Ep. 31 | Shirley Garland, SGMC Health Hospital Authority Board Member

Transcript

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- Welcome to another episode of What Brings You in Today.

- I'm Erika Bennett.

- And I'm Taylor Fisher.

- And we just wanna thank everyone for tuning in to our podcast about SGMC Health.

- And if you have any questions or topics that you would like to hear our guests talk about, you can submit those at sgmc.org/podcast.

- And today we are here with Ms. Shirley Garland, who is a, was a retired registered nurse, no stranger to our organization. But Ms. Shirley, what brings you in today?

- Well, Erika, thank you for having me. But I wanted to come in this morning just to touch base with the staff in the community and get a feel for what's going on in our organization.

- Yeah. So, Ms. Shirley, you worked at our, how long did you work at our organization?

- I was here 40 years and nine months. Wow. I came in at 19 and retired at

- Sixty. I think you just were born here and worked here. I Right. The child labor

- Laws are very relaxed back during those times. During that time. Yeah.

- Yeah. And, and now you serve on our hospital board.

- Yes. I'm honored to serve. I was just really excited when the county asked me to serve.

- Yeah. I think it's been a, it is been great. I've enjoyed watching you in the board room and just hearing your perspective because you do offer a great pers need perspective from the fact that you worked here for so long and you bring that strong advocacy for our nursing team.

- Yes, I agree.

- So, so tell us about, tell us just about your background.

- Well, tell me a little

- Bit about you.

- I am a product of Lowndes, Echols, Clinch, and Lanier County. Okay. I graduated Valdosta High School.

- Alright. The

- Class of 71.

- Yay.

- Go. Go

- Cats. Cats.

- And after graduation, I had decided I was going to the military because that was during the Vietnam era. My mother said no. So she suggested that we go out to then Val-Tech, which is now Wiregrass and explore some, she called them trades.

- Okay. Yep. So

- I went out there and we met with Mr. C Miller, one of the advisors at Wiregrass. And he asked me what did I want to do? And at the time, and I'm still having military ideas and, but I knew my aunt had worked in data processing or key punch operating in New Jersey. So I said, okay, aunt Sue, she does key punch. I like to keypunch operation. And Mr. Miller said, we don't offer that course. But then he did an overview of the courses offered at Wiregrass at that time. And I decided, I said, well, I'd heard some classmates of mine talking about the Practical Nurse program and our DCT class, that was a class that Valdosta High School offered at that time where you could work. And one of the girls in my class worked as A CNA here in the afternoon. So, so I'd heard about that. So when he mentioned it, it sparked my interest. And I said, okay, what do the licensed Practical nurses do? He says, well, you know, they work with the doctor and give medicine. I said, okay, I'd like to do that. And he said, alright, be back here in August. The class starts in August. So I started, I graduated high school, 71 of I think May or June, and started Wiregrass in August of 71, graduated September of 72. So that's the way I got here.

- All right. And you've But you

- My clinical were all done here.

- Okay.

- A lot of them were done here, and then we also went to Thomasville and did some clinicals. But I can say I set foot in this building in 1972 because we started during our clinicals in January 72.

- Okay. Well, what's the biggest change you've seen over wow year, you know, tenure with, in nursing?

- Yeah, for sure. Going from shaking down, thermometers by hand, taking the barb off of needles with a, a, a flint stone. Like a, a foul putting up trays, you know, by hand to robots. Yeah. Yeah. Documenting in three different colors on the nurse's notes, blue or black for day shift, green, three to 11, red, 11 to seven. Can you imagine seeing all those cars colors in a medical record today?

- I can't. And that, that is so interest because it seems like it really took off, like when it started making into the, the technology. Yeah. All of that like, just exploded.

