Ep. 20 | Nurses Belong in the Boardroom: The Rise of Corporate Nursing

FOLLOW or SUBSCRIBE on Apple Podcast | Google Podcast | Spotify | Amazon Music

They say people at the frontline are in much better position to make decisions directly impacting their work. There is an increasing trend across industries integrating this model but healthcare seems to lag in terms of adopting this concept. While more organizations are seeing the value of clinical nurses as subject matters experts for companies doing business with hospitals, it has given rise to a non-traditional niche in the nursing field. 

Listen to my conversation with Lexi Jay, Founder of The Corporate Nurse, as we talk about:

• Why there is an increasing demand in corporate nursing and how bedside nurses can transition to this career.

• Falling back in love with Nursing

• How you can transition to Corporate Nursing

Guest Spotlight: Lexi Jay

As a consultant for a global pharmaceutical company, Lexi Jay is responsible for managing clinical research trials, driving the outcomes that directly improve the quality of care for patients.

Lexi brings 17 years of experience in the health care industry. Prior to corporate nursing, Lexi worked over a decade in direct patient care roles ranging from the surgical intensive care unit as a staff and travel nurse to interventional radiology and transplant coordination. 

Lexi received a Master of Science degree in health care administration from Southern New Hampshire University and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Cumberland University.

Lexi is the founder of The Corporate Nurse, LLC, a professional development company, which empowers nurses to expand their skill set beyond direct patient care and leverage their bedside knowledge to land corporate nursing positions at commercial, as well as research and development companies. Her mission is reflected in her company ethos: “Nurses belong in the boardroom.” She currently resides in Atlanta, GA.

---

Connect with Lexi:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/thecorporatenurse/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NurseLexiJ

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thecorporatenurse/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecorporatenurse/

Enroll in Lexi’s Leap to Corporate Nursing Program: https://bit.ly/LEAP2CNVIP

Like & Subscribe on: 

Apple Podcast , Google Podcast , Spotify , Amazon Music

This episode was recorded via Squadcast and edited via Descript.

