Jenea D. speaks the language of leadership

Jenea chalks up her success as nurse manager of the telemetry/observation unit and the short procedure unit of Lankenau Medical Center to being mentally flexible. As a young leader, she also brings a striking level of maturity, clarity of purpose and work ethic to this fairly new role.

"You have to have your pulse on many different aspects of health care," she says, of the nurse manager position. "You're responsible for meeting productivity measures while trying to maintain an appropriate staffing model and also recruiting and retaining top talent, preventing burnout, and still remaining competent in primary nursing care models. Though the challenges may be great, the reward for the effort is greater."

What Jenea means by "reward" is what she describes as servant leadership. For her this means having the privilege of working with talented professionals for whom she is able to serve as a guide who can help direct them based on their "likes" and goals in life – both clinically and personally. "I also facilitate providing operational resources so that my team can function most efficiently."

Being the best for patients and for each other

But the part she really loves the most is getting to know people, whether it's the staff or the patients, especially in 6 West Medical SPU, a new service line for her where she's been meeting oncology patients. "I become an active participant in their success story," she explains. "Aside from that, collaborating within the multidisciplinary team has been a tremendous experience as we have been able to develop new processes and improve our quality care and patient experience."

As for her colleagues, she couldn't ask for a more talented team of nurse leaders who've been very instrumental in assisting her with onboarding to the Main Line Health culture . "The leaders are intelligent, proactive, and extremely supportive of each other," Jenea points out. "We consistently communicate our challenges and our successes so that all of us can 'win' – we collectively develop solutions and are constantly learning together."

Making it all work—at home and at work

Outside of work, Jenea is a linguist, a passionate student and speaker of the Spanish language with an ambitious goal of learning five different languages in the next seven years and blogging about her experience of language learning. "With that, I will be traveling to different Spanish-speaking countries," she adds. "My long-term goal is to complete a medical mission trip and to use my nursing and Spanish-speaking skills to help patients abroad."

Jenea was a concert violinist in high school and also played the harp. She was into classical music and Brahms was her favorite composer, with Beethoven being a close second.

If she sounds like a busy woman—she is. Jenea uses a calendar to "literally" map out every hour of her life. In addition to her demanding role at Main Line Health, she meets the demands of four children and a husband. "I need to make sure I prioritize what's most important, particularly with my family," she adds, regarding scheduling habits. "I like the old-fashioned calendar book on paper – it's like my best friend! If I don't have it, I feel completely lost."

A clear path and a culture of inclusivity

When she leaves work at Main Line Health, Jenea says, she doesn't feel drained. Instead, she's energized to go to the gym, even though she's putting in long hours. "I haven't always felt this way about my work and my career, until I came to Main Line Health, which has such a great culture of inclusivity and promotion. For example, when talking to my leaders and expressing my desires and goals for the future, they are always trying to push me in the direction that I want to go. I don't feel stifled and I always feel like my voice is heard."

On being a nurse manager

People hear the word "manager" and think it's a job about giving direction to others, but Jenea advises that the nurse manager position is not strictly about that, but about being open to different points of view, being able to collaborate with your team, and being able to understand that the decisions you make as a leader may not always be a popular one--but the decision must support what's best for the patient and the department as a whole.

"Your staff will come to you with their own personal challenges," she adds. "You need to be empathetic to their life circumstances rather than solely focused on their performance as your employee. Many times, life can spill over into work and if they come to you seeking help, you can guide them as a person and as a clinician.

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