- It did. Well I, I first saw the first shift as I called it in 1972 when we started work as new nurses. The older nurses were used to a physician just writing the order IV fluids. And they just knew what Dr. Pervis, Joyce Mix and Harry Mix and he, they, and Dr. Sto, they just knew what he wanted, which one he wanted. There was no order. And then joint commission came in and they go, no, you must have a physician's order. And there were a lot of LPNs at the time who were charged nurses and they said, you need some RNs. So we were like, okay. So the organization has been challenged continuously over the years and we've always been able to rise to the occasion. So, and I can remember when the ambulance service first started in 1972. Wow. Working with Tim Brogdon and Dr. Mathis, he was one of the instructors. Dr. Greer was one of the instructors. So I was young, excited and full of energy.

- And Lowndes County was one of the first EMS's in Georgia. Yeah. To ha to have those equipped

- Ambulances. That's

- Right. So that's pretty unique back.

- And they were very, very good fellows and they wanted the best for Lowndes County. And Dr. Mathis and Dr. Greer taught those students along with Ms. Tucker, she was one of the hands-on teachers through wiregrass and the, I remember some of the guys had been male attendance when they were selected to go into this program. They were scared to death, but the community, the hospital community rallied around them, helped them in their areas of weakness. And the community just embraced it because we had everyone who knew most of the guys from the hospital already. Yeah. Yeah.

- I think that is also fascinating. And I think that the work that our board does is amazing. Yeah. And I think it, you being the only woman serving on our board, I just, I find that inspiring. Could you tell us a little bit about, I don't know if our audience knows how our board works. I know I didn't when I came and I don't think we've talked about it on the podcast. How the board helps to govern the, the hospital and the health system.

- Well, that's a good question because number one is the volunteer board,

- And

- It's made up of eight individuals. And we come from different walks of life. We have businessmen, CPA, community service, philanthropic person, former educator, and me former nurse doctors on our board also. So it's very diverse and a good cross representation of the community at large.

- Yeah. And for the board. So four is four members are appointed by the city. Yes. And four are appointed by the county. So to have that representation from both the city and the county. But yeah, it is a, it's a community board. It is, it's a board for the, the services for the people of this community. Right. Not for a particular just individual corporation.

- Right. Exactly. And, and we work with the city and the county council members and commissioners in that we are, we wanna do what's best for Lowndes County without also Lowndes County. So that's what we do.

- And big decisions that get made by the health system have to go before the board.

- Yes.

- And the whole board, you know, has to talk about it Yes. And discuss it. So it's not just one person anywhere making a decision about the health system.

- Exactly. And I feel honored to work with the men I work with because they give of their time and they really have the community at large at heart what's best for the community.

- I would echo that. I mean, I get to see a lot of the conversations that y'all have and that that it, it always comes back to what's the best for the people that are here, best for our patients, best for our future, so that we're sustainable. Yeah. And we can continue to grow and bring even more services here. Right. And it is a big, it is a big responsibility.

- And we go all the way up to the state, you know, just recently we were at the bird supper at, at the Capitol. So we work with everyone, our local representatives to really make an effort to provide excellent, remarkable, I'll say healthcare for Valdosta Lowndes County.

- What are some of the changes that you've seen? Like, or maybe some of the things that we would like to, that we kind of wish the community maybe knew more about or understood a little bit better? Healthcare is very complicated.

- Yes, it is.

- I mean, it is so complicated. Yes. So depending on what kind of access you're looking for, what kind of needs you're having it, it can just be hard to navigate. It's, so what kind of advice do you give?

- Well, the big thing is that we're no longer just a local hospital, community hospital. We receive referrals from other hospitals. We are part of a network where we can refer out. And sometimes, you know, people don't understand that. And I love your new program, know before you go Listen to or use our computers to see, you know, the wait times in the emergency room that's on everyone's radar at this time. Well, we have to understand the difference between emergent and urgent, right? Yes. It's pain. Yes, there's blood involved, but do you need the emergency room? And then I'm a citizen of this community and I know that money is an issue and there are some people who do not have health insurance, nor do they have ready cash where they can pay to maybe go see their primary care doctor or even to go to urgent care. So then that community sometimes wind up at the emergency room. But what we've done as a board, we opened two urgent cares, one on the north end on 41 1 on Griffin Avenue. And we're hoping that that will help to relieve some of the wait time.

