanted to be part ofthat community.
(01:19):
I have a blended family.
We have seven kids, my husbandand I together, two cats and a
dog, because you always have tofill up the house with
everything else and we are veryblessed to have the opportunity
to provide and be part of ourcommunity here as well in
Orlando.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Well, that is, that's the story.
I mean, you know, that's a lotof individuals and people.
That's the story.
I mean that's a lot ofindividuals and people.
As you are a caregiver, I cansee why you fit.
You know, that's a beautifulfamily.
It's a beautiful family, right?
So let's jump in.
I want to talk to you.
I mean, that's a 1997 nursing.
(01:59):
This is 2025.
Now, what is the most impactfulchanges that you have seen over
that span of time?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Wow.
So I would have to saytechnology has been the most
impactful.
I started nursing when we werestill writing on paper.
I was a CNA, a certifiednursing assistant, and I worked
in a long-term care facility andthen worked in the hospital as
well as a CNA, and everythingwas on paper, right.
(02:31):
I remember, you know, when Iwas even a little bit younger
than that, going into thehospital to visit, like my
relatives, where people arestill smoking at the nurse's
station, right.
So, like I started nursing whenthere wasn't a lot of technology
that helped you really likewith your workflow and I would
say, over the years, that's beena really big impact to how
(02:54):
healthcare is, you know,providing care to patients and
to family members, and it's madeit more efficient.
Sometimes, like there are a lotof barriers there, right, but
it has made it more efficientfor the providers, for the
patients, for the clinicians andthen looking at the outcomes of
(03:15):
it.
So all the way from electronichealth records to IV pumps, to
how we're really looking at howwe're doing surgery, like none
of this was really around backthen, and so it has really
allowed us to be more safe andprovide safer care but also more
efficient care as well.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Technology game changing, right?
You know, before the AffordableCare Act came out, you know
meaningful use and no one wasdoing electronic health records
at scale.
But then you had to make thosechanges and I'm sure this is the
thing.
That's what I've learned.
I've been in informationtechnology for 25 years and
(03:55):
there's one thing to changetechnological changes within a
business.
But when you're in a professionlike healthcare, life-saving
seconds matter.
Disruption is not somethingthat you want.
So you have a fine-tunedprocess that you're going
through when you're dealing withpatients, especially in
(04:17):
critical care, urgent care,things of that nature and then
you bring in a technologysolution.
Now, we kind of talked aboutthis a little bit even earlier.
Like you know what Tech isgreat.
When it works, it's wonderful,but if it doesn't work, there's
some kind of glitch or anythinglike that.
It can be a real struggle,right?
This friction.
(04:38):
Let me ask you this point-blankquestion have you found that
it's been more friction becauseof technology, or is it friction
less in your world?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
That's kind of a double edged sword, right,
because it does add morefriction and but in the end it
makes it easier on the patientand on other people, right and
when I say other people, thatcan be from, like your payers,
certain providers, but for thebedside clinician it adds more
(05:13):
friction and I'll say this asgingerly as possible, but I'll
be very open about it.
You know, there, I think, inthe clinical environment they
teach you how to be a clinicianfirst.
This is doctors, nursepractitioners, nurses, cnas.
They teach you how to be aclinician first and you have to
(05:34):
do that without technology.
Because what happens iftechnology goes down?
Right, you still have to takecare of that person in front of
you.
So you have to learn how to bea medical provider without
technology.
And then now you have to layerin all of this technology.
That's disparate, it doesn'tintegrate together.
You're taking information fromone system, trying to put it in
(05:56):
another, and then now thatbecomes that impacts and adds
friction to your workflow,because you're trying to be a
medical provider and a clinicalprovider.
And now you're trying to be amedical provider and a clinical
provider and now you're lookingat okay, now I have to take
let's do vital signs very basic.
Here's the machine that's doingthe vital signs.
I can push it into theelectronic health record, right,
(06:16):
there is a way that you can dothat.
You have to integrate it.
Or I can take the vitals andnow I have to manually enter
them, right, and so thateverybody else on the care team
can see those vital signs, andthat's everybody needs to
understand what's going on withthe patient.
But now that is another addedstep that I have to do as a
clinician, right.
