Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Claire Phillips. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Claire thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
Nursing the System’s journey started when I was a Sociology major in college. I took a class about the sociology of health and illness and was fascinated by 3 things: 1) how human health is influenced by just about every social system in our world,
2) the sheer dysfunction of the United States healthcare system, and
3) how much value nurses have to offer the world.
Until that class, I had never considered becoming a nurse. I had no idea what nurses even did (thanks in part to Hollywood’s erasure of nurses from medical shows). But after this course, I identified nursing as the professional vehicle by which I could help heal the systems of our world.
After college and then a Master’s in Nursing, I began working in an emergency department as a registered nurse. A busy ER on a Friday night offers a true cross-section of humanity. As an ER nurse, I had a front row seat to a spectacular confluence of system failures – every single shift. For three years, I listened to the experiences of my patients and colleagues. A theme emerged: systems were getting in the way of patients receiving the care they deserved – and nurses felt powerless to change them.
In 2019, I began blogging about the systems challenges my fellow nurses and I encountered in our role. I heard from nurses around the world how transformative applying a systems thinking lens and language to their workday was for them. With this in mind, I started a Doctor of Nursing Practice program in Health Innovation and Leadership. I listened, continued writing, and began to clarify my vision for what my contribution to nursing and the world might look like.
Then, COVID-19 hit. Throughout the pandemic, I worked as a nurse and then nurse leader in the emergency department. Before Covid, to most nurses, change was a nuisance. In the midst of Covid, change became nurses’ rallying cry. Deep-seated frustrations with the U.S. healthcare system bubbled to the surface, and nurses began to rethink a lot – their position, their career path, and even their profession.
Nurses have always had incredible insight, value, and energy. And now, they are energized. I believe that if we harness the power of even a small sliver of the worlds’ 28 million nurses, we’ll see wide-scale transformation. That’s why my mission at Nursing the System is to prepare 10,000 nurses to change the world.
Claire, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Dr. Claire Phillips, and I am an ER nurse-turned-Healthcare Change Specialist. I started my journey to entrepreneurship as a Sociology student studying the healthcare system. I knew nothing about the nursing profession. (Thank you, Hollywood.) But the more I learned, the more I admired the theory and contribution of nurses. So I got a Master’s in Nursing and joined them.
While working as an ER nurse, I saw our healthcare system fail patients and healthcare professionals every shift. I began blogging about the intersection of social structure, system dynamics, and healthcare. Over the next few years, I moved into nursing leadership, got a doctorate in health innovation and system design, and then began coaching nurses and consulting full time.
The vast majority of nurses join our profession because they want to help people lead healthy, meaningful lives. And while nurses know how to care for our patients when they enter our care environments, the reality is that human health is influenced by factors far beyond their healthcare team. Additionally, the healthcare environment itself can contribute to a greater sense of powerlessness, as nurses are asked to do more and more with fewer resources. So when we know that the care we provide during a shift isn’t even skimming the surface of what the patient needs – AND the U.S. healthcare system makes providing even that sliver of care increasingly difficult – nurses begin to ask, “What’s the point?”
But there are nurses who see the disconnect between the care they can provide and the care their patients deserve. They see the gap between their failing work environment and the work environment they dream of. And they want to do something about it. I started my company Nursing the System to give those nurses the tools they need to lead change – change the world desperately needs.
Nurses can lead change, no matter their position. They also don’t necessarily need to spend years in the classroom or thousands of dollars in tuition.
All of our curriculum and coaching programs at NTS are rooted in systems thinking and systems change principles. The challenges we face are complex and require a different way of thinking and set of tools to go about solving them sustainably. We don’t offer easy answers. We help nurses wade through complexity and ask better questions. Nurses have seen enough band-aid fixes to last a lifetime.
Nursing the System offers a full suite of resources to support nurses, including ebooks, master classes, courses, and personal coaching. Most of our clients engage in a series of our programs. We are invested in developing thoughtful nurse leaders and offering support at every step of their Change Maker Journey. Popular programs include our professional development course Interview with Intention, our systems change fundamentals course Change Maker Essentials, and Personal Vision coaching for those who want to strategize their impact.