- Yeah, for - Sure. In the emergency room by taking care of those urgent needs that can be addressed at that level.

- Yeah. It's, I mean it, it is a lot about learning how, because if you can get the right, the right level of care, then you can save time, you can save money and you can save just your, I don't know, what was that? I feel like there was another thing that you saved when you time money, time, money. And I don't know, it's just convenient. You just get the better care, I guess. Right? Yeah. Better utilization of resources you could say. But another aspect of that's primary care.

- Oh yeah.

- And

- Yeah, we have primary care, we offer primary care within the network and we have affiliations with Lanier County and Berrien County. So the community really, they have a choice. They can decide which area they would like to go to to help access to healthcare is one of the major concerns of rural hospital.

- Yeah. And have it, if you can get that primary care established and have a good partner in your health and you can help to eliminate and possibly prevent some of the things that might cause you to have to need the urgent care or the emergency

- Yeah.

- Room later on. So definitely important. It's kind of a new concept. Yeah. I mean, it's not necessarily something you're always taught, like growing up like, okay, you're gonna need to have a primary care doctor and do that. You know, it's not so it's, but it is important and we, we always try to advocate for that for sure. As far as your service on the board, I know you also chair several committees. Which committees do you use? Compliance?

- Well, I, I chair one committee. Okay. Compliance.

- Okay.

- And then I serve as an active member on quality safety committee. And of course we all can attend all of the board subcommittees, which I do. And strategic planning is one of the boards that's, that I find fascinating as well as finance. So I go and I listen and I put my input in and I hope to represent the community as well as the staff. Yeah. At South Georgia and those other, on those other boards.

- What was the most fascinating thing you learned? Like coming from someone who worked within the organization to then being privy to learning so much about the inner workings and the high level operations? What kind of fascinated you the most?

- Well, I can't think of any one particular thing that fascinated me the most because even as A LPN South Georgia Medical Center has always supported me as an individual in that I was able to not only remain as an LPNI, they supported me to go to A a C and get my A SN then VSU to get my BSN. And I have hours towards my masters, so I've always been, and they've recognized leadership, I'll say qualities in me, even as an LPN, I served on subcommittees policy and procedure, for example. And I just thought that was fascinating. And when I would hear others on the staff complaining about situations, I'll say, oh, well why don't we just take that to such and such committee? And they'd look at me like, oh, they're not gonna do anything about it. And sure enough, I take it to committee and there would be something done about it.

- Yeah. - And I, I've always felt empowered in this organization and I've always appreciated the, the width of the organization and how they embrace the community and want to help. So one major thing, I, I can't put my finger on

- It,

- But excellent leadership at the top. And we've had some wonderful CEOs and now we have an amazing c he's from Alabama, so he knows how things are done here. And he's embraced our community. Our community has embraced him. Mr. Dean and I enjoy working with him and his team.

- Yeah, Agreed. I love what you were mentioning about like just feeling empowered to be a part of the solution. Yeah, yeah. When things are not quite right. Yeah. Or you see something that needs to be changed or could be, I love being comfortable with kind of like speaking and how do we fix this? Exactly. And not just like tossing blame and stuff. And I think that's a big part of culture and something that we're really focused on here as an organization is giving everyone that frontline seat to be like, Hey, let's, let's make this better for Exactly. Whatever it is. Exactly. And exactly part of that, I mean, you mentioned the virtual nursing earlier, so that's Huge. And something that y'all approved as a board to be able to invest in and we'll have to get some like Cherise, our chief nursing officer, someone on to tell more, more about detail about it. But at first when I heard it, I was like, well how can a a robot really help? Or a telemedicine, how can they help nursing? Yeah. But then the way they have it set up is really cool because it actually ends up giving the patient more time Right. With a nurse and it isn't actual Right. Usually a seasoned nurse who's just on the other end of the, the, the iPad. But, but it's not just like a robot. I mean it's still human, it's just looking at ways we can interact to use technology to support our nurses. Even our ones that maybe don't wanna necessarily work on the floor anymore, but still wanna have that time with the patient

