Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

23 NURSING SPOTLIGHT Meet the nurse hospitals won't hire By Paige Twenter K atie Duke, a nurse practitioner who is the host of a podcast called "Bad Decisions," an Instagram influencer, brand ambassador for Figs scrubs and a stand-up comedian, is not getting hired by hospitals, e Washington Post reported Feb. 21. During a comedy show in 2022, she told the audience, "Tonight is about some fun, it's all about some pretty offensive digs at the healthcare system, our government and our healthcare leadership." Her content pushes back on traditional expectations about what a nurse is and how they should act, according to the Post. Ms. Duke's balancing act — needing to be a hospital NP to be relevant for her audience while making digs at the healthcare system — is teetering. In 2010, she was an ER nurse at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital featured on ABC's docuseries "NY Med," which helped eventually launch her fame. In 2013, she told the Post she was abruptly fired aer posting a photo of the ER aer the staff saved a man hit by a subway train. ere were no people in the Instagram post, but the caption read, "Man vs. 6 train." Ms. Duke said she wanted to show "the amazing things doctors and nurses do to save lives … the f—ing real deal." e post did not violate HIPAA, but she said her director called it insensitive and unprofessional before security escorted her out. She said the caption was "cold," but added the public should see nursing culture as it is: "at's ER speak," Ms. Duke told the Post. "We say 'head injury in room five.' We don't say 'Mr. Smith in room five.' We talk and think by mechanism of injury." Many hospitals are navigating the terrain of having their workers be popular online. In January, a plastic surgeon's license was suspended aer live-streaming procedures. e month prior, four nurses were no longer employed at an Atlanta hospital aer posting an "icks" video complaining about maternity patients. e "real deal" Ms. Duke wants to share may be hindering her hireability. Her application to a Mount Sinai hospital in New York got stalled. A 13-week contract with a NewYork-Presbyterian hospital ended on day two, aer the recruiter called and said hospital administration said she "wasn't a good fit." Both hospitals declined to comment on the Post's story. During this uncertainty in her hospital nursing career, she was advocating for the profession on Capitol Hill and beginning sponsorships with Nurse.com, Pfizer and Tommy John before working full-time at a health-tech startup, according to the Post. She wants to return, but hospitals may not want that. "I want to have it both ways," Ms. Duke told the Post. "I wish I could work at a hospital that would allow me to take great care of patients and help train and educate new people coming on board and, at the same time, use my platform as an opportunity to spread awareness about the value of nurses and supported working environments and safe staffing. But that's just unrealistic." n How Novant's Heather King went from CNA to hospital president By Paige Twenter H eather King, BSN, RN, president and chief operating officer of Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center in Bolivia, N.C., climbed from certified nursing assistant to hospital executive in 17 years because, as her mentor put it, she "never said no to anything." Ms. King began her role as president in August, but her leadership started long before that, according to a Feb. 24 post from the Charlotte, N.C.-based system. At 9 years old, she served as a primary caregiver after her mom was severely injured from a car accident, but it wouldn't be until 20 years later when she would work in a hospital. She said she was impressed by the nurses at Novant Health Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., after she gave birth to her second child at 29. A few weeks later, Ms. King went to college for the first time for an associate degree nursing program. By 2006, she began working at Forsyth as a CNA in the labor and delivery unit. While working as a CNA, Ms. King earned her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing and became an RN. At another Novant hospital, Ms. King rose through the ranks to become the director of nursing in 2014 after fielding encouragement from others. "Throughout my career, I've been very blessed that there have been people who saw something in me that I didn't see in myself," she said in the health system's post. John Mann, MD, one of Ms. King's mentors, and the president, chief operating officer and senior vice president of Novant Health Institutes, said, "She may give me credit for something, but she did all the work. ... She never said no to anything." Ms. King said she has stayed at Novant for nearly two decades because she wants to empower others like herself: "That's a reason I have stayed at Novant Health. They really do empower female leaders." n

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