So it just depends on how it'sbuilt, which is really where my
(06:41):
passion came from to becomeinvolved in information
technology and these kinds ofhealth systems.
Because, like I told you before,there's two currents in my life
.
You know, what has drove me tobe where I'm at today is
unburdening the bedside providerand reducing friction, right.
So that's like one of myfavorite words is friction,
(07:02):
because it can be anything thatcan cause friction for a
provider or a patient that wereally need to look at right,
and how do we make that less?
And so that is why I got intothis is how, as a clinician, can
I make it better, how can webuild these models or build
these solutions from thebeginning with clinical input,
so it's not something that iscausing more burden on them as
(07:25):
they're using them at thebedside, but allows us to
provide clinical care so thatthere's better outcomes for the
patients and for us as providers.
Right, because we all knowthere's a workforce shortage
going on with providers,physicians and nurses.
How do we make this better sowe're not burning us out as well
?
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Now let's, let's unpack that just a little bit,
because you're into a sweet spothere and I know that my
audience is tuning in becausethey say you know what, Jody?
She's no nonsense, she's, she'sspeaking from, speaking from
experience.
Can you give me two examplesmeaning they don't have to be
long winded, but two examples ofwhere technology was helpful in
(08:09):
the work of either saving a lotor making a better patient
outcome, and an example wheretechnology was a hindrance?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Okay, well, you know I can say it can be the same
example, right, but I will gowith two different ones.
The same example, right, but Iwill, I will go with two
different ones.
So where it's made, you know,our, our work easier is the
actually I'm gonna probably justuse the same one is the
electronic health record havinga place.
(08:38):
So before, when it was allpaper, there was these huge
charts that you had to flipthrough and try to understand
and try and put the clinicalpicture together.
And so having an electronichealth record, where things go
into a system that now I can bein one part of a hospital, a
provider or doctor could be inanother part of the hospital, a
(08:59):
respiratory therapist can beanother part, and we can all
document on the same patient totry and figure out what's going
on with them.
Right, we can all look at thesame information, we can
understand what's going on, wecan get the clinical picture,
and before that you couldn't,right, you just have this big
clunky paper chart.
However, that's also thehindrance, right, because now,
(09:20):
as a patient, if I'm in onehospital or health system and I
want to go to another hospitalor health system, my records
don't follow me.
Now there is.
People will say well, there'sEpic care everywhere and there's
all of these other things thatnow are supposed in health
information exchanges where thatinformation flows.
As a clinician I can tell youit's not that easy, right, like
(09:43):
you're still having to dig,you're still having to look for
information, and so a lot ofthat can be very burdensome on
the patient, right.
So now they're trying toremember everything.
What if you come in a tundit,right, or you're in a coma?
You can't like dispel all theinformation, right.
But if we could have it allflow easier and have that
integration to where thatinformation comes in, you know
(10:06):
it would be a lot easier for thepatients and the providers for
more efficient care.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Wow, great example.
Great example of showing thegood and the bad things that we
need to do to get better.
Because, again, technology isgreat when it works very good.
I always look at as twodifferent windows when I'm
looking at deploying atechnology solution, meaning if
you're looking to collapse thewindows of time, you need to do
(10:32):
something quicker.
It's a great tool, it'sfantastic.
Hey, we had done this better.
We had this information, youknow, just seconds before, a
minute before, whatever it is.
Or decision making supportthat's wonderful Also.
That's that communication layer.
Making support that's wonderfulAlso.
That's that communication layer.
So, collapsing the windows oftime, then having better
communication Technology isfantastic for communication.
(10:54):
So many different ways you cancommunicate across those windows
of time.
You can do it at lightningspeed.
I love it.
Now you gave me a great examplearound it.
Now you're also part of theFlorida Nursing Association.
Tell us a little bit about thatassociation and what it's,
what's it for and how that hashelped you in your career
(11:16):
journey.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, I am a huge advocate of people being part of
their professionalorganizations.
What your career is or whatyour goal career is, what your
career is or what your goalcareer is right.
Like I always, I mentor forAmerican Nurses Association and
for HIMSS as well for people whoare getting into this space.
