Meet the Innovators: Nurse leader delivers innovative solutions for mother and baby care

Meet Jessica

Little did seven-year-old Jessica know that sliding in socks through her family’s kitchen would lead to a life-altering event, one which would ”birth” a career dedicated to exceptional patient and family care. On that day in a flurry of activity, she bumped into her mother, who was carrying a pot of hot water from stove to sink. The boiling water sloshed over the pot, scalding Jessica’s leg and leaving her with second-degree burns. Thanks to the care she received from doctors and nurses, Jessica’s first emergency room experience planted the seeds of compassion and service in her.

As Jessica grew, she developed a deep understanding of and appreciation for healthcare work through relationships with her grandfather and great-uncle. Jessica’s grandfather worked at a mental health facility in Nashville, Tennessee. At the same time, her great-uncle served as the State of Tennessee Health Commissioner – and even signed Jessica’s birth certificate. She watched her grandfather’s active involvement in the healthcare community and admired how he meticulously monitored his health and that of others.

During her high school years, Jessica’s beloved grandfather was diagnosed with a rare form of kidney cancer. He shared his exceptional patient experience and outstanding interactions with his nurses, who always ensured his comfort.

After earning her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Jessica’s first healthcare role was as an obstetrics postpartum nurse technician. Her dedication to creating healthier tomorrows for moms and babies led to a career at HCA Healthcare’s TriStar Hendersonville Medical Center in Tennessee. By March 2017, Jessica Woods, BSN, RN, C-EFM was promoted to  manager of the hospital’s labor and delivery unit.

Blending care with technology

For Jessica, care is at the heart of all she does. In OB, nurses care for patients on some of the best and most difficult days of their lives. As a mother, her experiences from delivering her own children have instilled a natural empathy in caring for expectant mothers during these critical moments, a humble honor and responsibility for Jessica. Recognizing the significance of this important time in new mothers’ and families’ lives, she celebrates many new babies’ birthdays daily.

“Jessica is a visionary leader,” said Jan Alexander, RN, director of The Birth Center at TriStar Hendersonville Medical Center. “The patient and family are at the heart of why she does what she does. Whenever she tours a patient around The Birth Center, she said ‘There are two days that are really important: the day you get married and the day you have your baby. Those are the days you remember your entire life.’ That’s the patient-first passion she leads by with a heart dedicated to quality.”

“I think all of our care team members aim to make these days one of the most special experiences a patient can have,” said Jessica. “Who doesn’t love a birthday? I think if you walk into the room with that type of positivity and a joyful spirit, people will meet you there. It helps patients and families work through their nervousness because they feel reassured that we’re with them every step of the way.”

Jessica’s passion for healthcare is balanced with a never-ending curiosity about technology. Throughout her formative years, Jessica was an innovator at heart: her father ensured their family had the newest television or video camera, allowing them to tinker and figure out how things worked as technology evolved. This curiosity propelled her further into the inner workings of the healthcare world. She is drawn to technology and its potential work applications, considering how they can benefit her team and benefit patients. With 15 years of experience in the nursing field, she recognizes technology is key to reenergizing nurses.

Related article: HCA Healthcare collaborates with Google Cloud to bring generative AI to hospitals (HCA Healthcare Today)

Shaping maternal care solutions for the future

Less than three years ago, TriStar Hendersonville Medical Center became one of HCA Healthcare’s Innovation Hubs, an entire hospital dedicated to innovation. Jessica and care teams there work hand-in-hand with the CT&I team to develop and test emerging technology solutions to determine how they can better support delivery of excellent patient care.

In recent decades, the United States’ maternal mortality rate has been among the highest of any developed country. As part of HCA Healthcare’s longstanding commitment to perinatal safety, we use data from the more than 212,000 babies delivered annually across our care network to identify opportunities to improve outcomes. We develop and scale new policies and best practices to improve pre-natal, natal and post-natal care.

Now, HCA Healthcare’s CT&I team is leveraging augmented intelligence and technology to test solutions to support labor and delivery clinicians in their quest to improve maternal safety.

At her hospital, Jessica is working to test technology designed to prevent labor complications such as hemorrhage, identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a leading cause of maternal mortality. Using a mobile device app, the technology identifies potential blood loss during delivery and postpartum care.

Jessica’s team at TriStar Hendersonville Medical Center is also testing another tool that uses data points from multiple sources, such as IV pumps, the patients’ electronic medical record (EMR), bedside monitors and other devices. It is designed to alert clinicians so that they can more quickly intervene with potentially life-saving treatment for mothers. The AI-powered technology aims to provide clinical decision support that incorporates clinical algorithms to guide evidence-based practice for severe hypertension, postpartum hemorrhage and oxytocin management.

Using this kind of technology at the bedside also creates conversations between care team members, patients and their families. Jessica notes, “When we’re testing this technology at the bedside, our patients and their families are engaged and asking questions. We’re able to have a dialogue with them about our facility as an Innovation Hub, and how we are leveraging technology to deliver a high standard of care.”

“Jessica’s critical thinking, expertise, innovative spirit and willingness to solve problems helps inform what our labor and delivery care teams are learning today. She understands the need to identify risk, communicate about it and take timely action. This is the future of maternal fetal care,” said Whitney Staub-Juergens, DNP-HSL, MSN, RN, NE-BC, vice president, CT&I Clinical Operations & Integration.

Related article: Meet the Innovators: a nurse’s journey from the bedside to clinical transformation leader (HCA Healthcare Today)

Patient-first passion for innovation

Importantly, CT&I’s mission is not only to develop and test new technologies, but to work closely with care team members like Jessica to gather feedback to improve upon them. Jessica notes that, historically in healthcare technology innovation across the industry, care teams were handed new tools or resources and expected to figure out how to implement and optimize them on their own. The CT&I approach is quite different, in that the team begins with pain points for care team members, develops solutions around them and then works with the team to optimize technologies that support workflow. For example, the CT&I team sat in on multiple C-section procedures this year to better understand nurses’ work and apply those learnings to deliver better solutions that improve patient care in that setting.

While Jessica continuously pursues opportunities to improve and innovate, her mission-focused values remain squarely aligned with making today’s miracles tomorrow’s memories for her patients.

Above all, Jessica is excited for the future, knowing that she and the CT&I team will continue to seek and deliver innovative solutions to improve healthcare. Her passion for the work she does is only heightened with new tools and resources that make it easier to provide top-notch care and enhance the nursing experience.

Advice from the innovator

After reflecting on recent challenges the healthcare industry faced due to the pandemic, Jessica’s enthusiasm for improving care with innovative solutions reached new heights.

“As an Innovation Hub, we have a real opportunity to think differently and consider how much healthcare has changed over the last three years on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Jessica shares. I am driven to return to the drawing board and go beyond how things have always been done to make things better.”

Jessica is a determined role model for nurses to embrace change and use different ways of working at the forefront of innovation. She intentionally creates space for innovation and transformation, and encourages her team to embrace it too.

When balancing the daily operations of a fast-paced unit like the Birth Center at TriStar Hendersonville Medical Center with innovation initiatives, Jessica has words of wisdom for nurse leaders and care team members.

“Don’t give up when it’s hard and frustrating,” Jessica said “The beautiful part of innovative work is that it’s challenging and uncomfortable but rewarding at the same time. Innovation may change programs and processes you’ve always known, but it is about making our work better, faster and more intuitive, allowing us more time with patients and families to positively impact their lives and leave them better than we found them.”