Erik Martin’s passion for nursing ignited after his first daughter was born 11 weeks prematurely, and he was inspired to pursue a career in nursing after seeing the incredible difference the nurses caring for his daughter made. In 2000, Erik graduated with his diploma in nursing from The Good Samaritan School of Nursing in Cincinnati, Ohio. Erik began his career as a pediatric float pool nurse then obtained his bachelors of science degree in nursing from Mount St. Joseph University in 2005, and his masters of science in nursing from Northern Kentucky University in 2007. Erik has served in progressive leadership roles since 2008.In 2015, Erik attained his doctorate in nursing practice (DNP) from Mount Saint Joseph University, with a research focus on generational differences, and recruitment and retention challenges for the next generation of nurse administrators. Erik currently serves as the Vice President of Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer for Norton Children’s Hospital (NCH) in Louisville, Kentucky. NCH is a 271-bed free-standing pediatric facility and Level I trauma center.Erik is currently serving in his first year as president of AONL. Erik is a 2009 AONL Nurse Manager Fellow and the recipient of the 2016 Pamela Austin Thompson Early Careerist Award. Erik Martin’s passion for nursing ignited after his first daughter was born 11 weeks prematurely, and he was inspired to pursue a career in nursing after seeing the incredible difference the nurses caring for his daughter made. In 2000, Erik graduated with his diploma in nursing from The Good Samaritan School of Nursing in Cincinnati, Ohio. Erik began his career as a pediatric float pool nurse then obtained his bachelors of science degree in nursing from Mount St. Joseph University in 2005, and his masters of science in nursing from Northern Kentucky University in 2007. Erik has served in progressive leadership roles since 2008. In 2015, Erik attained his doctorate in nursing practice (DNP) from Mount Saint Joseph University, with a research focus on generational differences, and recruitment and retention challenges for the next generation of nurse administrators. Erik currently serves as the Vice President of Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer for Norton Children’s Hospital (NCH) in Louisville, Kentucky. NCH is a 271-bed free-standing pediatric facility and Level I trauma center. Erik is currently serving in his first year as president of AONL. Erik is a 2009 AONL Nurse Manager Fellow and the recipient of the 2016 Pamela Austin Thompson Early Careerist Award. AT: What inspired you to enter nursing and ultimately nursing leadership? EM: At 15 years old, I had the opportunity to experience firsthand a nurse’s impact. It was my sophomore year in high school when my daughter was born 11 weeks prematurely. She spent more than 7 weeks in the NICU before coming home weighing only 4 lbs 4 oz. One week after discharge, she went apneic while I was feeding her. We rushed her to the emergency department where they ultimately admitted her to the PICU with meningitis. The nurses were an integral part of helping comfort and support when we were very scared. A little over a year later, during a high school career fair, I took the first step into my nursing journey by visiting a school of nursing booth and starting the application process. AT: That is such a powerful experience that has helped to shape your career in nursing and in leadership! You entered in to leadership at a relatively young age as well; can you describe your experiences as a young leader? EM: Looking back now, I recognize that I was displaying leadership qualities from early in my career, and I am grateful to have had leaders and peers supporting my professional growth from the beginning. At 1 year of nursing, I was participating in shared governance, and within a couple of years, was serving as chair of 1 of the committees. There is never a shortage of challenges in nursing, but I have always found great pleasure in being a part of the solution. Accepting my first nurse manager position was a surreal experience as I was transitioning from peer to leader alongside nurses that helped train and mentor me. Despite many of them being biggest champions, I placed immense pressure on myself to be all things to all people. It was a challenging time and despite immense support, after less than a year as a manager, I was burning out and considering other career options including returning to the bedside. AT: I think I can speak for many others when I say I am so thankful you remained in leadership. What made you remain in leadership, and how did you overcome that period of burnout early in your leadership career? EM: One of my mentors told me about the AONL Nurse Manager Fellowship (NMF). At that time, I was a part of other professional associations affiliated with my clinical practice and hadn’t even heard of AONL. I did some research and learned that the NMF was a yearlong extensive development program for leaders. I feel extremely fortunate that my organization offered to sponsor me. The rest is history! I was accepted and participated in the 2009 NMF. It was (as many have often heard me say) a game changer and the single best thing I’ve ever done for my career. That year, I learned new skills to practice as a nurse leader, I gained access to tools and resources to strengthen my practice, and most of all, I became a part of a “tribe.” The networking and relationship building that came with the program made me a part of a community that I will cherish forever. AT: How did your experience with the Nurse Manager Fellowship influence your involvement with AONL? EM: After completing the NMF, I vowed to pay it forward! I began participating in AONL committees and task forces. Then, in 2013, I was given the opportunity of a lifetime when AONL wanted to increase the diversity of their board and invited me to be 1 of the inaugural appointed board members, representing “early careerist.” I served in that capacity for 3 