- Had a lot of opportunity. And during covid, that's where that initiative first came about. We used the iPad to record visits with the patient and family members could talk to us. And that came from one of our family members. They were really having a hard time not being able to visit or felt like they were receiving timely information on one of their loved ones who was in the intensive care. And we just talked and the chaplains took that project on and it wound up being a positive and it has just grown from there. And to touch on what you mentioned regarding the virtual nurses, it gives the seasoned nurse an opportunity to continue in their career. We may not have the knees and the feet to run up and down the hall, but hallway. But we can watch over that monitor, we can communicate with the nursing staff and give them information so they can be prepared when they go down the hallway, what some suggestions as to what may be going on in that room. So we really enjoyed that.

- Definitely. And kind of along the same lines, you know, healthcare has seen so many challenges over the years and I was wondering how you've seen SGMC Health respond to those challenges and where we've kind of rose to the occasion on some of those? Sounds like virtual nursing is definitely one of them.

- Yes. And, and that's, that's been our mo We always have, you know, tried to seek an opportunity to expand and grow. We are not afraid of growth at all. And with growth, there's some growing pains. So being a part of the community, listening to their needs and implementing programs and plans and then reevaluating them, keeping the ones that work, revamping the ones that do not work, that's what's made us what we are today. And it, like I said, it, it all comes with some pain. Like recognizing that we needed a women's health center. We recognize that we need a larger emergency room. And not only those two areas, but the financial impact that we have in the community. We have over 3,200 employees. And one of a, a friend of mine long time ago said that he came over from Douglas looking for a job and he said the first thing he did was he rode through the parking lot. And I said, Roger, why you ride through the parking lot? He said, well, Ms. Shirley, I tell you, you can ride through a parking lot and you can tell whether the people are being paid well or not by looking at the cars in the parking. He says, I rode through South Georgia medical center's parking lot and, and there was not that many old ISTs in that there. Oh, that's funny that you all must pay well and you must treat your staff well. Now some of the staff don't, wouldn't agree with that. But it's been years ago that he made that observation. And you know, like I said, we keep our finger on the pulse of the workforce in the state and we, we try very hard to be competitive. Of course the acuity of our patients are much higher.

- Right.

- But here on Maine, right. But we are very, very fortunate to have Smith Northview and so

- We and our sister

- Managed to rise to the occasion.

- Yeah, absolutely. I would say that y'all have done a great job. I mean we've had several events happen, whether it be Covid being the largest one. Exactly. And then we've had hurricanes and blizzards lately, kind of anything and everything that we wouldn't even expect in South Georgia. But I love seeing how our team always rallies together and gets it done and, and really becomes stronger through it. Yeah. So it's very cool as far as the growth of the health system and bringing in new physicians. You know, we talked a lot about cul culture. You kind of, you know, being competitive, being not only in what we offer to our patients and but also to our team members. Right. Being a place that people wanna work.

- Exactly.

- And that's definitely something that I've noticed that y'all talk about all the time. And it's currently looking at how can we enhance benefits, how can we, you know, help just the quality of life that people have while they're working here. And that, that's always been refreshing to me to see. They also keep that at the forefront when you're making decisions. So

- Thank you. Yes, we do.

- That's yeah, definitely. I was gonna ask, how do you feel like your background as a nurse has helped you advocate for our nurses talking about, you know, quality of life and workplace. How do you think that's affected how you advocate on the board?