So Florida Nurses Associationis the state run nursing
(11:37):
association that's part ofAmerican Nurses Association.
So I am a member and I've beena member for oh gosh, I couldn't
even tell you how long so it'sbeen a while, because you know,
I believe in professionalorganizations for your growth,
for your development.
You know, as healthcareproviders, we are lifelong
(11:57):
learners.
Things come at us and changeevery day and so we always have
to stay up on the you know,evidence-based practices.
What is the best practices thatwe need to be doing?
How do we not only protectourselves but protect our
patients?
Florida Nurses Associationhelps guide that for the state
of Florida and for the nursesthat are in Florida.
They're very involved inadvocacy and legislation,
(12:21):
looking at special interestgroups to figure out what is
going on in the healthcarecommunity and how can we best
support the nurses who areworking in Florida and the work
that they do.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
This is important, very important, because
everybody was aware of theirnursing shortage.
You kind of alluded to thatearlier.
There's a lot going around inthe COVID time frame.
There's traveling nurses.
There's just a lot of changeoccurring.
And I want to talk aboutleadership in nursing, and not
(12:54):
just in nursing itself, but inthe health care profession,
because I see the nursingprofession is heavily female
dominated.
Am I right?
Speaker 2 (13:03):
correct.
Yes, right, I think Correct.
Yes, I think the last statisticwas like 70 percent around 70
percent are female 70 percentRight Of that, 70 percent, and
you have to be totally accurate.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
But think about this how many are actually leaders in
leadership in health care orhospital policy?
Government?
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Oh, I would say probably less than 20% of that.
And you know, and it depends onwhat kind of leadership you're
looking at right, if you'retalking about on the units as a
charge nurse, it's higher.
Right, but as you're climbingthe ranks through a hospital or
health system I'll put a littleasterisk here it's changing, but
(13:48):
and that's only been changingin the last maybe three to four
years but as you're climbingthose ranks through the hospital
or health system it gets lessand less.
We also see that there's lessclinicians and some of those C
suite positions within hospitalor within those health systems
and that is, you know, changingas well.
(14:08):
But before that was really likehurtful to the nursing
profession because you didn'tother than a chief nursing
officer or chief medical officer, so your chief medical officers
are physicians who are guidingthe practice of the physicians.
And then your chief nursingofficers were over all of, like
the nursing operations and soyou kind of had those two who
(14:28):
would be like have a voice.
But you know it's you'reoutnumbered, right, like you
have a bigger, your boards areusually don't have a lot of
clinicians on them, and so thatreally impacted that leadership
of especially women in nursingright, or women in those
leadership positions because itreally was only one, which was
like a CNO position.
(14:49):
So if you look at how big ahospital is and how many nurses
are in a hospital, most of themare women.
You know there wasn't a lot ofopportunity to get up to those
higher level positions and sothat was.
You know that was a little bitdaunting.
As you're like, wanting to be aleader, you're wanting to make
change is how do I get there?
Someone either had to retire orpass away and you don't want to
(15:10):
.
You don't want to wish that onanyone, right?
So you're like how do I getthere and how do I get my voice
heard, which is really important?
Speaker 1 (15:17):
This is an important topic and I look at even the
household you just described atyour head, and I'm sure you're
the primary caregiver of thathousehold.
If your husband had to make allthe care decisions and you only
had a 20 percent input on that,how do you think your health
(15:37):
care outcomes would be?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, that's a good point, Right?
Yeah, I'm lucky that my, mycurrent husband now is able to.
We've had those conversations,Right.
But you know it is.
It is a man, right?
He?
He works in constructionmanagement and he and
procurement.
He doesn't have a healthcarebackground, Right?
So if I told him I need you tomake the healthcare decision, he
(16:03):
would be like I have no ideawhat you want me to do.
I don't know what those wordsmean.
I don't understand, like, whatthese things are.
He's very educated and he couldpick up on it and thank
goodness for the Internet now,but you know, there it could.
It does impact and so you cansee how, as a health system,
that could really be impactfulof how nurses and physicians
(16:25):
work when other people aremaking those decisions without
the input of them at the table.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
So important and that's why, from a technology
lens, we have seen projectseither fail or they're wildly
successful because you have allthe key stakeholders at the
table.
