{"id":4990,"date":"2015-12-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/2015\/12\/02\/two-national-speakers-rich-soil-here\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T15:07:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T21:07:56","slug":"two-national-speakers-rich-soil-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/two-national-speakers-rich-soil-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Two national speakers: Rich soil here"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Two nationally distinguished speakers who aim to motivate health care workers to improve the patient experience spoke to directors and managers recently at Memorial Hospital.<\/p>\n

Though Nancy Radcliff and Liz Jazwiec could not be more different in their delivery, they both had similar messages: Change is a constant. Little things matter. Hire the right people.<\/p>\n

Radcliff, who works for the Bronson Healthcare Group in Kalamazoo, Mich., spent a morning traveling the halls of Memorial Hospital Central and Memorial Hospital North as a secret shopper.\u00a0 She found that most employees enjoy working here, that nurses are being required to adopt a new dress code policy and that employees have a clear sense of the mission, even if people can\u2019t quote it verbatim.
\n\u201cYou have rich soil here. I would work here,\u2019\u2019 Radcliff said of Memorial. \u201cHave you worked other places where people hate each other?\u2019\u2019
\nRadcliff gave a special shout-out to Dubrazka Vuckovic, who has worked in housekeeping for 14 years at Memorial.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a gem here,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cDo you know Dubrazka?\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked to Dubrazka, and she said, \u2018I love it here. You know what, it gets better every year.\u2019 I\u2019ve never had that said to me,\u2018\u2019 Radcliff said. \u201cI asked her \u2018Why do you like it here?\u2019\u00a0 And she said: \u2018I like it because I get to work with such great people, and I like to clean.\u2019 \u2019\u2019
\nRadcliff said after a few hours at Memorial, she had the sense that it was a \u201cwelcoming place,\u2019\u2019 where most employees \u2013 but no physicians \u2013 greeted her as she traversed the halls.<\/p>\n

On Friday, managers and directors were treated to a morning session with Jazwiec, a nursing professional for more than 30 years who now works as a speaker, author and strategist. Jazwiec uses humor \u2013 and raw honesty \u2013 to capture the conscience of health care providers. She is a master at mixing invectives with kindness to reach audiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am fatally blunt,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cI am never ever shy to offer my opinion.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

She freely admitted that as a former emergency room nurse, her nursing attitude once was: \u201cI\u2019m here to save your ass, not kiss it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

But, she said, \u201cI\u2019m reformed. I\u2019m born again.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

She told how she helped raise service scores at Chicago\u2019s Holy Cross Hospital from the 5th percentile to the 99th percentile \u00a0in just a few years. To obtain excellence, she said, \u201cresist the urge to compare\u2019\u2019 and stop \u201clooking for reasons why we can\u2019t be the best.\u2019\u2019
\nShe rattled off a bunch of excuses that health care workers make \u2013 often coveting what the competitor may have when compared with their own situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, yeah,\u2019\u2019 she said, citing an excuse, \u201cThey\u2019re better because they work in the Taj Mahal. Their patients come in happy.\u2019\u2019
\nShe urged employees to examine their behavior and make a choice, not to be good, but great.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarcus Buckingham (a motivational speaker) says happy people don\u2019t compare themselves to others,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cYou either practice excellence or you don\u2019t. Excellence is excellence.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Still, she said, when leaders at Holy Cross put pressure on her to improve service scores, she was somewhat resistant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main reason was, I didn\u2019t know how to go to a group of people and ask them to do one more thing. I didn\u2019t,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

But she came to learn that \u201cfocusing on service does not make the job more difficult, it makes it more rewarding. It is no surprise that employee satisfaction and patient satisfaction go hand in hand. If we engage our strong performers, they will be satisfied if we link them to work that makes a difference.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Jazwiec said that doesn\u2019t mean employees need some grand project to improve the patient experience. Little things \u2013 simple acts of kindness \u2013 can make all the difference.<\/p>\n

She spoke of the time she was in the ICU with her mother. As she twisted the cap off a bottle of soda, the nurse left the room and returned with a tall Styrofoam cup of ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought you might like this for your Diet Coke,\u2019\u2019 the nurse told her.<\/p>\n

And then Jacwiec launched into the notion of how little things are so big.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you feel heroic, it\u2019s amazing what you can achieve,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cMy definition of a hero is that you have been remembered for something that you have done — for the rest of your lives. A person remembers you because you made a difference. We never think that it is the small things and it always is. \u2018Wow\u2019 is not big, but it is personal,\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

During her three hours with Memorial staff, Jazwiec was full of words of wisdom.<\/p>\n