Transcript

NOTE: This podcast was transcribed by an AI tool. Please forgive any typos or errors. Lexi Jay: [00:00:00] I quickly saw my first corporate position, how sitting at a table or presenting to C-suite executives, I was listened to, What can we do? How do we do this? How do we do this right? What's your thoughts on it? And they would listen to what I had to say and they would institute it. And these were at facilities that I, a year ago was a bedside nurse at and had the same thoughts or, you know, provided that feedback to my management and it went nowhere. So it was already eye opening to see I get on a different side of the business. I now am in the room with these people and they are listening to me, soaking up every word that I have to say and instituting the guidelines that I'm saying. And so I saw quickly how powerful you can be. When you work for a company that provides products and services to hospitals, and so just by having nurses in the boardroom, in any company that's providing product services, that's gonna touch patients or healthcare professionals, Changes the scope, the awareness, and the [00:01:00] ability to see from a different area versus MBAs, Business suits. People in money who wanna, you know, have one focus, they're able to say, Well, wait a minute. Let's take a step back and listen, because these are the ones that are in the rooms with the hospitals. These are are people that are in there with our core customers. And so if nurses get in more of these rooms, I have no doubt in my mind that healthcare can change for the better for everyone. Myles Parilla: Welcome to the insightful nurse leader. This podcast is focused on assisting nurse leaders become effective managers and change facilitators. Good morning everyone. Welcome to the 20th episode of the Insightful Nurse Leader. Our guest today is a founder of the Corporate Nurse LLC, a professional development company, which empowers nurses to expand their skillset beyond direct patient care and leverage their bedside knowledge to land corporate nursing positions from commercial to research and development companies. Her mission is reflected in her company ethos. [00:02:00] "Nurses Belong in the Boardroom". Lexi Jay. Welcome to the show. Lexi Jay: Thank you so much for having me. It is a pleasure. Myles Parilla: So glad to have you here. So Lexi, how did you decide to move into corporate nursing? Lexi Jay: Gosh. So I was your quintessential critical care nurse. Thought that I was gonna go to CRNA school, and when that didn't happen, I had to figure out , what was I gonna do with my life? I knew that. I wanted to make a great salary as a nurse, but did not see life outside of being a CRNA. And so after changing specialties, moving to a new state, going into different areas to see if something peed my passion, I got to that block in the wall and was like, I want out of nursing completely. I, I don't wanna do this anymore. And so around 2014, I started to really get physically just ill with having the drive to the hospital was making me sick. I felt myself getting very agitated easily, and so I was like, I'm either going to walk away [00:03:00] from this degree completely if I don't find something outside of the hospital. And so I started to remember the companies that I worked with, their products when I was at the bedside. Who came into the IR suites and talked about their medical devices or what were those companies that I utilized their products in the surgical icu. And I just started going to their website and looking for anything that I could do and didn't really have a plan, but just started submitting my, my resume to these companies and getting rejected and wondering why am I getting rejected? Like I have the skills they're looking for. What am I doing wrong? And so after about five and a half months of applying, getting some places with some companies. I finally got my first offer with the medical device company, got that first check and said, I'm never going back to the bedside. Myles Parilla: Wow. Well thanks for sharing that. So in a traditional, hospital setting or profession for nurses, the traditional outlook professionally is that, you know, you go to become a nurse manager [00:04:00] or assistant manager first and nurse manager or be an educator or until you become a CNO and all that. And you took a, rather different, route. Can you talk about how is corporate nursing different from the traditional nursing leadership track? Lexi Jay: Sure. So I thought that was the track I was supposed to take, you know, after no CRNA, let's go administration, let's do management. And that went away very quick when I saw that was, you know, not gonna occur. So corporate nurses, Have no patient care responsibilities. For the most part, 95 percent of these positions, you work completely remote 100% of the time. What you are doing is you're taking that foundational knowledge from the hospital, from patient care and providing it to companies that provide products and services to hospitals for healthcare professionals, and then to patients. And so I could take my knowledge from the ICU and go to a company that had medical devices in the ICU and tell them, Well, when a patient is coding, you're doing the following. [00:05:00] So to pull your device out and do this, the functionality's not really set up for it because this is what's going on while a code is insuring. And they're like, Wait, we didn't know this. Like light bulb moment goes off. So there's really this big wide field of areas that nurses from any specialty can bring that knowledge to companies that want to provide services and products to patients and, you know, healthcare professionals. Think of hospital designs. You know, you go into a hospital room, I'm sure you have, and you're like, Who designed this? We've got a a sink here. The bed's here. If something were to happen, how could we maneuver? You know, ergonomically. there are, construction companies and engineering firms that hire nurses to help them design hospitals. So everything is ergonomically placed correctly that the functionality works well. They want more nurses in these spaces. The problem is that they just don't know how to reach them. So that's where I'm coming in to try to help. Myles Parilla: Very nice. I, I totally agree with you, [00:06:00] the value of bedside nurses, clinical nurses, to organizations who