If you’re here, chances are you’ve felt it—that low hum of frustration beneath your daily work as a nurse. The way healthcare systems seem to buckle under pressure, the way good intentions get tangled in bad workflows, and the way burnout feels more like a guarantee than a risk. Maybe you’ve asked yourself, “Is this just how it is, or could it be better?” Spoiler: it can absolutely be better.
I started Nursing the System because I believe nurses deserve more than just survival tactics. We deserve tools for real change—the kind that doesn’t just patch the cracks but rebuilds the foundation. And if you’ve ever felt stuck, invisible, or like your voice doesn’t matter in the bigger picture of healthcare, this hub was built with you in mind.
Nursing the System is your centralized home base for cutting-edge training, tools, and strategies in systems thinking, healthcare innovation and change leadership for nurses —delivered in a way that’s approachable, actionable, and yes, even fun. Because if we’re going to rebuild healthcare systems, we might as well enjoy the process.
From Sociology Classrooms to Emergency Rooms: A Nurse Leadership Journey
I didn’t set out to become a nurse. In college, I stumbled into a sociology class and instantly felt like I’d discovered the cheat codes to understanding the world. The role of sociology in nursing became clear to me as I started to see cultural norms, power dynamics, and systemic barriers in entirely new ways.
One system, in particular, caught my attention: healthcare. How could a system with so much talent, innovation, and money consistently underdeliver on outcomes and overdeliver on burnout? I had questions—and I wanted answers.
That curiosity eventually pulled me into nursing. I wanted to understand healthcare from the inside. I wanted to see the human side, the operational side, the messy middle where theory meets reality. So, I enrolled in an accelerated master’s program in nursing.
Fast-forward a couple of years, and I found myself in the emergency department. It was loud, chaotic, and deeply illuminating. The ER is a microcosm of every healthcare system challenge (and every possibility) in transforming healthcare. I saw firsthand how systemic issues—from communication breakdowns to resource bottlenecks—were impacting patient care and nurse well-being.
But here’s something I noticed early on: Nurses are often described as “heroes” while being denied actual decision-making power. We’re asked to adapt to broken workflows, tolerate unsafe staffing ratios, and pick up the slack when leadership fails to plan effectively. And yet, despite being the largest workforce in healthcare, nurses rarely have a seat at the table where meaningful decisions are made.
Writing to Make Sense of It All: Nurses as Change Makers
At some point, I needed an outlet. So, I started writing. My blog, Nursing the System, began as a place to process what I was seeing—the connections between healthcare system challenges and day-to-day frustrations. I wrote about burnout, workflow failures, leadership gaps, and the patterns that kept showing up.
To my surprise, people started reading. Nurses I worked with would say, “Claire, this makes so much sense. You’re putting words to things I’ve been feeling but couldn’t articulate.”
That’s when I realized this wasn’t just about me processing my observations. It was about giving nurses a language to describe their reality—and a framework to start changing it.
But let me be blunt: Blogging about problems wasn’t enough. Venting into the void wasn’t going to fix anything. And the more nurses asked me, “Okay, but what do we DO about it?”, the more I realized I needed better answers.
From Questions to Solutions: Systems Thinking for Nurse Leaders
So, I went back to school and earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree in Health Innovation and Leadership. Three years of deep diving into systems thinking in healthcare, change leadership in nursing, and healthcare innovation and leadership gave me the tools I needed to stop just describing problems and start building solutions.
But here’s the kicker: healthcare doesn’t lack solutions. It lacks the willingness to implement them. We have research-backed best practices gathering dust in PDFs while staff burn out trying to “innovate” without time, resources, or support. Real change doesn’t come from buzzwords; it comes from brave leadership, systems thinking for nurse leaders, and a deep understanding of human behavior.
I realized something else, too: Nurses are uniquely positioned to drive that change. We’re the ones who see the holes in the system up close. We know where the bottlenecks are, where the resources run dry, and where the good intentions of leadership get lost in translation. But seeing the problems isn’t enough. We need tools to fix them.
A Hub for Nurse Leaders and Changemakers
Nursing the System isn’t just a blog anymore—it’s a centralized hub for healthcare professionals who are ready to lead meaningful change. It’s a space where nurses can step back, see the bigger picture, and realize they have more power than they’ve been led to believe.
Let me be clear: This isn’t about asking nurses to hustle harder, sacrifice more, or become martyrs for the system. If your resilience plan starts with “just take better care of yourself,” it’s not a resilience plan—it’s gaslighting.
The healthcare system doesn’t need more bandaids. It doesn’t need more nurses absorbing the shock of poor planning. What it needs is structural change, systems thinking in healthcare, and leaders who are willing to challenge the status quo.
The Big Vision: Transforming Healthcare Through Nurse Leadership
My mission is simple: prepare 10,000 nurses to lead systems change by 2030. Not by working harder, but by working smarter—with the tools, frameworks, and confidence to drive meaningful improvements in healthcare.
Because here’s a truth I believe to my core: Change doesn’t happen from the top down. It happens when the people closest to the problems are empowered to lead the solutions. Nurses as change makers are those people.
Let’s Keep the Conversation Going
If you enjoyed this blog post, great news—it’s also available as a podcast episode, along with dozens of other lessons on healthcare innovation, nurse leadership, and systems thinking. Check out the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Let’s connect on Instagram—I’m @nursing.the.system. Say hi, share your thoughts, or drop into my DMs with your biggest nursing frustrations (or victories—I love those, too).
And don’t miss out on weekly insights, strategies, and stories delivered straight to your inbox. Join my Systems Sunday email list here.
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