- I think it's really helped me a lot in that as a nurse, the first thing you do is you assess a situation and then once you assess it, then you create a plan and then you implement the plan and then you go back and you evaluate it. Okay. So that's pretty much what we do as a board. We send out surveys and we encourage everyone to please answer our surveys. That's the way, one of the ways we hear you. And we, my having participated in all of those, I've been everything from an LPN to a nurse manager of three or four different units, units as well as house supervisor on day shift over all of those different things. And I served as education programs coordinator, which meant that I was affiliated indirectly with the nursing programs through the different schools. So having that broad scope of practice, med surg, critical care, all of it. I can think as a nurse, I think as a nurse every day since I started out with the nursing process, I think as a nurse in, in all walks of life. And it serves me well. And so that's what I do with the nurses. I've always had to plan meals. I've always cooked a lot on the weekends, like three different meats, four or five different vegetables. You always get a meal from my refrigerator. Now my mother-in-law called it leftovers. So you gonna repurpose it Now people are calling it meal prep. Hey, there you go. So you have to do what you have to do. Holidays, if you can't be there on holidays, make another day a significant day for you and your family. And, and as a manager, I always try to rotate the schedule. See holidays, different holidays mean different things to different people. So work life balance is very important. And, and, and we know that as a board, that's the reason why we offer a hybrid of shifts. Seven on seven off, three days a week, 12 hour shifts. I mean, we do a lot of different things, PRN, which is as needed. So each healthcare worker can individualize their personal schedules within this organization.

- Yeah. I think that's kind of one of the beauties I've seen in, in nursing from just the ones that I've talked to, is that you could really make your career what you want it to be. Exactly. Even with like specialties and stuff, you may find once you graduate and you get in here that you know you like a certain area or you don't like a certain area, there's, you can just go to another area and see if that might be your, you know, more of your passion. You can move around. And in that same token, you can move up through the rinks in that way. So nursing is not just a static field. You graduate and you're this one nurse doing this one job forever. It's very dynamic, very dynamic in

- The dynamic opportunity. Very dynamic. That's what like I covered with my career over the 40 years. I didn't just do one thing. I worked from emergency room bedside management and, and what I liked the most is management because I was able to impact my community by hiring people see me at Sunday school, miss Shirley, I need a job. And I'd come back and meet, you know, my team and, and we can get you hired someplace. And I used to always tell people when they would want to transfer after they've maybe been in my area for a while, they'll say, well, I, I wanna transfer to women and children. And I'll go, oh, you gotta leave me. But then I have to think about it. You're still under the umbrella. You, you're part of the team.

- What, there's a lot of things going on here in the organization. Exactly. What are you most excited about though? What

- What kind of, I'm most excited right now this minute, but a subject could change. I'm Gemini, so, but right now I'm really excited about our building program we have going on

- And they're, they're pouring concrete this weekend.

- So it's, I'm excited about it's

- Coming together.

- I, I've gone from watching the city league play baseball out there across from the emergency room where the emergency room is now. We'd watch from there and I'd watch from fifth floor sometime we'd the games down there to that big area of being, Oh, the new ER and the new women's center. And my husband and I, we were talking about, oh, Mathis and I told him about being in the pit down in the bottom. He was more like, I didn't know has had a basement. I said, yeah, we used to have our recitals and everything there and mothers would be down there, you know, get getting costumes ready and everything. So math has served a significant purpose to this community and that ground will continue to serve. It's going to serve mothers, new babies, emergency room. So that's just part of our growth as Valdo Lowndes County. Yeah, it's exciting. I'm excited

- About it too.

- Yeah, it's exciting

- From, you really serve to me as like such a role model and mentor. I mean just, I, I love, I just love watching you interact with on the boards and just your leadership style. And I, I, I admire it personally. But what kind of advice would you give to anyone that's listening that maybe just started their healthcare career and or, or maybe not even sure about a healthcare career. Exactly, exactly. You know, what kind of advice would you give them as far as if they were gonna pursue something in healthcare?

- Well, it is one thing, and that's what I say healthcare. 'cause a lot of times when people think of healthcare, they just think of nurses and doctors. But like my mother says, get a trade. And what that means is a marketable skillset. So something that can travel with you. And we are very, very, very, very fortunate that in healthcare they're all, I mean many, many, many different skill sets that's required here. I remember I spoke with my cousin back in 1999 and I was trying to offer her a nursing scholarship, a four year nursing scholarship. And I think she may have graduated Vale Victoria of her class or something of that nature. And I told her, I said, oh, thiss would be wonderful because I, with nursing, you can go anywhere. You can do, like you said, many different things. It's not all bedside nursing. I had a friend who just to taken aside who graduated with me from abac, she worked maybe six to eight months in the hospital and decided that it wasn't for her. And she went to work for an attorney and she's a legal nurse. So I mean there are a lot of different things you can do. So my cousin, back to my cousin, I was telling her, you know, get this nursing degree and went, oh no, 'cause I like computers. And I told her then I said, you know, I don't know, we don't have computers now at the bedside or anything in nursing directly. I said, but I feel like one day we are going to have them and what do we have? Epic documentation. Everything is electronic now. I went from documenting with a multicolor pen to logging into Epic. And now to have access to a health record on your cell phone, it's wonderful. So, you know, there's a lot of opportunity in healthcare. Yeah. Healthcare's going to be around and and we need everybody. That's right. We need everybody.

