COVID’s Impact on Hospitals and Healthcare Workers (from the POV of an Administrator)
Season 1, Episode 9
In episode 9 of the Conversatio podcast, Dr. Gwyndolan Swain sits down with VP of College Relations Phillip Brach to talk about how the global pandemic has impacted hospitals and healthcare workers, from the point of view of an administrator.
SPEAKERS
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain, Phil Brach
Phil Brach
Welcome to Conversation, the Belmont Abbey College podcast. This podcast focuses on the way of formation and transformation so that each of us reflects God’s image in an ever more palatable and transparent way. I am Phil Brach, vice president of college relations for Belmont Abbey College. And today, I’m joined by Dr. Gwendolyn Swain, founding program director and professor of our Master of Health Administration Program.
Phil Brach
Today, we will explore how COVID has impacted hospitals and health care workers from the point of view of the administration before we dove in. Why don’t we begin by introducing Dr. Swain to the audience? Dr. Swain, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
Thank you, Phil. It would be a pleasure. My name is Gwendolyn Laverne Swain. I am originally from Louisiana. Went to nursing school at Dillard University and completed my Bachelor of Science in nursing there. I had the opportunity to work a little bit of everywhere. Ended up being licensed in five states, as well as in Germany, where I had the opportunity to work at the US Army Hospital in Nuremberg.
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
Upon returning to the United States, I went to Houston, where my family is, and worked in several facilities there in a leadership role. I ended up in Atlanta, Georgia, doing the same thing, and here I am in Charlotte, North Carolina. I did have an opportunity to work in it in administrative roles, in the hospital system, in areas such as the nursery, newborn nursery, stepdown ICU nursery, a med surge floor.
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
Briefly, because I love the babies more than I love the grown ups. I also did a stint as the director of a long term care facility, and I directed the employees in the emergency room in one of the local hospitals as well. When I came to Charlotte, I kind of felt an itch to go back to school. People always told me, You have that teaching thing.
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
So I decided to explore that teaching thing and went to Phifer University, where I studied and acquired a master of Health Administration and a Master of Business Administration as a joint degree. I was still working at Atrium Health in a leadership role where I was an administrative manager of a leave of absence administration with responsibility for teaching the entire 45,000 employees plus at Atrium at that time, all about multiple varieties of leaves, family medical leaves, military leaves, leaves of absence for health reasons, and just a myriad of things.
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
I decided to go to the Medical University of South Carolina to pursue a doctorate in health administration, and after that went to teaching full time. I went to 54 university in their Master of Health Administration program with responsibility for not only the Master of Health Administration degree, but the degree completion for Health Administration as well as the two joint degrees, the MBA, MBA and MSL, which was the leadership degree.
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
I functioned in the role of a visiting professor, moved in to assistant, then to associate, then to assistant director and ended up director. So it prepared me very well, I believe, for my role here at Belmont Abbey College.
Phil Brach
Well, I tell you, this has been one of the wonderful things as we’ve been introducing all these new health science programs, is the incredible people like yourself. It’s attracted to the college. And it’s such a pleasure to have you join the team here at Belmont Abbey College. One of the new programs is the Master’s of Health Master of Health Administration, which is a founding director.
Phil Brach
Can you tell us a little bit about how that program’s going?
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
Sure. The program is going exceptionally well. Our goal was to bring in ten new students in the fall of 20, 21, which we did. Unfortunately, we lost one of those students due to some health issues related to COVID, I might add. Which is what we’re going to talk a little bit more about today. But everybody is excelling. They are dug in.
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
They are just so excited for the opportunity. The beauty of it is twofold. In my brain, one is at least 70% of the students in the inaugural cohort are Belmont Abbey alumni. The other is they’re all female. So, you know, if you think about it, health care is a male dominated area. And here we are with a full cohort of female students.
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
We started our second cohort in January of this year, and we’ve got a 50 50 mix there. But yet we still have a couple of Belmont Abbey alum. Everybody, everybody’s really excited. They’re making me excited. They are like sponges. You put the work out there and you have those super users and over achievers who are done with their assignment midway through the week.
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
And then you’ve got the ones who are really entrenched in their jobs in health care. So you have to be a little bit more lenient with them.
Phil Brach
That’s great. It sounds like it’s off to a great start. You know, here at the Abbey, we cherish the development of the whole person specific to the health care. We want to prepare our graduates for service and ethical leadership in the health care community. How would you say the program is set apart from others in this way?
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
Well, I believe it’s set apart from others because every course is infused with ethics, not only beliefs of of theology, but ethics in specific. One of the courses I teach jointly with one of the instructors who teaches a Catholic theory course here at Belmont Abbey. But every course in the curriculum is infused with high levels of ethics.
