Paul Read, RN, MSN

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Paul Read is the chief nursing executive (CNE) and vice president for Springhill Medical Center in Mobile, Alabama. Springhill Medical Center is a 252-bed, for-profit facility with one owner throughout its 33-year history. I was most fortunate to be able to speak with this nursing leader about himself, his passion for the profession, his military background, and his vision for the future. I found Paul to be a grand example of a Southern gentleman.

Paul, please give us a snapshot of your background to this point.

I was born in Lucedele, Mississippi, where I developed idiopathic thrombocytopenia as a child. I gained the desire to be in health care in my pediatrician's office. I had military goals and heard of Navy nursing and so combined those two loves. From high school I went to the Navy for 4 years of active duty and completed my college education while in the Navy. My first profession was as a respiratory therapist for 2 to 3 years and then I went on to nursing.

As a nurse, I have cared for patients in open heart surgery, critical care, cath lab, postanesthesia care and have been the CNE for the past 5 years. I received my BS in respiratory therapy from the University of Southern Alabama. Education was important to me, and I went on to obtain my BSN and in 1998 graduated with my MSN in nursing administration, both from the University of Mobile. In 2000 I was appointed the nurse manager of ICU and PACU. Two years later I was appointed to be the CNE, where I continue today.

That is an impressive fast track to the top! Can you talk about your military experiences in nursing?

I have spent time in Navy Reserves, where it is difficult as military nursing numbers have dropped off. It is hard for reservists to work since the commitment is no longer just a weekend or two. These nurses are highly skilled with a lot of autonomy, and they are relied on and deployed a lot. They start to advance in their careers, and then they are deployed again. I have been in the Navy since right out of high school, and I have a passion for it. Ten days after I graduated high school, I was in boot camp. I went from there to become a hospital corpsman, have spent time on flight decks, have been a part of search and rescue teams, and have worked in transportation, getting patients off ships and to hospitals around the world.

I went on to nursing school, gained my commission, and then my military career really took off. I love training and am the training officer for my detachment. I train nurses, physicians, and medics within my unit. My primary responsibility within my unit is emergency, trauma, and critical care, where I am out monthly with my unit.

What type of work did you do in the Navy as a nurse?

I have been part of Shock Trauma Platoons. We are a portable trauma center, a mobile emergency room that moves with the unit. We can be deployed and set up within 2 hours. Our focus is to keep the patients alive until we can get them to the next level of care. With today's advances in transport we can usually have the patient taken care of well enough to get them to an actual hospital within 24 hours. They may go to a smaller army hospital, depending on their injury. We typically take care of amputations and multiple fragment wounds from shrapnel, bombs, and mines.

I have seen Navy medicine evolve faster than civilian medicine. The team must learn to work in amazing conditions. We have limited resources where the critical care nurse must learn how to work the anesthesia equipment and anesthesia nurses must be cross-trained to surgically assist and so forth. You never know when you may lose a colleague, so everyone must be able to step in and take over that job. I have developed very close relationships with these teams and find the work to be very rewarding.

What is your most memorable military experience?

Well, I can't give specifics due to confidentiality, but in general I would have to say the work I did during Desert Storm. The camaraderie viewed by Kuwait counterparts was incredible. They saw young guys with limited training doing grand work. The patients were remarkable. Every one of them urged us to patch them back up, it is all they want so they can rejoin their squad; they just want to get back to their division. The most commonly heard phrase is “I gotta get back, my buddies need me.” I have never seen the same level of response by patients for the work that we do and the services we provide.

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It sounds like the military has been significant in your life. How important is it to your career?

I believe the military has been key to my civilian career, and any success I have had I can trace back to a military experience or training. Taking on so many responsibilities at such a young age has taught me so many things. I would never trade those years in or go back and undo them.

Tell me what you consider your management style, your leadership expectations of yourself, and the nurse managers in your facility?

I'm pretty demanding of my managers. Managers are expected to cover openings on units, and if that doesn't fill the gap, then I will fill the gap. It helps us recruit and retain good quality staff. I have an open door policy, and every nurse in the facility knows they can stop in and ask me any question any time. I feel this is very important for morale. Our staff is our number one asset. We have a lean management structure with senior managers tied to the frontline without any middle managers. We are in a customer service business where nobody wants our service, but they need it, and we must set the level for others to emulate.

What do you feel is the most pressing issue facing nursing today?

The most pressing issue for nursing that I experience every day is the future funding with hospital reimbursements decreasing. This impacts our ability to train nurses. We have the lowest reimbursement rate in the country. Pay for performance may place restraints on hospitals, especially one without a foundation to raise money, therefore we must be diligent. The nursing shortage is looming for the country. We are fortunate as we have multiple nursing schools in the area, so we are not as short as the rest of the country…it is there but not as bad.

How about the future? What do you see on the horizon?

Globally, everyone is talking about how they will change health care, and that leaves us in an interesting place for long-term planning. There is a change in the environment for workers from employees selling their services to the facility to the present market where the facility is selling their organization to the workers. More locally, we have grown with the addition of a perinatologist and the growth of our obstetric services. We plan to begin our Magnet journey this year. I was at the Magnet conference in Alabama and was impressed with presentations showing the application of Magnet for all hospitals, irrespective of size or function.

If I asked the frontline nurses to describe you, what would they say?

That I am a nurse's friend, have nurses' interests at heart.

What about family? What would they say?

Oh boy, let's see here. I am the father of two girls—Kaitlyn, who is 7 years old and in the second grade, and Lauren, who is 3 years old. My wife is a caring, loving person. I am an avid sportsman and fisherman. The family is most important, so what would the family say? Hmmm. Probably something like “Daddy is never home” (laughing). They would say that I am a workaholic that is engaged in health care and loves our community and that I love being a nurse. Anyone who has met me or worked with me would say that. I love being a nurse.

Thank you for your time and for sharing about yourself. You are a true leader for nursing!