The Beacon Health System Administrative Fellowship with Jazmine Walker

<p>hello everyone this is Cole from the American Journal of healthc care strategy and here with me is Jasmine an administrative fellow with Beacon Health System Jasmine please introduce yourself yeah absolutely hi everyone my name is Jasmine Walker I originally went to Michigan State University for my undergrad degree in interdisplinary studies health and society and I just recently graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in last year 2023 with my master in healthcare administration and as Cole mentioned I'm currently um doing a administrative fellowship at health system in South band [Music] Indiana uh can I ask where are you from Michigan originally yes I'm from Detroit originally okay nice so it wasn't too far for you to go then and then after you did that program which is actually sounds like a really interesting program I love these interdisciplinary programs so after that why did you choose to pursue that mha at UNCC specifically yeah absolutely so I actually started off as a nursing major at Michigan State um I did that for almost four years was in my third R of clinical um once I did my prere and whatnot um and I saw a lot of the inequities and disparities in care and I realized that although nurses jobs are super important I couldn't make those oh shoot wait I couldn't benefit the policy side of healthc care in the way that I wanted to by being on the bedside and so that's when I did the University of Michigan summer enrichment program that really taught me and opened me up to the world of healthcare administration the business side nonclinical side of healthcare um so that's where my interest in that came from UNC was very much so out of the blue I had never heard of UNCC before there was a um participant in the Michigan program with me that summer previous summer and he went there and we kind of had a great connection told me about his experience things of that nature so I just applied to see what would Happ happened and I fell in love with it it was Co um but even during the admissions day being virtual I still felt so connected I felt like I was at home alumni were still willing to help me and Mentor me even though I wasn't even accepted yet so UNCC just felt like it was the right choice I'm from Detroit I grew up all my life in Michigan so I really wanted a different experience so why not go and go 12 hours away and I'm definitely grateful that I went ahead and took that risk that is excellent congratulations on that so you didn't even know it was like one of the top programs when you were applying oh that's awesome and so since it was virtual did you get to go to any of the sporting events uh or not virtual but since it was covid I guess during that time did you get to go to any sporting events I did I didn't go my freshman year Well my first year of graduate school so what was that 21 to 22 but in 22 we went to a few games um in the fall went to B uh football and then I did the one basketball game I think it was that spring they were it was Duke versus UNCC and we literally all just went to the stadium and watched it on the screen they were in like New Orleans or something so that was really cool it was oh that's awesome yeah I'm from Raleigh originally so oh cool I went to the UNC Duke games when I lived down there so I I love talking to people from UNCC because I know the area yeah and excellent and so then uh after this or during this program you had a lot of different experiences you know it be almost impossible to cover all of them because there's so many different ones you've had what are some that really stick out to you as especially meaningful yeah that's a good one I think two of them my favorite one that stands out from that experience is the University of Michigan Health Equity leadership collaborative and there I did that after that summer program that I just mentioned where it kind of exposed me to healthcare administration so just continuing that connection with the faculty that I had met there it was my first research experience I had never done research prior to that and just to kind of understand that research doesn't have to be as quantitative heavy it it helped me kind of put things in perspective like it was more so the importance of the research was understanding how important the healthcare administrator was to the clinical team so I analyzed a simulation so they had a patient come in with you know varying illnesses and things of that nature and I I analyzed a team that came in each one by one some all together things like that and saw the patient kind of cues and body language and things like that based on who was in the room so I think that was really cool for me to kind of understand how important an administrator was especially going into my graduate program so that was one of my favorites I think the second it's a hard one I would probably say well do so so well do is a startup company was founded in 2019 and I did their graduate internship in the summer of 2021 um in between my first and second year of grad school and I lied that's not 2021 I did that internship in the summer of 2022 okay which was the middle of my graduate school um experience I'm very interested in healthcare Tech and Innovation and kind of using strategy to inform those policies and access to care that way and so I spent so much time my first year trying to find an internship that fit me I refused to go to a hospital I was like I don't want traditional healthc care and I actually didn't get that position until like May and so it was starting two weeks later thankfully it was in Chapel Hill and it was kind of like hybrid so I was remote versus in person but I truly feel like that was the position for me I was able to kind of understand the technology side of things I didn't necessarily code but I did I was able to use their homegrown software that they use for clinical content a lot of double-checking meticulous code making sure certain words or numbers or slashes were in the right spaces and then it translated over to an application so it's offered through employers to their employees to make them a beneficiary of their care basically making sure they you know kind of conduct their daily activities of living promote healthy wellness things of that nature so that was one of my favorites I absolutely loved my time that's really cool it's a very very unique internship I have never heard of an internship quite like that and I was reading a bit on your resume here that you had to conduct literature reviews you to do Market assessments so that's a different