need frontline knowledge and experience to be able to better design their product and services. Lexi Jay: Absolutely. Myles Parilla: So, relating this to, any nurse out there thinking about this route, how did you overcome that perspective of, I'm gonna leave bedside, I'm, you know, I've been a nurse for X number of years. Obviously there is some apprehension. I'm like, you know, I'm, I'm leaving the bedside. How did you overcome that jumping into this corporate world? Lexi Jay: That's a great question. You know, I talked to people at first and was like, Hey, I'm thinking about going and working for this company. They've contacted me and I had a lot of naysayers that, you know, you really wanna leave the hospital? Like, are you even gonna be considered a nurse anymore? Why would you wanna do that? You went to school so long to take care of patients and I really had to sit with myself and think. Am I gonna be happy if I continue to come to the hospital every [00:07:00] day? And so I was always told, when you get to the point where you no longer care, you need to pull yourself back. And I took a lot of pride in taking care of patients as I wanted my loved ones taken care of, and I never got to the point where I didn't care. But I felt myself getting to that point to where I was feeling like I'm not going above and beyond every time I come here. So I need to take a step back and it was, do you wanna be happy in a new place? Be scared, do it, you know, go against the grain or do you wanna be miserable driving to this hospital every day? And so I had to block out all of the noise from the naysayers and forge my own path and I'm so glad I did. Myles Parilla: Mm-hmm. , I love how you demonstrate self-awareness in, in that process in and set your appropriate boundaries in that regard. Lexi, you wrote a blog about falling back in love with nursing and you know that you recently wrote this and published to, your website, and I love how you outlined the process of how [00:08:00] you fell back in love in nursing and you went through self-reflection, self-awareness, taking stock, on your accomplishments and your outlook. Can you walk us through how you went about this process? Lexi Jay: Sure. So, you know, I, I think a lot of being in the bedside right now are essentially when I was there, You're in survival mode. You come to these hospitals, you have these very tumultuous shifts. These patients are very sick, The families are stressed out, demanding. You know, everyone's stretched so thin, and so you don't remember why you initially went to nursing school. You don't remember that pinning ceremony, passing the boards, getting your first job, All of that excitement feeling. And so when I went into corporate. And I, I was paid very well. I'm no longer stressed out about money. I'm, I'm a single mom and so now me and my son can do a lot of things we weren't able to do. I'm no longer working in that survival mode, and so I'm able now to think about what makes me happy or I like [00:09:00] doing this. I like presenting to executives. I like talking to them about issues plaguing their hospitals and how my company designs things to help with that. And so from there you start to see, okay, well I'm really great at these types of things. And so, oh wow, I can talk about nursing in these areas. And people are excited about it and they listen to me. And from there you start to see, okay, well how can I build upon this? Where are some other areas in this space that I can go into and take this even a step further? And the big light bulb moment for me was that working in corporate, Your skills, what you wanna do transcends across regionally and nationally and then across the globe. These are global companies that you are working with that can take your, you know, design your thoughts, your, your solutions, and present it to their device or their service across the world. And so I'm sure everyone that's gonna listen to this is a great [00:10:00] nurse at their facility, but you only get to take care of those patients that come to your facility. When you come into corporate, you touch so many different lives because your reach is bigger. And so you really do have to be self-aware and think, what, what am I good at? What are the gifts inside of me that come very easily? And how I can apply that within healthcare and within nursing with a company. And when I felt that, I just fell back in love with nursing over and every year. My love for nursing increases because you really can see how that foundational bedside knowledge is so needed in these companies, and they want what you have to say. They listen to what you have to say and they apply it, and you see it change lives all over the world. Myles Parilla: Wow. Amazing. So Lexi, thank you for sharing that and, to me it's really about, the self awareness about like, Hey, I'm having compassion fatigue and really reflect on where I need to go from here and looking at what am I good at? What value can I offer, what problem can I solve [00:11:00] out there and, represent myself, to companies where I can, expand my reach or influence. So, Recently there was a hospital closure in Atlanta, right? Where nurses, were surprised that the facility was closing effective November 1st this year. And, obviously this is shocking for those directly impacted with this because of the livelihood and such. Which brings about the importance of really having, a good plan or a backup plan, for our careers as nurses, because with the financial problems right now in different healthcare systems around the country, or even heck, the world. Right. This shouldn't be a surprise moving forward. And as nurses, how do you suggest or recommend that we prepare ourselves to be agile as far as, having to work in a different area. If we get a dreaded news that, Hey, my company's closing, what are the strategies that you can advise to nurses out [00:12:00] there. Lexi Jay: Oh, this is great. So I am a firm believer in keeping your network warm. You know, they say the best time to look for a job is when you already have a job, and unfortunately, most people wait until they are tired of that job before they begin to look for their next opportunity. . And so because as nurses we are so, beholden to the hospital setting, that's all schools taught us to go into. That's all practice has taught us to stay in. You have to really think, where do