Bevin: The Problem Solver

Bevin Cohen, PhD, MS, MPH, RN, is Director of Research and Evidence-Based Practice at The Mount Sinai Hospital

Links:

• Nursing at Mount Sinai
• Phillips School of Nursing at Mount Sinai
• Mount Sinai Health System Celebrates Nurses Week

Episode Transcript

Dr. Bevin Cohen (00:01):
If I had a billboard in Times Square, I
would use it to remind peoplethat people have a lot more in
common than we think on thesurface.
And when you really get to knowpeople, you realize our common
humanity, and you might feelmore inclined to want to reach

(00:26):
out and help your neighbor.
I don't know.
It's not really slogan-y, it'smore preachy!

(00:39):
My name is Bevin Cohen.
I am a nurse and anepidemiologist, and I'm the
Director for the Center forNursing Research and Innovation
at the Mount Sinai HealthSystem.
I conduct my own research on alldifferent things related to the
delivery of nursing care topatients.
I also work with clinical nurseswho have the most amazing ideas,

(01:03):
and I help them develop thoseideas to directly benefit
patients.
Solving problems and makinghealth care delivery more
seamless, more patient-focused,with better outcomes is
definitely at the core of everyproject that we do.

(01:23):
In the United States we have areally amazing health care
system—the best innovations inpatient care, the best
innovations in new diagnostics,new drug development, new
surgical techniques.
But one place where we fall alittle short in this country is
how we actually deliver thatcare to patients and who has

(01:47):
access to that care.
Equity comes in many forms.
It's not just about money andwho's paying for care.
It's also about how we invitepeople in and how we make people
feel comfortable with accessingcare.
And this even goes beyond justbeing able to make an
appointment and pay for it.

(02:08):
You could also think about whenare appointments available.
Well, generally during the daynine to five.
Not everybody has the ability totake off of work and get into a
nine to five appointment.
So it's really complex.

Dr. Bevin Cohen (02:22):
My understanding of systems through
my background in epidemiologyhelps me understand how to apply
different data or differentinterventions or different
research questions.
But my training as a nurse helpsme know what questions to ask
and where are the ways that wecould do better in our health

(02:44):
care system.
So certainly I think that nursesdo get a lot of public credit
for being excellent cliniciansand really being the most
trusted member of the healthcare workforce.
But most people don't realizethat there are many, many, many
nurses who are also researchers,some of the leading researchers

(03:05):
in their respective fields.

(03:09):
What makes nursing different from all of the other health
disciplines is that nurses havealways focused on holistic
patient care, not just abouttreating a specific symptom or a
specific disease, but it's basedon treating an entire patient.
And that includes not only theirphysical health, but their

(03:31):
mental health, their emotionalhealth.
Every individual patient hastheir own story, their own
narrative, their own struggles,their own victories, and having
that face time and thatunderstanding of what patients
are going through and what arethe system level factors that

(03:52):
are affecting their care reallyinforms the research work that I
do.
I really like listening toclinical nurses who say, this is
a problem that's going on for mypatients, and I have an idea of
how I think we can make thisbetter.
Let's test it and see if thingscan get better.

(04:14):
So when I think about what arethe most important changes that
we need to make as a health caresystem, I really think about
just stripping down thebureaucracy.
I think many patients who havehad to seek health care for
anything other than just anannual wellness visit have

(04:37):
probably experienced some formof frustration in trying to get
an appointment with aspecialist, trying to have
appropriate follow-up.
It's simply should not be thathard.
I think sometimes when we getinto healthcare policy debates,

(04:58):
we come at it from a place offear.
We fear that by having a moreequitable system, we who have
access might be giving upsomething, that it's sort of
this zero-sum game.
But I think when you look at thedata and when you look at the
individual person and reallymake a human connection with

(05:20):
them, you realize that risingtides really do lift all boats.
And that there's nothing to fearabout striving for more equity
and better health care for allin our society.
The reason that I love my job isbecause I truly believe that

(05:41):
things can be better and we mustdo better.
We know that we have amazinghealth care professionals,
amazing clinicians and amazingresearchers who do great work
every day and do their very bestfor patients, but we know that
we can do better.
And I think that that's whatreally motivates me to get up
every day and continue doingthis work is that we know that

(06:03):
not everybody is being servedequitably.
We know that there are ways thatwe can make improvements, and we
have to keep incrementallypushing the ball forward to have
a better and more equitablesystem.