skill set than a lot of people with an mha are going to be going into that's more of I guess like an MBA kind of skill set and then for your fellowship you do actually go into a hospital setting right right so what led you to apply for this Fellowship how many fellowships did you apply for and why did you choose this one absolutely so I have the untraditional path to a healthc care Fellowship right so long story short I lost a grandparent in uh November of 22 and I refused to come back to Michigan I was like Mom I can't do it I love living away from home the independence and so when that happened I promised her I would come back we're all very very close and so once she passed away unfortunately it was just us two so I knew I needed to support my mom and kind of make some sacrifices on my end and stop being stubborn and so of course a lot of fellowships had closed by that time it was moving into spring of 23 um so I went on AC's website actually and just researched fellowships just looking at whichever application deadline hadn't passed and thankfully beacons was the only one that was still open so I applied I sent messages to the current fellows that were there on LinkedIn we kind of had a couple conversations understand their experience and I was like I can see myself here so I actually only applied to one Fellowship that is an impressive success rate then 100% I know I actually wanted a more full time bro I didn't think I wanted one um but the more I did the research I understood the importance of it UNCC of course promoted that as well but I only applied to one thankfully it worked out with Beacon I think it was three rounds of interviews so it was a phone screening with an HR um Talent acquisition partner it was then a a zoom call with two of the second gear fellows and another person from H I think was like the director of talent and then the third one we brought in I was brought in person to the facility um and just kind of met with all the leaders and things of that nature saw the campus saw the area um and I got the offer so I was super happy that out congratulations on that that's excellent and then of course you had to kind of overcome quite a bit of adversity there you know you had that situation with you know your you said your was your grandmother yes grand yeah your grandmother and then you have to you know support your mom and then thankfully you're able to make something that that really worked and fit in that environment how did they do with you know they're making you feel welcome with you know and bringing you in what was that all like did was it easy an easy transition or was it more challenging and Rocky yeah I would say it was pretty 5050 I think Beacon does a great job of promoting themselves and their area because it is a very close-nit town it's very small um and of course I'm used to bigger cities like the Detroit like Chapel Hill you have Raleigh things of that nature so for me personally was a very it wasn't as easy to assimilate in the area as I thought it would be just certain things were different it wasn't out of young professionals it's not as diverse as other areas that I was in and so for a while I struggled trying to find Community thankfully a couple of the fellows that were there are people of color so we connected and we kind of started to hang out and kind of explore the area a little bit going up to Southern Michigan to a couple wineries things of that nature but I think initially it was hard just because of the culture shock I have never seen as many animals in grassland in my life before moving here and so I had to understand and and figure out how to navigate that but I think Beacon does a pretty good job at assimilating people of course it has a lot of potential for growth we're trying to get the Dei andb office off the ground but yeah I think it was it it wasn't the best it could be but you know it it definitely wasn't as bad as I know others experiences could have been I've heard I've heard some some so but what you're saying though is you know you're from and I know you know Chapel Hill is kind of diverse and then Raleigh has a good amount of diversity um and then so of course Detroit you know lots of different people from all over the world live in Detroit is this more of a rural predominantly white area is that kind of what what happened yes so I get where you're scary even on my drive to Detroit it's a three-hour Drive which is why I chose that location without actually going to Michigan I'm like 10 minutes over the Indiana or Michigan State Line even though going Drive in I can't or I prefer not to drive in the darkness because it's literally like 20 40 miles of just it's it's a paved road but around it there's no pavement so there's no street lights it's literally just houses every few miles like it's very deserted and it's just not what I'm used to I think that they're lucky to have you because we need to serve everybody to their flows capability are you doing a lot of work in that area with their diversity team um I want say a lot I do a dible and dapple okay so my mentor is the chief HR officer and so some of his direct repor is I've done some projects with them around kind of Workforce Development how do we give opportunities to our employees that are here to remove those barers that may be in their way for from being promoted or from advancing their career we have a mentorship program that just came off we're going into our third cohort so that's exciting so I did some work with that so touch and go but I do think because of who I am and my experiences and in my passion and connection to healthcare I guess indirectly I'm always putting some type of Health Equity into each project that I do because that's just who I am like I know that that's something that has to be improved not just in healthcare across the country but I know specifically in my passion and my mission statement for myself that's something that I want to achieve and so it is kind of a little bit ingrained in everything that's really nice that's a good way to do it that's a good way to do it um so you've been there 10 months and it's a two-year program right yeah technically up to two years most fellows actually get brought on and before the two years is done um that's what I was going to ask what are we looking at you know are you already finding some areas that you're interested in maybe working full-time or what does that look like yeah I don't know yet I know operations I was very much against operations I'll be transparent and say that but I actually liked it a lot more than I thought I would it's like drinking from