these skills go if I can't go to a hospital every day? And so looking into professional development for yourself that's not attached to a certification or you know, an additional degree. I am a strong supporter of furthering your education. I am currently pursuing a PhD in Nursing. However, I don't need a PhD for what I do in corporate nursing. I don't need a master's. My nursing degree is my ticket in. And being able to translate your resume to showcase your skills that are transferable, being able to interview very [00:13:00] well, we are so accustomed to interviewing for traditional bedside roles, taking care of patients. But going and being able to interview through multiple rounds through a company presenting data to a company, because some of these positions do have that as part of their interview process. Really looking at the professional development for yourself that's not attached to getting a certification. Just that, that simplistic ownership of how do I own my career and what are the things that I need to do to ensure I'm always marketable in whatever economy and in multiple industries. Myles Parilla: Mm-hmm. . Totally agree. Totally agree. So Lexi, can you walk us through your approach and how do you help nurses go through what you just explained? Lexi Jay: Yeah, so my program Leap to Corporate Nursing is a group coaching program for nurses. And the first thing that we talk about is mindset because. Nurses are beat down right now. Let's be clear. They feel they are at a wall. You know, they're very disillusioned with nursing. They're upset and have valid emotions about what has taken place. And [00:14:00] so I really work on the mindset to show nurses that you have everything within you to obtain these positions, right now. You don't need to go get a mba. You don't need to have a BS in in nursing. You have a nursing degree. That's it. And that's all. LPNs as well. That degree is marketable for you in corporate. And so after the mindset piece, it's really starting to ask yourself the hard questions of what makes me happy, What do I love about nursing, but what do I hate about nursing as well? Do you like to travel? A lot of these positions have a travel aspect. You can travel internationally or do you not like to travel? Do you like to get in front of people and present information? Really focusing on getting you a position that tailors to your lifestyle design, where you want your life to be in the next one to three years. From there, we're to search for these positions because it's not just about looking for a job, it's being strategic in your approach of, I wanna work in these kind of companies. Maybe I feel called to work with dementia population Alzheimer's, or I have a special, you know, pull [00:15:00] to hepatology. Looking at the companies that offer those services and products and going there. But so you find this great job, right? Do you know how to apply for it successfully and beat ATS software and not get your resume kicked out? Do you know how to get to that hiring manager's computer to say, Call me for this interview? And then how do you really interview successfully? So you move through each round of the process to be their final candidate, and then when they offer you this position, How do you then negotiate back? Because I'm a, I'm a strong supporter of nurses not leaving money on the table. I don't care if they offer you $150,000 salary. I want you to push it a little bit more because they're probably going to give it to you. And then finally, how do you transition into this new role successfully, Because you're now gonna be remote, you're gonna be acclimating to a virtual team, and how do you really set yourself up for success? So you move into further positions in corporate. But also jump your salary very well. I mean, there are nurses who work in corporate who make two to [00:16:00] $300,000 a year, and I always ask nurses, show me a bedside nurse, a CRNA that's making that kind of money, but not stressed out, not working six, 12 hour shifts a week. Not, you know, working multiple jobs, not being a travel nurse, you know, just going into their local hospital and pulling that kind of money. And so, really opening nurses' eyes to the fact that you have options available to you. Myles Parilla: Very nice, very nice. Thank you for sharing that. So Lexi, let's talk about your company ethos, Nurses Belong in the Boardroom. So when I first heard this right, and, and I shared this with you before, to me it sounds to me like I have equal, decision making capability. I recently interviewed, Zach Smith in the prior, episode, and he shared, to our listeners his passion about supporting and advocating for nurses. Right. And he shared challenges with, partnering with hospitals with change. And to me, it [00:17:00] comes down to with nurses, you know, yeah, we, we want more money, et cetera, but truly at the heart of it, we want to be part of the decision making. That's integral with where organizations are going because we generally do much of the work, right? From an operations standpoint. And your company ethos talks more about autonomy, talks more about a shared governance, a shared, way to be able to make, decisions in where, the organization plans to pivot or what have you. Can you talk more about what made you have that as your company ethos? Lexi Jay: Sure. So nurses belong in the boardroom is so important to me because I quickly saw my first corporate position, how sitting at a table or presenting to C-suite executives, I was listened to, What can we do? How do we do this? How do we do this right? What's your thoughts on it? And they would listen to what I had to say and they would institute it. And these were at facilities that I, a year ago was a bedside nurse at [00:18:00] and had the same thoughts or, you know, provided that feedback to my management and it went nowhere. So it was already eye opening to see I get on a different side of the business. I now am in the room with these people and they are listening to me, soaking up every word that I have to say and instituting the guidelines that I'm saying. And so I saw quickly how powerful you can be. When you work for a company that provides products and services to hospitals, I've worked in a startup before and been in rooms where discussions are being had about research and development with certain populations and bringing that