Mauri Williams, RN, MBA, MHA
Article Outline
Mauri Williams learned as a young girl that leadership really is about making other people look good. This philosophy—aided and abetted by a generous heart, an excellent education, and skills honed by years of experience—readily explains Williams' success … and what undoubtedly will lead to even more successes! She is a natural coach and mentor who, genuinely, is happy to help others reach their full potential. And, like Jonathon Livingston Seagull, she is so involved in the success of others that she doesn't even realize how impressive she really is!
Interviewing this young nursing leader gave me hope for the future of our profession. I know it will give you hope, too! The interview began, as most do, with a brief recap of her accomplishments and a request that she reflect on her success.
Today, you are an established, influential nurse manager, and you attribute your success to being involved in athletics as a young girl, correct?
I was fortunate to have many people help and mentor me along the way. However, I think the thing that made it work for me was, as a very young girl, I got very involved with sports and learned early on what it meant to be a team player and a coach. I see my role as a nurse manager to be very similar to a coach, always trying to give the tools, techniques, and encouragement the team and the individual need to reach their potential.
I learned from a coach after finishing a game the true meaning of being a team player. The coach was giving my fellow teammates feedback about how they performed, and for some reason I was last, and the coach said to me, “Mauri, you are doing a great job of making everyone on the team look good.” I think that is my role now—getting the best from everyone. By helping my team look good, they make me look good. I really get a thrill when people achieve things they have never done. I think it must be working as long as the key still fits in the door each morning. I guess they are interested in keeping me on in my role.
Did you have any additional training to be a nurse manager? What prepared you for your role?
I like to say UNC took a chance on me and helped me develop from a new graduate to a nurse manager. I learned quite a bit from my own nurse managers, and I was very fortunate to work with a nursing colleague who had a tremendous amount of managerial experience. Over time, I think we put together a pretty good leadership group. In addition, I am part of a very supportive interdisciplinary team, and the members of the team are always willing to lend advice.
Let's discuss your education, why did you opt for earning a business degree vs nursing?
At the time, I found that the business program was more accommodating to the full-time working health care professional and working mother. But most importantly, I realized that I wanted to be prepared for my role, and I needed business acumen. I needed to be able to use spreadsheets, speak the finance language. I am an over achiever, and I needed to learn the other side of our business. I really enjoyed it, even though I had to cram initially to learn accounting and economics.
I also learned that graduate school was very different from undergraduate studies, and I am very proud of the academic success I achieved. I love learning from others, and fortunately, my peers, nursing colleagues, and neonatologists are very intelligent and so willing to share. All wonderful teachers.
How do you motivate staff to accept and facilitate successful and sustainable change?
People are motivated in different ways. I find out what my staff is passionate about. In turn I figure out how that passion can be used to enhance the quality and safety of the care we provided our patients. I also believe that change is the only constant. We should always be looking at what we do and how we do it, to make sure it is still the right way to do it.
Do you believe or feel as a manager that you have influence beyond the walls of your unit?
Oh yes, indeed I do. I am very involved with nursing and hospital-wide projects. Dr. Mary Tonges, our CNO, encourages our participation across the hospital. Currently, I am involved with our electronic charting, specifically focusing on integrating the nurses' notes into the electronic patient records. I am also involved with a human resource committee project and serve as an advisor to other projects.
Certainly by being more involved in projects outside my unit I am able to advocate for things that are needed for NICU than I could if I were to isolate myself. But I also feel that in my role I need to step out and advocate for all units and patients. It's all about people. I enjoyed and learned a lot from the redesigning of the operations flow and selection of needed equipment for two new towers for our hospital, the Women and Children's Hospital. What was so unique is that the hospitals were designed about 8 years prior and then took 3 to 4 years to build, so they needed some redesign as things changed. We had to do some retrofitting and opened the towers in 2002.
UNC captures the best of a centralized model. I am responsible for 140 direct reports with a budget of more than $12 million. I report to the Clinical Director for Children Services, who reports to the CNO.
What do you do to facilitate interdisciplinary relations?
Interdisciplinary relationships are a hallmark of neonatal units, so for us it is very much part of our culture. Much of this is due to the size of our unit and complexity of our patients. I am very fortunate to work with a great group of nurses, secretaries, physicians, nurse practitioners, RTs, pharmacists, dieticians, OT/PT/Speech, all with the same goal—to get our babies home as soon as possible.
Have patients on your unit changed while you have been a manager?
Absolutely the age of viability for infants has been pushed back. We now have babies born at 23 weeks gestation (which is 17 weeks early).
How has technology impacted you, your team, and patients?
The 24-hour information/technology is here, and anyone who hopes it will go away will be greatly disappointed. When we all used that ATM card for the first time, we signed on to the computer age. We now have a wealth of technology and applications right at the bedside—monitors, computers, smart pumps, and electronic ordering and charting. The upside of this is overall quality and safety of patient care. We count heavily on our technology just because of the patients we care for, their size alone … we cannot afford to make even the slightest error.
Name
Mauri Williams, RN, MBA, MHA
Hometown
Potomac, Maryland
Education
BSN, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; MBA and MHA, Pfeiffer University
First job in nursing
UNC Newborn Intermediate Care Nursery
Being in a leadership position gives me the opportunity to
Make an impact on so many people in different ways at different times. Basically, touching everybody and being the best I can for them
Most people don't know that I
Once bungee jumped
My best advice to aspiring leaders
Seek connections. Surround yourself with people smarter than you and listen to them.
One word to summarize me
Tenacious
We see technology as a major means for achieving a safer and higher quality of patient care. But it does mean we work differently, and that has been the hard thing… the technology is coming at a rapid pace and sometimes outpacing our workflow changes.
What changes have you witnessed or participated in?
The biggest change has been in the workforce, the opportunities for women in general and nurses in particular, as well as the technological advances and the emphasis on quality.
What are the major challenges you face?
The workforce…lots of opportunities but not enough nurses to take advantage of them. Also, the complexities of delivering health care, the continued journey of optimal quality of care delivered in the safest manner.
If you had a crystal ball, what do you think it might tell you about the future?
We will have an increased need for developing technologies that predict and improve care. And that our workforce of nurses will continue to evolve and be stretched thin, and once again, the involvement of family members in the direct care of patients will be increased.
So as you reflect back over the years and working at UNC, what is your closing thought?
Nursing has been absolutely the best career choice—a job I have been blessed with since I decided in the 8th grade, to be a nurse. It has more than filled me time and time again. So much enjoyment over the years, not only caring for our sickest and tiniest patients but also their parents (who are ever so grateful of the nurses). I am delighted that UNC believed in me and took a chance on me. UNC is a wonderful place to work, and being able to do what I like doing is so magnificent.
PII: S1541-4612(07)00130-9
doi:10.1016/j.mnl.2007.05.010
© 2007 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.