I've seen so many tech whereyou have a group of people, they
bring it together.
Like you know, we're going tosolve this big problem.
I've seen so many tech whereyou have a group of people, they
bring it together.
Like you know, we're going tosolve this big problem.
And on paper and it soundsgreat and the technology works,
(16:51):
and then you get it out in thefield and it fails miserably
Because you did not bring theprimary key stakeholders, the
people that are doing theblocking and the tackling.
Can you imagine?
I always use sports analogybecause I like sports right.
Right, where you know you'vegot the GM of, let's say, a
football team we're in footballseason, right and the coaching
(17:14):
staff.
They all know, oh yeah, youknow what that's a great play,
right, that's wonderful.
But they never share it withthe players.
They never share it.
And by the time you share itwith the players, they got to
learn it.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Like you know, within a week You've been working on
this for maybe a year andthey're like all right, this is
what we're going to do.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Go out there and implement it.
You're like what?
Wait a minute, you know?
I mean, remember what we saidearlier.
These are critical situations.
One misstep and a person canexperience either a positive
outcome or a medical error.
This is important to bring allthe stakeholders together.
You're also part of HIMSS andyou talked about the HIMSS
(17:49):
Health Informatic SystemsSociety.
You're a mentor for them.
You understand not only theclinical view but the technical
view.
So you, as what I would call akey stakeholder, first talk to
us about your role at HIMSS, whyyou are doing that, why you
(18:09):
think it's important, and thentalk to us about how you're
using this platform forleadership.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Sure.
So HIMSS is important to mebecause it allows me.
So I have my nursinginformatics degree so that I
could understand technologybetter.
When I first got that degree, Iwas like, where's that
professional organization?
Right, so there's ANNI, whichis American Nursing Informatics
Association, but I really wanteda bigger reach.
(18:39):
I wanted to be able tounderstand how it all works
together.
So I found HIMSS when I wasworking at an EHR company, and
they sent me to thatorganization, and I fell in love
with the ideas of how they allreally work together.
I know you've probably been tosome of their conferences, right
?
Like?
That floor is insane to be ableto walk through and see what's
(19:03):
going on, but then be able toask those very hard questions to
them of like okay, so how wasthis created?
You know who was at the table?
How does it now talk to?
You know, from a hospital to apost-acute system?
Right, Because you know not allpatients go home, they go to
some post-acute care, and thenyou can really start to
understand where this comes fromand how it impacts.
(19:31):
Himss is great about making sure, though, that they are doing
the right thing, not only forthe technology vendors who are
part of that association and howthey're wanting to get their
message out, but also for us asmembers, for our growth, for our
leadership, to give us a littlebit more of that edge of
understanding what's coming,where we've been, where we're
going and what's upcoming right.
And I really like that.
And being a leader in myorganization now and within
(19:54):
HIMSS, it really does help methen to bring in a different
point of view, right?
I was a nurse, I was apracticing nurse, still a
practicing nurse all the waythrough all of this.
And now how do I guide the nextwave, right?
How do I guide this next waveof people who are going to come
in Because I'm not going to workforever, I'm going to retire,
and you know, how do we carry onthat mission for nursing and
(20:18):
for providers to be able to usethis like undisparated systems,
right, like being able to useintegrated systems to actually
help us.
And then, how do we eloquentlyspeak about it?
How do we get in front ofexecutives who sometimes don't
want to listen to that?
They don't understand it.
We need to speak their language,just like we wouldn't ask, you
(20:38):
know, a information systems for,like, an IT person at a
hospital to run a code in the ER, right, it's the same thing.
We have to come to this middleground and that understanding.
So, using HIMSS and using thatplatform, using the clinical
background, we're able to thenblend that and have these really
meaningful conversations ofwhat needs to happen within this
(21:01):
technology so that it will work.
You know we don't want peopleto use technology, especially
nurses and doctors and thencreate a workaround right,
because workarounds we all knowwe do them as clinicians because
if it's not created the rightway, we're going to do a
workaround and that's whenpatient harm happens and we need
to make sure that we're notdoing that.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
So important what you do, that you've got to have the
right stakeholders at the tableat the inception of the idea.
