Marshall Nursing Forum Uncovers Path to Healing From Healthcare

PLACERVILLE, CA (SEPTEMBER 30, 2024) - Marshall, El Dorado County’s largest healthcare provider, recently convened its inaugural Nursing Forum, entitled “Heal from Healthcare.” The panel session, presented by Marshall’s Nursing Governance Committee, focused on ways the organization has reacted to the current healthcare climate to foster healing among caregivers and an elevated environment for its patients.

The immense toll of the COVID-19 pandemic brought widespread attention to the concern of burnout within the healthcare industry. As the pandemic spread, care providers were asked to do more with less, to work extended hours treating high volumes of gravely ill patients and to do it all even as they worried for their own health and that of their families. In the months and years following the initial surge, many healthcare organizations made significant staffing and programmatic cuts to recover from the financial effects of prolonged reductions to high revenue service lines.

But not Marshall.

“We do have to be careful with our resources. This is a challenging time,” says Nicole Lamm, Marshall’s Executive Director of Specialty Nursing Services. “But if you keep cutting deeper and deeper, what you cut is creativity and ingenuity. We can’t do that in healthcare. We must keep the space for critical thinking.”

Instead of widespread cuts, Marshall’s leadership has remained determined to expand and grow to continue to serve our community in the years to come. The focus has shifted to working differently and together, reducing burnout by realizing that the coworker next to you is just as important as the patient in front of you. Panel members at the forum agreed that “Burnout comes when you're being told to do more with less, to keep doing what you’ve been doing without being creative and without the ability to come up with new ideas or programs. Burnout isn’t about working hard ... it's about not being able to come up with solutions to do the work differently and more efficiently. “

Marshall’s Nursing Governance Committee was one program to grow out of this approach. Nurse representatives were selected from across the hospital’s departments and throughout the outpatient clinics. This peer-led effort gives nurses the voice to tell leadership what policies need to be changed and what resources are needed to do things differently, better, and more efficiently. Rather than a traditional top-down approach, this is truly “from the bedside out.”

“Everyone needs to be empowered to speak up when they see something,” notes Siri Nelson, Marshall’s President and CEO. “Sometimes we can do what they suggest and sometimes we can’t, but when we’re in trouble is when those voices go silent. I firmly believe Marshall can become the place that gets it right. We can be the place where healthcare is what it should be. Not transactional, but about relationships, the space to be creative, and showing our larger counterparts that you don’t have to be big to do it right. We can have a big difference in our community by being more nimble, more creative, and by giving people the space to step back and think ‘how did that go and what could have gone better and what can we do differently as a team?’”

The success of Marshall’s approach was evident when listening to panel members at the forum. “I was looking at leaving nursing. I was tired. I was burnt out. I was honestly a little jaded.” commented Alex, a nurse in Marshall’s ICU. “I came from previous employers who didn’t listen to their nurses or just didn’t care. When I came to Marshall everything changed. It reignited my flame because Marshall actually cares. It came down to the foundation and the basics of nursing, which is what I signed up for, and what I wanted to do ... to make a difference.”

“One of the positive outcomes from COVID was that it helped us move our culture faster,” says Nelson. “It created an outside pressure that allowed us to break down the inertial barriers to change. We were able to pivot to do the right thing as a team.”

View the full recording of the Health from Healthcare forum at:

About Marshall

Marshall is an independent, nonprofit community healthcare provider located in the heart of the Sierra Foothills. Marshall includes Marshall Hospital, a fully accredited acute care facility with 111 beds in Placerville; several outpatient facilities in Cameron Park, El Dorado Hills, Placerville, and Georgetown; and many community health and education programs. Marshall has over 220 licensed practitioners and over 1,400 employees providing quality healthcare services to more than 180,000 residents of El Dorado County.

Learn more at marshallmedical.org.