Meet Jennifer Halloran | I have a PhD and a BCPA (board certified patient advocate), Director of Operations for Everybody Needs A Nurse Patient Advocates

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennifer Halloran and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
Both my mother and father were registered nurses. In fact, they met in nursing school. Growing up, I thought that every grownup was a nurse. Once when I went to the pediatrician, I asked my mom, “Is the doctor a nurse too?”

We talked about nursing all the time around the dinner table. My father had an intellectual perspective–he was in graduate school for most of my childhood and ended up with a PhD, teaching nursing at the University of North Carolina. With him, we’d talk about the larger problems of the health care system, such as the nursing shortage and staffing issues. My mom was a “boots on the ground” nurse, so we’d talk about the patients she’d seen that day.

So I got nursing from all sides and was highly encouraged to go to nursing school. A lot of the philosophical issues intrigued me, but there was no way I saw myself as a nurse.

Instead, I did my own version of running away to join the circus: after college I got a PhD in Victorian literature. I spent 11 years teaching college-level writing and literature. But I got tired of the repetitive nature of the job–teaching the same things every semester.

Just when I was hitting my breaking point with academic life, my mother started her business, Everybody Needs A Nurse patient advocates. Immediately I saw how important this work was, how it had a huge impact on our clients and how it could help individuals and our health care system. As soon as we got our first clients, my mom brought me into the business.

What I didn’t see at the start was how much fun I would have running a small business. There are new challenges every day and I use my writing and thinking skills to craft messages about what we do and the benefits of having a patient advocate. Plus, working with my mom has been a treat. Over the 16 years we’ve worked together, we’ve really come to respect each other’s strengths and had a great time supporting our clients and making a difference in their lives.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Everybody Needs A Nurse patient advocates started from a vision. We saw a healthcare system where patients got individual attention and expertise. They had someone with deep knowledge to answer their questions and make sure their doctors heard them. An expert to help them apply their doctor’s advice to their actual lives and to fill in the gaps in information that our patchwork system creates.

We called our company Everybody Needs A Nurse because we believe everyone with a body deserves this level of respect and dignity when they encounter the healthcare system.

We saw the unnecessary suffering that occurs because patients don’t know how to interpret what their doctors tell them, don’t know how to make it fit into their lives and don’t know what they don’t know. People can easily get into difficulty when something changes with their health and they need to quickly adapt.

Very quickly we learned that our calling is to support elders and their families as they navigate the challenges of aging and chronic illness. These folks encounter the greatest health care challenges. Our elder population uses the most healthcare in the country and has worse outcomes than elders in other developed countries. The average doctor appointment lasts 8 minutes and the average patient retains 50% of the information the doctor tells them. This is if they aren’t sick, under stress or have memory loss.

Our company provides registered nurses who go to doctor visits with our clients to help them understand what the doctor says and fill in any gaps in communication. These RNs also make weekly home visits to assess how our client’s health is changing and to problem solve how the client can function better in their home. We manage medications and communicate with family, healthcare providers and others to make sure everyone is on the same page. Most importantly, we are a sounding board for family members and patients–a listening ear for the frustrations and issues that arise.

We are extremely proud of this system, which we have developed over the 17 years we’ve been in business. We keep our clients out of the emergency room, the hospital and rehab facilities. We lessen the crises that punctuate most people’s aging journeys. Our success at making a true difference in our clients’ lives gives us great joy. We are so grateful to be able to do this work.

It’s been a real journey–a nurse and a former academic went into business together almost 20 years ago. There have definitely been struggles on the business side and we still have a lot to learn about succeeding as a business. But it’s been the best job we’ve ever had and we have learned so much over the years.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The Triangle area of North Carolina is a vibrant, exciting place. It’s become a real foodie scene and has scores of people coming to live here. One thing I love about this area is that it’s 3 hours from some of the most beautiful beaches you can imagine and 3 hours from the Appalachian mountains, with its gorgeous scenery and art.

If someone was coming here, I’d take them to the Nasher Museum of Art on the Duke University campus. The Nasher has a tremendous collection of contemporary art housed in a beautiful building. They also have rotating exhibits that often focus on local artists and art movements. Plus their cafe is a terrific place to eat outside!

I also love the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. They have a gorgeous sculpture garden where people picnic and stroll on nice days, in addition to the great art and exhibits.

No visit to the Triangle would be complete without touring the Duke and UNC campuses. Duke’s campus is based on Cambridge University and has the same kind of gothic grandeur. The campus also houses Duke Gardens, a stunning garden filled with rare flowers and plants. This is a fun place to take your kids and your dogs for an afternoon.

The campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is one of the oldest in the country. Its brick paths and colonial buildings have been here since 1789. This campus houses the Carolina Basketball Museum, which has artifacts of the game touched by luminaries such as Michael Jordan, James Worthy and Tyler Hansbrough.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
After reading about my background, you could probably figure out who my greatest inspiration and cheerleader is–my mom, Diane Halloran, RN, MPH.

Over the years, I’ve watched my mom start a business (after retiring), travel the world, organize a professional organization, get her bachelor’s degree, then her Master’s in Public Health, all while moving around the country for my dad’s career and raising my sister and me. She’s a true force of nature.

I feel so lucky to not only have this woman in my life, but to share her gene pool! She’s often asked if she’s my sister so I’m confident that I will age well.

She has watched me grow and develop as a leader in my own right and has been beside me on my journey. I know that she always has my back. Working together has been a tremendous opportunity and I’m so fortunate to have someone to share this path with.

Website: https://www.everybodyneedsanurse.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/C2-WmBXu955/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferhalloran/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HalloranJen

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064027242918

Other: For free elder care and caregiving resources, check out the Resources page on our website. https://www.everybodyneedsanurse.com/resources