Right, and then understandingall the different factors is
very, very important.
As you look at from theleadership lens and we talked
about this a little earlier thatwe're not.
(21:42):
There is a disparity of womenin leadership roles at some of
the higher levels, where thesedecisions are truly made.
What can we do?
Because this is going to besome of our conversation that
we've got to move the needleforward.
Some will say, well, it'sexperiment, we just don't have
(22:09):
the experience, we don't havethe exposure.
You're not, uh, understandingall the different factors of the
, of the, of the business.
Remember the business of healthcare.
The finance uh, you might knowthe operational but you're not
familiar with the finance.
You don't understand theculture and the relationships.
Relationships are so, soimportant.
(22:30):
A lot of people might have thesame technical acumen let's just
say they might understandoperationally how certain
healthcare situations operateand move, but do you have the
relationships to truly impactchange?
Talk to us about what you feel,from your lens, can move the
needle.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
I'm going to be a little vulnerable here for a
second and say I was a nightshift nurse for 15 years.
I was a charge nurse in anemergency department.
I worked my way up to thehighest level I could on nights.
But I had to work night shiftbecause I was what you said.
I was the breadwinner for myfamily, right.
(23:11):
I had daughters I was raising,I was trying to keep food on the
table and I was constantly inmy heart, driving to be a better
leader, driving that growth,wanting to be at a higher level,
to have that voice.
But working nights constantlyoverlooked, right.
And it really hit me one daywhere I was like you know, if
(23:37):
you really want a strong leaderand you really want somebody who
understands how to operate thisER or this hospital without any
outside influence, you got togo to your night shift, right,
because they're the ones who arereally like looking at, you
know, a hospital that's runningon a skeleton crew, there's not
administration walking aroundtelling them how things need to
be done, things get done right.
And they're actually likereally strong willed people,
(23:59):
right, number one be able tostay up all night.
But also, they're strong willed.
They're there for a reason.
Not everybody wants to worknights, right, but they're there
for a reason.
And so I, as I grew the ranks,I started like saying to people
like who can we start thatsuccession planning from night
shift right, because I thinkthey are overlooked.
When you're working during theday, administration walks around
(24:20):
.
They know everyone's name duringthe day you bring them on night
shift and half the time theydon't even know, you know, the
housekeeper from the chargenurse, right, because they're
just like we don't deal withnight shift.
And so that was really like.
One of the things I startedchanging when I became a
director in the emergencydepartment is how do I really
look at people across all shifts, across all divisions?
(24:41):
Because when you kind of likepeg hole yourself into that and
only wanting certain people, acertain education, certain
people with certain degrees,certain certifications, you're
really starting to block outthat experience that they bring
in.
Right, you know, I always say,like we're subject matter
experts in our field, and sowhen you're sitting there
looking for somebody who cancarry all of these types of like
(25:04):
subject matter expertise, right, like I shouldn't have to be an
expert in finance, right,because we have a CFO that can
do that, we have a wholedivision who can do that, and I
shouldn't have to be an expertin marketing, because I'm not a
marketer, but I do understand it.
Right, I've worked with them,I've been able to like
understand what they're doing,but do they understand the
clinical side of it?
(25:25):
Right, like it is a lot of giveand take and that's what we
have to start changing is wecan't expect somebody to be a
subject matter expert ineverything just so that they can
get a leadership title.
That's not what we're here todo.
Right?
Like some people are bornleaders.
They could become great leaders, you know, and I think that we
have to look at that and say wecan always teach them what we
(25:52):
need them to know.
But if they have a knack to beable to lead and get people to
do things in very hard anddifficult times and they can
create calm out of chaos,they're a leader.
And then that's how we reallystart making that change and not
expecting everybody to knoweverything from the beginning.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I love how you said that, not letting those things
become a barrier.
Let's widen the lens,especially today when there is
such a workforce shortage.
You can't afford to only look athalf the team that's out there,
right, you can look at all ofthem and understand their
capabilities.
(26:26):
And, as you said, who can weteach to actually expand their
role?
Because they got to get better?
And there's always a succession, as you just stated.
We're not always going to behere, we're all moving on, right
?
So who are we teaching?
