We recently connected with Dr. Nicole Thomas and have shared our conversation below.
Dr. Nicole, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When you’ve been a professional in an industry for long enough, you’ll experience an industry-wide U-Turn, an instance where the consensus completely flips upside down or where the “best practices” completely change. If you’ve experienced such a U-Turn over the course of your professional career, we’d love to hear about it.
As a registered nurse for over 17 years, trust that I have seen my fair share of “U-Turns” as the healthcare industry has evolved and actually, not all of the “U-Turns” have been negative. As a matter of fact I find that many of them have allowed for evolution within the industry.
But the one that comes to mind is the COVID19 pandemic. Listen, let me be clear in that the healthcare industry as a whole is built on a infrastructure that embraces pivoting at any given time. But with COVID19, this is one time where I can honestly say that some of our best practices experienced a wide U-Turn.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
This is a loaded question for me but let me keep it streamlined and brief (LOL).
After experiencing subpar healthcare outcomes as a child from encounters with the healthcare system, I personally made it my life’s mission to utilize my clinical knowledge and expertise as a nurse to positively impact the lives of all receipts of the healthcare system.
With this, I am the founder and principal consultant of Impact Nurse Consulting, a healthcare consulting firm, founded in 2015 that provides innovative and quality-based solutions that lead to high-quality patient health outcomes for healthcare organizations globally.
I have led in various roles as a nurse-leader, associate director, and educator for various fortune 500 companies in the area of medical & clinical operations. In addition, I led a fortune 7 managed care organization in developing, implementing, and evaluating clinical programs during the transition of Louisiana Medicaid to a managed care system which resulted in a 87% increase in patient health outcomes & an annual $3.2 cost-savings. During her tenure as the associate director for medical & clinical operations, I consistently maintained a 98% success rate on my ability to lead a successful team of healthcare professionals in the areas of productivity, education, motivation, and empowerment which afforded me the opportunity to be the recipient of the Super Hero award, a prestigious award in which over 1,500 were nominated but only 125 were selected.
I am also the author of the best-selling book “In Health On Purpose: Awakening Your True Calling In The Healthcare Profession” which was #6 in the professional development category on Amazon. I have been featured in national publications such as Black Enterprise, Rolling Out, & Scrubs Magazine. I am is also the co-founder of the #1 nursing development platform, The Nurse Power Network, that helps nurses find, operate, & dominate in their nurse power which has helped over 20,000 nurses and counting. Learn more at NicoleThomasINC.com,Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
There has been many! But the most pivotal one is when i lost $60k of my life-saving in a bad business deal. In 2015, I decided to join forces with someone and open a medical practice to serve a very vulnerable community within the city that I live in who did not have access to primary healthcare services. The short version of the story is that I didn’t do thorough research on all aspects of the business ( the analysis, the needed systems, the needed relationships, the allies needed, the marketing needed to drive a vulnerable community, the person I went into business with, etc.) and because of that it didn’t work out. One thing that I know for sure is that I allowed emotion & passion alone to drive that decision and in business it’s great to have emotions and passion, but they will NEVER sustain you in business if you don’t have the other critical foundational elements.
Nonetheless, that experience has made me into who I am today. I literally went from the top of the executive chain as a nurse in my corporate role and entrepreneurial journey to back at the bedside within 12-months. Everything I built for over 7 years as a nurse leader was gone in under a year! But one thing you can’t do is keep me down, I am just not wired that way because resilience has always been embedded in me from a kid. I did what I had to do, worked back at the bedside, rebuilt my money & credit because it was shot, I researched like never before, and I got into therapy because that experience helped me realize a lot about myself. While all of these were critical in that process of re-building nourishing relationships and remember who & whose I was put me back in the game.
It this story that shapes how I move today, Its this chapter of my life that let me know I am on the right path because I allowed God to use that experience to humble me, center me, and take me where is will wanted me to go and not mine.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Simply put…. I do the work in REAL life! That’s it. What people know about me because of the work that I do consistently is that if you put Dr. Thomas on the project, job, etc. she is going to really do the strategic, effective, and impactful work to ensure IMPACTS lives. I don’t do fluff, bad energy, or a lot of talk………. i simply do the work.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nicolethomasinc.com www.impactnurseconsulting.com
- Instagram: nicolethomasinc
- Facebook: impactnurseconsulting
- Linkedin: Nicole Thomas
- Other: Impactnurseconsulting on Instagram
Image Credits
4th floor Crowned Photography