[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - We are honored to be joined by our good friend and colleague Dr.

Regina Foley, who's Chief Nursing Executive at HMH, Hackensack Meridian Health, also the President of Specialty Hospitals and Clinical Services there.

Regina, good to see you.

- Hi, Steve.

How you doing?

- I'm doing great.

Listen, this will be seen later, but we're taping on the 16th of June.

Why is it relevant?

FIFA, World Cup.

HMH, one of our longtime underwriters, very much involved in it.

Why are there medical and health issues connected to the World Cup or any major international sporting event or any kind of event?

- They're very relevant.

Certainly, HMH is on a world stage with the World Cup as well as the America 250 plan.

So that means a lot of influx of visitors to the New Jersey area.

Hackensack University Medical Center is a receiving hospital to MetLife, to the neighborhood.

We do this all the time though.

I will tell you, we do it all the time.

It's just that the volume of individuals coming to our area is so much more so because of the World Cup and America 250.

So, a lot of preparations for many people being in a very small enclosed areas.

There are communicable diseases happening on the world, and we wanna make sure that we're protecting certainly the patients if they come to us as well as our own team members and physicians.

So the impact of the amount of people coming to our area, although we're here for global games, these amazing activities are gonna be taking place, we need to be mindful of the amount of people coming certainly to the area, and that's where, you know, healthcare rises and shines.

- So hopefully when this is seen, the people are like, "Steve, nothing happened."

Yeah, that's a good thing.

That's what we're hoping for.

Regina, shift gears.

AI and nursing, talk to us.

- Yeah, so, I'll say technology and/AI, I know there's some trepidation of embracing AI and worrisome.

We don't know what we don't know.

I can tell you from a healthcare landscape, we should certainly, and we are today to a certain extent, embracing AI.

And the purpose at HMH is we want to decrease the administrative burden to our bedside nurses and physicians of anywhere we can leverage technology and AI to help with documentation and automation.

A really good example is wound measurement.

So, patients come into hospitals.

We always do skin assessments.

If they have a wound or breakdown of skin, there's a lot of documentation associated with that.

Now we have, through AI, we can use an iPhone that we wand essentially, the camera we wand at wherever the wound or the skin issue is, and it will automate the documentation based on the size of the wound, the density of it, you know, what it looks like, all those details that a nurse would document in the chart.

Now with the picture and leveraging AI, now the documentation becomes automated right in the chart, freeing up that time for- - Is it faster, Regina?

I'm sorry.

Is it faster now because of that?

- It is.

It is 'cause it gets- - What about accuracy, though?

- Yeah, well, certainly the bedside nurse always looks to check the accuracy, but I can tell you, it's pretty darn good.

It's pretty darn good.

We've used it or kind of piloted it for, you know, the last, I guess I would say few months or so, and the documentation is spot-on.

And it's really a kind of dream to the nurse because they're not having to, you know, get on the laptop or their device and document all that detail where it's really documented for them.

- Regina, let's shift gears.

And team, let's put up the graphic for our Vaccines: What You Need to Know initiative, which is tied to our Trust in Public Health initiative.

And trust me, there's a point to this.

And you also see the website for the New Jersey Department of Health.

They have a vaccine section.

And what we're trying to do, Regina, and you and I have talked about this, and to make it clear, I've done a significant amount of leadership and communication coaching at HMH because I'm convinced, and I know Regina feels the same way, that leaders in the healthcare community need to be effective communicators to the public.

What does that have to do with this?

That trusted voices matter, trusted voices regarding vaccines.

What do you believe is the greatest challenge facing healthcare professionals, particularly nurses, as it relates to communicating and educating large numbers of the public about what you need to know about vaccines?

- Yeah, it's really challenging, certainly as a nurse, and we know that nurses are one of, if not the most trusted profession on the planet.

And, you know, our goal is really just to minimize suffering and to help people.

Right, that's just what we do.

What the challenging and the stressor to us as nurses is that we are from the time we go to school, and the same thing with the physicians, is that we follow science.

We follow science over and over again, and it doesn't let us down.

So this whole notion of that, you know, the chatter of challenging the science is very troublesome because that becomes a public health issue, right?

We follow the science, the American Academy of Pediatrics, for decades, decades.

No pediatrician or the Academy of Pediatrics would put a child or a baby at risk, right?

So we follow that same methodology.

We follow the science, and the researchers that are over and over again challenging the status quo and to make sure that the effectiveness of vaccines, the access to vaccines is happening.

So something that we, I'll say double down and reinforce, is that if we follow the science, and we follow the track record of success, that won't let you down.

And I think we can't get distracted with narrative or challenging that status quo because that's just not safe.

I mean, that could be certainly troublesome to public health.

- And sorry for interrupting, Regina, social media can potentially make it more complicated.

- Big time, because social media is so nimble, and it's so quick, and it's opinion.

Opinion can be put out there on any- - Not science.

- Not.

- Not science.

- Not science, not science.

And that's why we go to those thought leaders, physicians, members of the medical community.

Certainly nurses are vaccinating.

But I think we just can't lose our way because, again, public health could be at risk.

- Before I let you go, Regina, your mom, a nurse?

- Yes.

Yeah.

- In the minute left, tell us about your mom and how she influenced you.

- Well, certainly that's where I got kind of the bones of this great profession.

Was raised in an environment where my mother was a home care nurse and would... The landline would ring, and she would be on the other end of the phone.

And sometimes she wouldn't be able to take me or wouldn't take me 'cause my dad was home or whatever, and I had somebody else to be there.

I'm talking when I was much little, very little.

And she would go out, but other times I got a chance to go with her, and I certainly could see the impact that she made.

And the other kind of part B of that is that my father was a construction worker.

He was a pipe (indistinct) and very often he would get laid off.

And both of my parents would say to my sister and I, I have one sister, and they would both say to us, "You have to have a profession to make sure you can take care of your family and yourself and be independent."

And I can tell you, nursing certainly hasn't let me down, and I would do it again in a hot minute.

- Dr.

Regina Foley, to you and all the other folks, even though you're a healthcare executive now, all the nurses out there, we say thank you.

I know there's nursing week.

There should be nursing every day.

Regina, thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate it.

- Anytime, Steve.

Always a pleasure.

- You got it.

I'm Steve Adubato.

We thank you so much for joining us.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by EJI, Excellence in Medicine Awards.

A New Jersey health foundation program.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

Newark Board of Education.

PSE&G.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

NJ Best, New Jersey’s five-two-nine college savings plan.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

And by Garden State Initiative Promotional support provided by New Jersey Globe.

And by Meadowlands Media.