years, then was elected as the Board Director for Region 5, and now am serving as president. AT: You definitely have had several unique experiences with AONL, and I am excited you are serving as President. These are certainly unprecedented times in health care. What do you hope to accomplish in support of nurse leaders during your term? EM: The past 2 years, we have faced and conquered many new challenges as nurse leaders. More than ever, I have realized the value of being a part of the AONL community. This past year I was afforded the opportunity to chair the Diversity and Belonging Committee. In December, the board approved our position statement and guiding principles. It is an incredible document, but we have much more progress to make in building a more diverse and inclusive nursing workforce, and address the social determinants of health. During my 2-year term, we will expand on this important work and begin focusing on how we can leverage our (nurse leaders) collective efforts to make advancements forward. Also in the last couple of years, workforce challenges have become a dominant topic in almost every meeting I participate in with other nurse leaders. Many of us are struggling to stabilize our teams and create healthy work environments where nurses and other health care workers can thrive. One of my first decisions as president was to appoint a committee focused on helping leaders address some of our workforce challenges. I cannot think of a better organization than AONL to help lead us in navigating through this challenge. AT: Yes, the nursing workforce is certainly a necessary topic of discussion. Describe your concerns and ideas surrounding the nursing workforce of today and the future. EM: Obviously, the term workforce encompasses a huge breadth of challenges. If I were to narrow it down, there are 3 primary areas that keep me up at night. First, hearing that nursing programs turned away over 80,000 qualified applicants last year is jaw dropping. Our profession simply cannot afford to lose any individuals interested in joining us. The challenges our colleagues in academia are facing are real. We have much work to do to address the faculty shortages, physical facility limitations, and technological needs of our nursing schools and colleges. Second is the stories and research that is surfacing on burnout, compassion fatigue, and soul injury. The last couple of years have brought to light the incredible pressure and responsibility of being a nurse. There are some astonishing statistics out there about nurses burning out and leaving the profession within the first 2 years of their career. My time as a bedside nurse was some of the most rewarding years in my life. It hurts my heart to think that the strain and stress of being a nurse is so immense that nurses are leaving the profession within just a couple of years of joining. Furthermore, the stress and workload are so immense that many of our most tenured nurses are making decisions to retire early. I’m proud that our profession, and the health care industry overall, are finally talking about how we can best promote health care worker well-being and resilience. I’m optimistic and comforted by knowing that many of our colleagues in nursing research are focusing their efforts on helping us address this head on. The third is closely connected with the previous 2. I wish I could hit the pause button and prevent any further attrition for the next few of years. The staffing shortages we are facing are daunting and are the catalyst to this perpetual cycle of turnover and burnout. If we can identify solutions that will retain the current talent we have, or even slow the turnover down, we stand a chance of stabilizing our workforce. AT: In addition to the nursing workforce, you mentioned diversity and belonging are topics near and dear to your heart. What are the biggest challenges facing nursing in this regard? EM: Let me first say that I want to recognize the individuals who participate on our diversity and belonging committee. I have learned an incredible amount chairing this committee. We vowed early on to promoting an environment of psychological safety and to being our true authentic self. Together, we acknowledged that, based on our own lived experiences, we are all in different places in this journey. As I mentioned earlier, we have accomplished a great deal together and are eager to continue this work. Our vision “to unleash the potential of a diverse and united nurse leader community” is about advancing our profession in leading efforts to dismantle systemic racism and address the social determinants of health. Our focus will be to develop resources and education for nurse leaders to provide them with the tools they need to create environments of psychological safety and belonging, to build diverse workforces, and eliminate racist policies or practices within their workplace. AT: How can nurse leaders develop themselves and their teams to ensure diversity and belonging embed in their work cultures? EM: While I do not claim to have all the answers, I do know there are so many things we can do. First and most important is starting with yourself. I began educating myself through books, research, podcasts, and documentaries, and by listening to individuals courageous and kind enough to share their lived experiences. I looked within and identified my own unconscious biases. I had to face the reality that, despite having experienced discrimination as a gay man, I had the privilege of being able to hide behind being a white male. This was a humbling but necessary process for me to appreciate the gravity of our current state. AT: There are so many aspects of diversity to consider, including generational diversity. What have you learned in your career about generational differences and strategies to ensure diversity in perspective related to age/generation? EM: Generational diversity is near and dear to my heart. In fact, a portion of my DNP capstone involved evaluating whether a person’s age affected how