How do we get the bench filled?
You're a mentor at hand becauseyou're helping like hey, I
(26:48):
understand there's someone outthere that's you know, getting
into this profession, that youcan only get so much from what
you call book knowledge.
When you hit the floor, as yousaid, you hit the floor, you're
like give me that book, you know.
You throw it on the floor likethat's not going to get it done.
You have a general idea.
Is what you have?
(27:09):
but you don't have a skill set.
That comes from experience.
It comes from exposure andexpanding your reach.
I want you to talk to us whyyou want to be a part of this
Women in IT event that we'regoing to have in February, and
who do you think should be thereand what do you think they're
(27:30):
going to get out of this.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
I want to be a part of this number one because I
love having a voice for myprofession and for clinicians
across the whole country, right,but especially here in Florida.
And, you know, I love beingable to have that voice.
I love being able to speaktruthfully and say how things
are without fear of, you know,any type of you know
(27:53):
repercussions.
Right, because I want to makesure that people understand
what's really going on.
Right, I don't want tosugarcoat anything and I want
people to be able to hear thatstory and I want people to be
able to hear that story and Iwant people to be able to say
and walk away and be like youknow what, even if I change one
thing about how I'm running mybusiness, setting up my
technology solution or workingwithin a health system or
(28:15):
working within the healthcarefield, if I've changed one
thought process or one thing,that is a huge win for me and
that's what I'm out here doing,right?
And so, being at this event andbeing able to talk to other
women or other people who areemploying women within their
services or within their line ofbusiness, you know, I want to
make sure that I'm that voice.
(28:36):
I want to make sure that theyunderstand that you know there
is opportunities there, and thenfor the clinical providers,
that there's ways that we canimpact our profession, not only
working at the bedside andtaking care of patients, but
from a bigger lens.
How do we impact our professionand have that voice?
And so that's really why I'mexcited to be here.
(28:57):
I'm really excited to betalking with you today, being
able to be there, because themore people hear what's going on
and they understand, the morethat we're going to be able to
be there, because the morepeople hear what's going on and
they understand, the more thatwe're going to be able to make
that change, and that's reallyimportant for me.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Well, I want to thank you for being on the podcast.
I want to thank you again thatyou're going to be on our panel
for HIMSS on the program chairfor the HIMSS chapter.
We're a gold winning chapterand this is why we are a winning
chapter, because we bringtalent like Jody Long, the voice
we need to bring these thingsout.
(29:30):
So you're not just in yourcircle.
I'm sure everyone knows Jodyright, but we want to expand
your reach because it'simportant for people to hear
these stories, because this ishow we get better.
We cannot just succumb to thestatus quo.
We've got to make change, animpactful change, a better
change, a more positive outlook.
Let the audience know how toget in contact with you, because
(29:52):
I'm sure a lot of people arelike I.
Was on the night shift.
I know exactly what she'stalking about.
I don't want to be overlooked.
I want to get my voice outthere because I know a lot of
different things.
Tell us how to contact you, Iknow a lot of different things.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Tell us how to contact you.
So I'm very active on LinkedIn,so anyone can go to my LinkedIn
profile.
It's very easy.
It's just Jody Long with my youknow all of my certification
behind it, because nurses loveputting our initials behind
everything, and so it's JodyLong on LinkedIn.
I'm very active on there.
I do respond to messages andthen I have my email address.
(30:24):
I can give it here or we canput it up afterwards, but people
can contact me.
You know, I love being able totalk with people and just work
through problems, like if theyjust have a question I'm able to
assist.
I will, or I'll, get you incontact with the right person
too.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Well, this has been wonderful.
I want to thank you again forbeing on the show.
I want to invite your entireaudience to view all the
different episodes of FollowBrand.
You can do so at five.
That's the number five,startbdmcom.
There is a library ofinformation there for you to
improve, to listen to leaderslike Jody Long.
(31:03):
So you're like oh wow, grant, Ijust listened to Jody, I'm
ready for 2025.
So many other people that arethere, so continue to tune in to
the Follow Brand podcast onFive Star BDM.
This has been wonderful.
Thank you again for being onthe show.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Thank you for having me.
I enjoyed it.
You're welcome.
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