a running fire hose 247 it's very chaotic but I I did enjoy the work that I did there just kind of doing the on the boots dayto day I'm kind of leaning toward the Innovation and Tech side but I don't know what that position would look like for me so I've been in the technology space or in I've been in Information Technology Information Systems within Beacon for about three months I started in January um for this rotation and I'm absolutely loving it we use a lot of or we're exploring a lot of generative AI things robotic process automation things of that nature so we always hear about chat GPT and all these other things but how can we actually use it to kind of decrease that inmin but also operationalize a lot of our processes so I'm really enjoying that I don't know what that looks like in a know drain position but I think a merger of both strategy and Technology from The Innovation side will be where I see myself long term so we'll see without giving away too much of uh your you know intellectual property what are some AI things that you've been working on where do you think that area is heading because you know a lot of times people associate those developments with you know large academic medical centers and so it's interesting to hear you know some of the things that you're working on in a more small smaller rural area what are some of those things yeah absolutely so vegan is the largest health system in the region in this region so we support like I said kind of like the southern area of Michigan but also the upper Northern area of Indiana and so it's like how do we reach all of our populations make sure that it's Equitable um and things of that nature so I'm doing a little bit of work of how we can update some forms using generative AI of course it's not you know permanent because it's chat GPT language like coded yeah so we'll go through several rounds of reiteration but kind of looking at how we can potentially use it for that decreasing administrative burden so RPA we have tons of processes that people sit and do for hours and hours on in each day but it takes time away from the task that you know actually need a human to do them and so we're kind of looking at different ways we can automate some processes if they don't need an actual person um and I think it's important to mention here that a lot of times people hear robotic process Automation and think it's a robot they think their job are getting replaced and things of that nature and that's definitely not the case um we don't plan on you know getting rid of anybody I think it's more so how do we make the most of our time how do we do things efficiently and so I'm definitely not a beacon Sports spokesperson I'm not you know broadcasting this message or anything or Happ any type of but um I think along those lines we can is definitely on the up and up for the Innovation side excellent it's it's nice to see too that sometimes you know we get innovation in areas because of what we need to provide for our patients it's different than when you need to do a project because we need to move the needle a bit so it's nice to see that that's what you guys are working on if you had any recommendations for people earlier in their career you know if you think back to where you were a couple years ago what recommendations would would you give that you know because you've been so successful and you've done so well what would you share to some people you know like myself who are earlier on yeah that's a great question I think not to be tunnel vision and to be open I just knew I was going to be a nurse no one could tell me otherwise I was like I'm going to go for nursing blah blah blah blah and then I got in nursing I had to be honest I immediately knew that it wasn't the career for me but it was that voice in the back of my head like oh you can't say you're G to do something and then not do it and so I think I stayed in it a lot longer than I should have which of course I wasted time money scrubs stethoscopes all of that stuff but I would have never found my true passion if I didn't go through it and so I'm a woman of faith and so I think everything that we do happens intentionally like God does it for a reason and he absolutely knows our plan and so I think just being open to accept opportunities if I had never done that summer internship I would have never known about healthcare administration I never heard of it before so be open be inquisitive ask questions lean in my past rotation at Memorial Hospital of South B that was my operations rotation this past fall um a lot of it was just sitting in on those meetings like having a seat at the table which as a again as a woman of color a lot of us don't get the chance to do that and so ask those questions put those jibbit in their ears make them think about things from an equ equitable perspective to kind of increase that inclusion and belonging within these organizations that unfortunately weren't built for people who look like me and so I think I think all of that summed up together is to also be you like I can't be anyone else but Jasmine I definitely have a more bold and um straight to the point personality sometimes so I have to you know balance that out in the professional world but also that's what makes me me like my personality my passion behind Healthcare things of that nature and I can only hope that people appreciate me um as myself in these spaces so yeah I know that we certainly appreciate you here sharing you know your experience and I I think you have a really excellent path ahead of you I've talked to a lot of fellows throughout the country and we're we're just starting to move into more of the people from the Midwest we've been focusing on the northeast a bit and then now yeah because that's where I'm from so I'm but now we're starting to move into the Midwest and and there's some amazing fellows out there including yourself it feels like you have a an excellent path and it's nice to talk with so many people and and hear that advice that you're giving us because as you're saying Healthcare has been inequitable it's been inefficient it hasn't worked really for anybody but especially our most vulnerable so it's nice to see that we're actually like really working on that yeah absolutely I want to thank you for having me it definitely was a great opportunity to sit here and talk to you definitely wishing you the best of luck I'm here as a resource if you need absolutely anything um but yeah we're in a fight together so we are I'm sure I'm going to be reaching out and hopefully we can have you on again as well absolutely I'm here for it</p>