they rated specific interventions aimed at recruiting and retaining individuals into leadership. I conducted a national survey and asked participants to rank how impactful a set of over 40 interventions would be at either recruiting them or retaining them into formal leadership positions. I analyzed the results by generation to assess for differences. The results demonstrated that most of us, regardless of generation, identify the same attributes of our work environment as meaningful. There were 4 interventions, all related to work–life balance, which scored statistically higher for Generation X and Y individuals. As a nurse leader, the most reassuring takeaway was that most of the interventions to recruit and retain the next generation of talent into leadership roles were little to no cost and valuable for all the team members. AT: Thank you. It seems people of all generations may have more things in common than might be originally thought! Let us transition in to current state and pandemic response. What are you most proud of over the past 2 years? EM: I am most proud of the crucial role that nurses are playing in navigating through a global pandemic. In a world of constant change, nurses are still the most trusted profession. We are leveraging our relationship with the public and using our voices to educate our communities on ways to decrease the spread of COVID. Additionally, nurses shined as leaders on the health care team. We were able to seize the moment and accept opportunities to participate and advocate for ourselves and our patients in national discussions, including at the White House. Finally, many of us were the catalyst behind developing new innovative models of care and creating new technologies that will change care delivery forever. AT: We definitely have a lot to be proud of as a group of professionals during these unprecedented times. How have you managed your own challenges as a CNO and how have you supported your team of nurses and nurse leaders? EM: Witnessing my team in action is what inspires me each day. Early on in the pandemic, those of us working in pediatrics experienced COVID differently. Our patient volume plummeted, and we had excess resources during a time when our adult counterparts experienced the opposite. My team never shied away from an opportunity to help support our community. They demonstrated extreme flexibility and stepped up to work at testing sites, serve as employee health nurses, to answer calls on the state’s COVID hotline, administer vaccines, and many helped fill clinical needs in areas outside of pediatrics. It was truly incredible to witness the teamwork and one of the highlights of my career. As volume returned and things got busy again, supporting my leaders has always been a priority. Encouraging uninterrupted time off, a day to work from home, or small card or gift to recognize their contributions are a few ways I support them. Most importantly, I believe in setting leaders up for success. I have sponsored many of my leaders to attend AONL’s virtual resiliency program, participate in the manager or director fellowships, and take advantage of other programs, which provide them the tools, resources, and training to be successful leaders. AT: I am certain your focus on your leaders has tremendous influence on them as humans, nurses, and leaders. Who or what have been the major influencers in your life and your career? EM: I have been fortunate to have many individuals influence my life and career. My husband Brandon has been a huge source of support and always my number one fan. My children Taylor, Bryce, Zayne, Jax, and Lexi motivate me to be better every day. Several of the 2009 Nurse Manager Fellows, our facilitator M.T. Meadows, and CEO Emeritus Pam Thompson, helped me get through one of my toughest times as a nurse leader, and we have stayed connected through the years. Many individuals I have had the pleasure of serving on the AONL board with are tremendous leaders and have been amazing mentors and friends. Words cannot express my gratitude and appreciation for all their wisdom, insight, and advice. My team now, and the previous teams I have worked alongside, make me a stronger, better leader. Most of all, not a day goes by that I do not think about the patients and families I was lucky enough to care for as a bedside nurse. They remind me why I am passionate about our profession and, are the reason why I show up each day wanting to help advance nursing and healthcare overall. AT: It is wonderful to hear of the patients, colleagues and family who provide you inspiration and have influenced you so positively! What do you hope your legacy to be in nursing? EM: The past 2 years have brought to light the need for change. We need a stronger community health infrastructure, a more diverse and robust workforce, new innovative care delivery models, and to maximize the use of technology to improve workflow and patient care. My passion for the last 10 years has been about creating environments where nurse leaders are resilient and can thrive. I look to a future where nurses can have successful careers leading us through change, while still having fulfilling personal lives. I want new nurses to look at their leaders and aspire to be them 1 day. It would be a true honor if I can contribute in a small way to achieving this vision.Born:Cincinnati, Ohio.Hometown:Norwood, Ohio.Father of 5:Taylor (26), Bryce (20), Zayne, (18), Jax and Lexi (6).Husband:Brandon Barnett.Currently live:In Prospect, Kentucky.One of 4 siblings.One word to describe Erik:Authentic. Born: Cincinnati, Ohio. Hometown: Norwood, Ohio. Father of 5: Taylor (26), Bryce (20), Zayne, (18), Jax and Lexi (6). Husband: Brandon Barnett. Currently live: In Prospect, Kentucky. One of 4 siblings. One word to describe Erik: Authentic. Amy E. Trueblood, MS, RN, NE-BC, is Chief Nursing Officer at OU Health: University of Oklahoma Medical Center. She can be reached at [email protected] . Photography © Jamie Rhodes/Norton Healthcare. Photography © Ken Marcou