nursing lens and asking questions that patients have that, you know, would ultimately come down and, and, and family and caregivers would have to have questions about offering that perspective, change the whole trajectory of how clinical research study is done or can be done. And so just by having nurses in the boardroom, in any company that's providing product services, that's gonna touch patients or healthcare [00:19:00] professionals, Changes the scope, the awareness, and the ability to see from a different area versus MBAs, Business suits. People in money who wanna, you know, have one focus, they're able to say, Well, wait a minute. Let's take a step back and listen, because these are the ones that are in the rooms with the hospitals. These are are people that are in there with our core customers. And so if nurses get in more of these rooms, I have no doubt in my mind that healthcare can change for the better for everyone. Myles Parilla: Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . Now, you've been both sides, right? And you mentioned clearly earlier you, you know, you shared your thoughts and suggestions and recommendations, but you were not heard. What do you think is the barrier to that? it doesn't seem like it's a different, you know, proposal. You're just in a different seat or a different role connecting with hospital leaders. Why is that? Lexi Jay: I don't know. That's a great question. I have empathy for management. I know they are stressed. They have a lot on their plate, and I think [00:20:00] when you are on this side working in corporate, you have the ability to speak freely without retribution. And I think that when you work in the hospital setting, there is a lot of, you know, diplomacy around how you bring things to the table. And sometimes people are just afraid to, go left when everyone's saying go right. But sitting over here, you brought me in to fix an issue. You want me to give you the ability to change things and I can say what needs to be said and not fear, any type of retribution, so to speak. But you still have to do it diplomatically, of course. And so I challenge those in leadership to maybe bring some of the, you know, solutions that your nurses are bringing to you, to the table, to these leadership discussions. And see, I mean, you never know if you . Don't try. I mean, who's to say it's gonna be no if you don't ask. And I don't know if any of my, solutions when I was a bedside nurse were being taken to that next level. But I would hope now maybe that management is [00:21:00] changing, and can do that. Myles Parilla: Yeah, it sounds like it's more riskier, right? To, to speak outside the box on, challenging the status quo as opposed to being an external person with your sole purpose there is to question the status quo. So that's very insightful in addition to that. Funny you said that because you know, we have HRO concepts, high reliability organization concepts, where I remember having worked in organizations before where we, you know, we promote people, having a questioning attitude. But then again, to your point, is that the fear of retaliation is still there. It's still quite sad that that still exists. Lexi Jay: agree. Myles Parilla: So, Lexi, in reflecting back in your journey, From taking stock right. From, before you made that transition. Would you have changed anything? Looking back in how you've transitioned your career to where you are now? Lexi Jay: Oh. I think the only thing I would've done differently, I would have [00:22:00] looked for corporate nursing positions earlier on. But I think that every step of the process was a lesson I needed to learn. And so while I wish, you know, I, I could have went straight from the ICU into corporate and not have went and tried other specialty. My plan was my plan, and it made me a stronger corporate nurse. And so I don't want any nurse to think, Well, I need to give years to an area before I come into corporate. No, you don't. You just need at least two years of experience. And that inquisitive mindset. And I always tell when potential clients reach out to me. You know, How do I know that I'm ready for corporate nursing? And I say, When you can confidently, not arrogantly, take care of any patient that comes into your area, where you're looked at as the resource, where you feel like you've done all that you can do, you're ready for corporate. Myles Parilla: Thank you for sharing that. So how can nurses start working with you? Lexi Jay: Oh, wonderful. So they definitely can reach out to me via, I'm all over all avenues of social media. Instagram, [00:23:00] LinkedIn, Twitter. My leap to corporate nursing cohort is now open for enrollment for the fourth quarter of the year. And so my program's not designed for unlimited, capacity. It's a small group of individuals because you get a lot of one-on-one time with me, we have a private community of other corporate nurses. That you know, Champion and cheerlead are gonna be your support system. And given that I am in my PhD program, I would hope to run the program again next year. But if I can't give clients the best of me, I won't run the course for that quarter. So I would say if anyone's thinking I wanna get into corporate, I would get in now because 2023, there's no telling what the world will bring us and what my PhD will bring me Myles Parilla: Well, thank you. What's your focus with your PhD degree? Lexi Jay: Oh, wow. So I am focused, I love research and development. It is, my passion is what I'm supposed to be doing. And so I am working in the diversity within clinical trial space, and that's where all of my, focus is on. Myles Parilla: Very nice. Very [00:24:00] nice. Well, thank you so much for your time and to our listeners, I'll be including all the links and the ways to connect with Lexi in our website. Lexi Jay: Wonderful. Thank you so much for having me. Myles Parilla: Thank you, Lexi. Thank you for listening view the complete show notes and all the links mentioned in today's episode, Myles Parilla consulting.com forward slash podcast. And before you go, make sure you follow or subscribe to this podcast so you can receive the latest episodes soon as they're released. And if you're enjoying the show, leave a rating and review in Apple podcast. Thank you again for joining. This is your host Myles Parilla and you're listening to the insightful nurse leader. you next time.