I am immensely proud of the work that Nursing the System is doing. We are creating a permission structure and path for nurses to lead change. We’re also doing it in an unconventional way, modeling innovation for the nurses to follow. NTS is making systems change tools and theory accessible, engaging, and even fun, sparking hope in nurses who can make a difference.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
Nursing the System started as a blog. I would work a shift in the hospital, go to bed, and then the next morning wake up and type out my thoughts. I started an accompanying Instagram to build community and get to know nurses around the world. My writing began to attract a thoughtful group of nurses who wanted to better understand how thinking in systems could make their patients’ lives – and their work lives – better.
My business developed very organically. I was writing and in conversation with nurses for nearly two full years before I began my business. I started getting the same questions about systems thinking and making change over and over again. Nurses were explicitly telling me what they needed, and I listened.
I developed my first product and service at the end of 2020. Nurses wanted to know how to write a compelling personal statement for graduate school, and I knew how helpful integrating systems change principles and language into their statement would be. I wrote an ebook walking them through my process – and offered individual writing workshop calls. These were a great opportunity for me to learn about the lives, goals, and challenges of the nurses in my audience.
Then throughout 2021, I tested and refined a few different group and individual coaching containers. This was my first foray into teaching complex subjects online, and I learned a LOT. I invested in mentorship and training around effective online curriculum design. At this point, I was only spending about 10 hours per week directly in my business, but it was always on my mind. I used my time in grad school to develop frameworks and skills I thought would be most helpful to my future clients. My full-time role as a nurse leader allowed me to test out what I was learning and developing in real time.
After a year of ideating and iterating, in 2022 I developed a clear vision. I rounded out my offer suite with two new courses and two 1:1 coaching programs for nurses. I began offering consulting services to organizations looking for support with systems design and transformation projects. I invested in working with a brand strategist on my messaging and service funnel. I also hired a business coach to help me scale in 2023.
Now heading into 2023, I work full-time for Nursing the System, and I plan to make my first hire this year. I have six different programs, each designed to support nurses at a specific point along their Change Maker Journey. NTS has served over a hundred nurse changemakers. And I can’t wait to see what they do!
Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?
I’ve connected with nurses daily on Instagram for the past four years. My audience has watched me be a charge nurse alongside them through a global pandemic. They watched me move into a nurse leader position in an ER during Covid. They watched me navigate full-time grad school with a full-time hospital schedule. They’ve seen me waking up at 6am every day to read books about systems change, healthcare, and leadership. They’ve seen me driving into work at 2am when our ER nursing team was short-staffed and needed a leader to step in and do patient care. They’ve seen me get a doctorate in Health Innovation and Leadership with the express purpose of sharing what I’ve learned with them.
The majority of my clients follow my journey for over a year before they decide to work with me. The online coaching industry is new and frankly, wild. I myself can be wary of self-proclaimed internet experts. Showing up day after day, providing value and sharing your process makes people feel safe and like they know you. And the people who follow me for years certainly get to know me – at least, professionally. As one client recently put it, “I’ve followed you for a while now, and you get things done.”
I am also very transparent about what it’s like to build a business as a new entrepreneur. I share wins, challenges, lessons I’ve learned. I think it’s helpful to model for aspiring change makers that it is very normal to be expert in one thing and novice in another. I am always building new skills and learning hard lessons. That’s growth. And I have no interest in hiding that from my clients.
I believe strongly in the principles of design thinking applied to the online coaching and education space. My students know I take their feedback very seriously and use it to continuously improve our programs to deliver the best possible experience. I consider the client-coach relationship to be one of creative collaboration. I’m an expert in my thing; they’re an expert in theirs. We can do more together, faster, than they could do alone.
I’m not special. There are thousands of nurses (if not more) on their own Change Maker Journey. I just happen to be cataloging mine – and devoting my professional life to sharing what I’ve learned. The nurses I want to work with – in the hospital and in my programs – are competent, curious, and show up for others. I’ve had amazing nurses model this for me, and I’m just trying to do them proud.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nursingthesystem.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nursing.the.system/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nursing.the.system/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairephillips-systemsnurse/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/NurseTheSystem