Kaiser Permanente and the Alliance of Health Care Unions

Humans of Partnership: Jessica Weidner

Jessica Weidner, RN, nurse manager at the East Denver Medical Office, Colorado)

I loved taking care of patients when I was a hospice nurse, and I see my staff a little like my patients. I want them to be happy. If there’s a problem, we work through it together. For example, the nurses in Internal Medicine were being inundated with messages. They felt overwhelmed. We went through the in-basket together and decided to do what’s called ‘one-piece flow.’ That means you do today’s work today. Not every day is sunshine and rainbows but one of my nurses recently emailed me to say the new workflow is ‘invigorating.’ I’m doing a good job when the team is empowered.

Jessica Weidner, nurse manager (Colorado)