- Yep. It's a field that's never going away. That's right. So that's, that's what I thought about when I chose to come here. I used to work at VSU and marketing and I thought, well healthcare is definitely job security

- For

- Sure. So I'm gonna go see what SGMC health is about. Exactly.

- Although we do get questioned, like, how do you have to market a hospital? And I, and my answer is always, well, I mean you can't really market heart attacks or you know, any kind of health issue. That's not really what we do. But my favorite part is just telling the stories of the people that work here because there's so many amazing people that work here. And maybe it's just telling a story to inspire someone to make a career change or to pursue a career in healthcare. Or maybe it's someone just learning about something that changes their life once they realize, Hey, I could have that procedure or what have you and live better. Or I could change a lifestyle habit. And so it's just very interesting.

- Anding and transparency is a, a absolutely major issue in society now. Everybody wants to know. So you need someone there to monitor the social media outlets and provide feedback to the community.

- That's definitely a different realm in our, because you know, our patients and they're on social media for sure. And they're, and and basically what we've learned is anyone that, I mean they just wanna know that's, that's just a basic thing. They want communication. They just want, so anytime we can communicate better within the health system, if we can help communicate and share information how we do, I think open communication and transparency is something huge to build trust and with our community members. And with that being said, we're always open to, to have anyone on regarding topics that people are interested in, wanna learn more about. We certainly welcome

- That feedback too. Yeah. And I'd like to encourage everyone to feel free to attend our board meetings and we meet the third Wednesday of each month at 8:00 AM and we have an open session anyone can come, employees versus the community and the, or the community. And we use that as an opportunity to hear them. And we also as board members serve in our community in various capacities and people know how to reach out to us. So I feel like I'm access accessible to the nursing staff as well as the lay people in the community.

- Yep. I agree. Well I have one last question for you Ms. Shirley. And I know you're here all the time 'cause you go to every committee meeting like you said. So I like to ask all of our guests what their favorite meal is to eat here in the hospital, either in the spice or in the cafeteria.

- Hand down fried chicken on Wednesday. Yes. Yes. That's the top favorite. We have a new menu. Yes. And that was the first thing I flipped to. Okay. I was, oh let me see this. Still have that fried chicken on Wednesday and they do, I

- Think people would riot if

- They got rid of it. Well, and they're putting out a new menu for the patients and there is a special like hot honey chicken or something on the, and it is fried chicken that is, has a little spice

- To it.

- And I'm, that was my first thing. I taste tested and it's not gonna disappoint.

- Yes. I, I flipped right to it. I wanted to know when I saw that and the, the board, I was like, check my shoulder. Lemme see if fried chicken, they have the fried chicken. Yes, indeed. Can get, can't get rid of the classic.

- Yes indeed. But well we thank you so much for everything that you do for our organization and just in the community and to help us spread the message and help us really be the health system that our community wants us to be. So we appreciate you for

- That. Well thank you so much. Thank you so much for asking me to come. And I appreciate the county for asking me to serve on the board and represent the people about Valdosta Lowndes County. I really enjoy what I do. I have people say, are you still working at the hospital in a different capacity? Yeah. Yeah. It's not really work, right. It's not really work, but it's important

- To our

- Community.

- Yep. Yes ma'am. Well, thank you for being here today. Thank you. And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in and we would just appreciate if you would like and subscribe to the podcast and you can submit your questions at sgmc.org/podcast.