Capability
Podcast
Conceived, built, and produced ACNL in Action end to end. 60 episodes, roughly 17,750 downloads, top 10-20% for the niche.
60 episodes · ~17,750 downloads
How I approach it
The CEO said “we should have a podcast.” That was the whole brief.
I turned it into a working product: an interview show hosted by Charlene Platon, Director of Ambulatory Care at Stanford Health Care, discussing topics as diverse as “Delivering Emergency Care at Burning Man” and “A Nurse’s Guide to Networking”.
I produced ACNL in Action for five years. Sixty episodes, around 17,750 downloads, and per-episode audience in the top 10-20% for B2B podcasts. One episode on diversity in nursing leadership got picked up in a Health Podcast Network roundup.
Other than the actual interview, I handled the entire workflow. All of the pre-production: curating guests, scheduling, researching the topic for the discussion outlines. I am not a nurse (but I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express a few times), so the research was by far the most labor intensive step. I had to understand the topic well enough to write thoughtful questions that even our expert listeners would want the answers to.
Most of the guests were respected thought leaders and subject matter experts, but not many were trained communicators. Even people who give presentations to large, in-person audiences have a surprising tendency to get nervous when they’re being recorded over Zoom, so the briefing documents had to include stage directions as much as discussion outlines.
After recording, I did all of the post-production. Cleaning up the audio in Adobe Audition to remove ambient room noise and the occasional buzz or ding from a phone notification, drafting show notes, publishing the episode, and finally promoting it on email and social media.
Episodes
Three representative episodes, playable right here. The full archive — all 60 — is on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
with Dr. Anitra Williams & Dr. Sharon Goldfarb
The Health Podcast Network pick. This is the first-year episode that got picked up in a Health Podcast Network roundup. Two guests instead of one means twice the research and a discussion outline that deliberately hands topics back and forth, so both voices get their moments.
Show notes
Charlene talks with Drs. Anitra Williams and Sharon Goldfarb. Anitra is Director of Nursing Operations at Dignity Health St. Joseph's and Sharon is President of the California Organization of Associate Degree Nursing. Anitra and Sharon talk about their experiences as minority women in healthcare as well as the importance of challenging the status quo and bringing better care to underserved communities.
Host: Charlene Platon, MS, RN, FNP-BC
Guests: Dr. Anitra Williams, DNP, PHN, CCRN · Sharon Goldfarb, DNP, RN, FNP-BC
All About Nurse Staffing
with Sylvain Trepanier, System Chief Nursing Officer, Providence
Booking at system scale. By season four the show could land a guest responsible for nursing across a 51-hospital system. When the guest oversees tens of thousands of nurses and the topic is the most contested one in the field, the questions have to be worth his time.
Show notes
Charlene talks with Sylvain Trepanier, System Chief Nursing Officer at Providence. Sylvain oversees a team of tens of thousands of nurses across a 51-hospital system, making him ideally suited to talk about all the things that go into staffing and recruitment. Charlene and Syl talk about skill mix when building a team, solutions to address the nursing shortage, and technology innovations that can help take the burden off overworked nurses.
Host: Charlene Platon, MS, RN, FNP-BC
How to Build a Culture Nurses Don't Want to Leave
with Cheryl Reinking, Chief Nursing Officer, El Camino Health
The format at its best. A concrete problem (post-pandemic turnover peaking at 12.7%), a leader who solved it (back under 5%), and the receipts: retention pilots, ROI plans, and which kinds of recognition actually move the needle.
Show notes
Nurse turnover is one of the most persistent challenges in healthcare leadership, and one of the clearest signals an organization sends about its culture. So how do you build a culture nurses don't want to leave?
In this episode, Charlene talks with Cheryl Reinking, Chief Nursing Officer at El Camino Health, which recently earned its fifth Magnet designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, placing it among fewer than 2% of hospitals nationwide. Cheryl has spent nearly four decades at El Camino, and she walks through what 20 years of sustained Magnet excellence actually looks like at the manager and frontline level, including how the organization brought its post-COVID turnover rate from a peak of 12.7% back below 5%.
We also get into the business case: how Cheryl uses her hospital foundation to fund retention pilots, what she puts in an ROI plan, and what kinds of recognition actually move the needle versus the kinds that don't.
What's covered:
- (00:58) What it takes to sustain Magnet designation over 20 years
- (02:59) What Magnet looks like in practice at the manager and frontline level
- (07:30) A nurse manager's typical Tuesday morning at El Camino
- (09:25) Software platforms and the role of a dedicated nurse retention specialist
- (14:00) How El Camino brought turnover back below 5% after the pandemic
- (17:15) Building the business case for retention investments
- (21:18) Recognition that moves the needle vs. recognition that doesn't
- (23:30) What Cheryl wishes she'd known earlier about retention
Host: Charlene Platon, MS, RN, FNP-BC