Kimberly Long 0:00

Okay, we're so excited to have Judy Beamer, who is the Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer for UCSF Binny Off Children's Hospital. And welcome, Judy. Hi, Kimberly. Thank you. I'm so glad we got a chance to do this. I wanted to hear a little bit about your career and then see if you could answer this question. Based on where you are now, is it aligned with where you thought you would be?

Judie Boehmer 0:26

Great. Well, it not necessarily. My plan was to go to the operating room and be an operating room nurse and hence then move on to a CRNA. And you can see I um put my foot down and stayed in leadership and certainly have enjoyed every single minute of it. There's a reason for everything, right? And that was my calling.

Kimberly Long 0:46

Yeah, was there anything in particular that happened that made you decide, you know, I think I'm gonna not pursue the CRNA and I'm just gonna stay in leadership?

Judie Boehmer 0:55

There was. I was given an opportunity to actually lead a labor and delivery unit. And I had never been a labor and delivery nurse. So as you can imagine, I was frightened. That was not necessarily my area of expertise. Um, however, I embraced the opportunity, which led me, I believe, currently to the position that I have today and just really turned out great. And I think that's one of the things about being curious and keeping an open mind in where you're at and literally make the best of it, enjoy it, and bloom where you're planted.

Kimberly Long 1:28

That's right. There's opportunities no matter where you are. That's the honest truth. You know, the name of this podcast is Pulse Check. And I wanted to ask you, have you ever had an opportunity to just pause and do a pulse check? And if so, what were the circumstances around that?

Judie Boehmer 1:45

Yeah, I did. I think when we get to a certain point in our career, we seriously evaluating what pathway that we're on. And when I got to labor and delivery, being it wasn't a clinical expertise area for me by any means. I certainly wasn't selected to do that based on my clinical expertise. I sat after working in that unit for about five or six years and leading just a simply an amazing group of nurses, working with an anesthesia team, an operating room team, and really enjoyed it. But thought to myself, it was a lot to build a brand new unit. We were building hire more staff, looking at all the competing factors that were going on at that point in time. I did have a pause. I stopped and I thought, I wonder what medical sales would be like, pharmaceutical sales or equipment. And you know, I think Kimberly, every single nurse goes through that at least once in your career, right? And what I did was I took an evaluation about what am I currently doing in my role and what is my future in my role, literally on a piece of paper, pros and cons. And I did the same thing with looking at going to cell pharmaceutical agency or medical projects. And when I looked at the pros and the cons, the pros were all on the side of working in a hospital, leading nurses, leading teams. And so to me, that was a slam dunk point for me, but it was just a really good exercise to validate why I'm here and what I'm doing, and I need to stick with what I'm doing.

Kimberly Long 3:14

You know, that pro and con exercise has been very beneficial to a lot of people because you have this stuff going on in your head, but you can't always really get it down succinctly and see what the impact will be on either side. That's a wonderful thought. Now, you know, frequently in executive leadership, we are so busy that sometimes we have difficulty tapping into our purpose, you know, keeping connected with our purpose. How do you do that?

Judie Boehmer 3:41

I think a lot of self-discovery and introspection, looking inside and looking at myself. You know, what makes Judy Jive really? What am I doing that impacts other people in a positive way? I do that a lot, a lot of self-reflection of myself, um, as you can tell, looking at the pros and the cons. Nothing that a good old piece of paper won't help you putting things down on and evaluating it. So self-reflection would be one. I think too, it's really important, Kimberly. You know, there's nothing wrong with dreaming and dream big. You have to dream big while remaining a realist. But those dreams help us get to where we want to be. That's really what helps me. I think also in purpose as part of self-reflection, you need feedback from others. And what I like to do is have your own cabinet, if you will. So you have a group of leaders, some that are like the closest to you, some that are that midpoint that don't know you that well, and some that perhaps maybe are a little harder on you. And take that cabinet and have those people help you get where you need to be, embrace their feedback, you know, take it in and really look at yourself that way with self-reflection as well as feedback from others. Feedback is a gift. As hard as sometimes it is to receive it, it is a gift.

Kimberly Long 5:02

It is indeed. And you know, the last question I have for you is if you had the opportunity to give your younger self advice, what would you tell you?

Judie Boehmer 5:11

Well, I would tell my younger self to not be afraid. Because I think when I was younger, I was really afraid and felt I needed to stay at the bedside. And I think that, Kimberly, was kind of a safe avenue for me to think go to the operating room and go be a CRNA and you know, stay along along that course and not think of other positions that are out there to really impact our profession and to impact other people and their selection and growth in a career. I would also tell them to make sure you have a good mentor, make sure you do. And network, you know, get involved in professional organizations such as ACNL. It's a great organization that's local. There's chapters all over. That helped me immensely to connect with others.

Kimberly Long 5:56

Oh, that's wonderful. Judy, thank you so much for taking the time and sharing your wisdom with.