Phil Brach
It’s great and we know even prior to COVID, there was a shortage in health care, people going into field and filling the opening positions Can you speak a little bit to your experience of how that’s how this is affecting the health care industry and how we’re working with that, those issues?
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
The biggest issue is burnout. What you’re having to do and several of the students in the program are in the midst of this. They’re working long long hours. Generally, you work 8 hours, go home or 12 hours and go home. That’s not happening. They are working multiple hours So when it comes to their schoolwork, you have to kind of tap the brakes and give them a little bit of a leniency when it comes to due dates.
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
But the key to all of it is burnout. Our people are working very long hours. The intensity is absolutely staggering. If you think about it, in an eight hour shift, you might lose five or six of the patients that you care for. And then you have to leave that and go home. Home used to be the sanctuary. When you left work, you went home and you were able to completely detox, for lack of a better word.
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
Now, when they go home, they have to strip all of their clothes off before they go into the house. They’ve got to take their shoes off. They’ve got a shower. Some of them haven’t seen their kids in very, very long periods of time. So COVID is really, really having a tremendously negative impact. On the health care field right now.
Phil Brach
So how are some of the ways that administrators in the field are helping to meet these challenges?
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
Well, some of the administrators are having to backpedal and end up at the bedside because of the extreme shortage. So it’s forcing them to take another look at the day to day operations in the unit One class aide, Todd, told me that the nurse managers on the unit had no idea of the day to day operations on the unit but now COVID is forcing them to backpedal and go back to the bedside where they get firsthand knowledge of what the day to day operations look like.
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
And I think ultimately it’s going to have a positive impact on the way that business is done on the on the units in all health care facilities.
Phil Brach
That’s great. And I guess this program will help train leaders for that for that for that future. Any other ways you can think of that? They’re alleviating some of these burdens in the future?
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
Well, one Thing that they’re A proponent of bringing nurses in from All over. Back in the day, the Philippines is the United States. Where to bring the Nurses. Going everywhere we you have to function a certain level. You have to pass a board exams. You have to be able to function at a certain.But that raises a question of functionality, Education and training. Coming from one state to another state when you’re coming from one part of the world to another world. Part of the world.So I think it’s Opened the door for Administrators to have to stop and take a Hard look at the people that they are Administering to.
Phil Brach
Do you have any thoughts on how it may be affecting attracting future students to go into the field or.
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
Well, it’s plus a negative. Health care is such a broad field. You have multiple areas. And the beauty of I’m a nurse by training. So the beauty of of nursing and other areas is that you can leave the nursery and go to long term care. You can leave long term care and go to high tech ivy therapy. There are multiple facets where you can go and function at a high level.
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
So I think what is going to happen is people in different fields are going to circle back to the beginning of where their career began, and they’re going to plug in with day to day operations come up with better functionality in the unit. And overall, I think they’re going to end up revamping the way that we provide health care.
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
And that’s why our curriculum is broad enough that we provide a broad spectrum of information to our students. We want them to be very well. Equipped for them. I come to them with.
Have a toolbox full of tools, really, to put those tools to work Under the Brand new health care provider. As a health care provider who has decided to raise the bar here for a master of health administration degree.
Phil Brach
Well, that’s fantastic. I’m so happy to have again, have you here with us and have the Abbey, playing a role in this change. Hopefully, we’re all praying and hoping that we’re at the back end of this, that COVID is is finally going to. The numbers seem to be coming down. Is there any other thoughts you have about the long term future as maybe we get on the other side of COVID for the field and an education and just the field in general?
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
I think we need to broaden our perspective, broaden our scope and really take a hard look at what needs to be done to get in front of COVID 19 or we’re just going to be chasing our tails for quite a little bit of time. We are on the upswing and that is excellent news. It’s excellent news for the health care providers front, you know, John.
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
Q Public for my students because they get to go back to work eight hour shifts and go home and be with their family. So we’re in the front of it. We just need to keep paddling even though we’re paddling upstream.
Phil Brach
Well, thank you. As I said, it’s such a wonderful time to talk with you and everything you’re doing to help build out these programs for the Abbey. And this is just the beginning. And we look to really grow and be offering additional masters and it’s really just an exciting time in the health sciences at Belmont Abbey and the broader Charlotte area.
Dr. Gwendolyn Swain
Thanks. Thank you. And I’m very very honored to Be part of this program.
Phil Brach
It’s been lightning to talk with you today, Dr. Swain. I want to thank our audience for joining us. If you enjoyed Conversatio, please subscribe and tell your friends. Conversation is available through Spotify, Google Podcasts. Until next time. God bless.
About the Host
Philip Brach
Vice President of College Relations
Philip Brach is the Vice President of College Relations for Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina. His career has been characterized by innovation, strategic planning, and results. Over the course of more than two decades, Philip has held several posts in the for-profit, non-profit and government sectors. As Vice President of College Relations, he oversees all external relations and resource development for the College.