Chapter 05: CNO and VP of Nursing Practice at MD Anderson
Files
Description
Dr. Porter explains that she received a call from a recruiter for MD Anderson and describes coming to visit the institution for her current role.
Dr. Porter explains that because she had visited MD Anderson in 2010 for a survey, she knew many people and “felt like I worked here.” She explains how she decided to leave Mount Sinai and how she wanted to take on the challenge of seeing how she could contribute to move the MD Anderson bar even higher.
Identifier
PorterC_02_20180125_C05
Publication Date
1-25-2018
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Carol Porter, DNP, RN, FAAN, Oral History Interview, January 25, 2018
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - Joining MD Anderson/Coming to Texas; Personal Background; MD Anderson Culture
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Transcript
Carol Porter, DNP, RN, FAAN:
Then, MD Anderson called me, because I had surveyed them as a Magnet surveyor in 2010. I always thought a lot of MD Anderson, always talked very positively about what I saw here, but never considered interviewing for this position because it was a cancer hospital and my background is multispecialty. I knew that Barbara Summers [oral history interview] had retired and I was curious about who would be the next CNO, but not thinking I’d have a part in that, only because I fondly thought of MD Anderson. And then they called me up, the executive headhunter called me up and started talking to me about MD Anderson and I said well, “I don’t know, I’m sure that they want somebody that’s got an extensive oncology background,” and they said, “Actually, they’re looking for somebody that’s got a generalist background and a very strong quality operations background,” which I did have. So I just added them in, because I had a couple of them. At one point, I had files on each recruit, search, and I just made sure I didn’t get any of them mixed up. So I said, “Sure, I’ll come for the interview, it’s a great place.” And when I came the first time, I think it was for three days, two or three days, and they knew I had been a surveyor. They had done their homework on their side too and checked, and there were a lot of people here that were there when I was here as a surveyor. Tom Buchholz [oral history interview] was the physician chief at the time and when I came to interview, I believe I sent Barbara an email or a message on LinkedIn or something, to let her know I was going to look at it, or something about it. Anyway, I remembered some people that had been here, and I spent five days here doing the survey, so some people looked familiar. Then, I had a lot of physician interviews, but then I also had a nursing leadership interview, and when I walked into the room I thought oh my God, I know these people, and they were all hugging me and saying oh, you know. I said, “You’re not supposed to hug me, you’re supposed to interview me!” So we had a great time catching up for an hour or so, and then I was walking through the hospital with Tim Jones, who is the executive recruiter for MD Anderson, going from one place to another, and I don’t know whether you know the name Beth Garcia. She is the director of Patient Experience. She’s been here for about, I don’t know, twenty years or so, or I shouldn’t say twenty years, probably about fifteen years. She used to work with me, she used to work for me in New York, at Lenox Hill Hospital, she was great. Her and I were strong on quality and we hit it off. Anyway, so I was coming through the hospital by the elevator and Tim and I were kind of catching up on the previous interview session. I was interviewing myself, but I was also trying to be a little reserved, and all of a sudden I hear a squeal and it’s Beth Garcia saying, “Carol—” and we both were running to each other, hugging, and then I turned to Tim, I said, “Oh, you weren’t supposed to see that,” I said, “but we worked together.” What I had found out is they had grilled her about me before I came here. So that was great, that I found her here, because then I was able to ask her questions I couldn’t ask other people. I told Tom, at the end of the second day, Tom Buchholz, I said Tom—he kept checking, end of every day he checked in with me to see how I was doing with the interviews, how everything went, and so at the end of the second day I said to him, I said, “I don’t work here but it feels like I work here, because I remember everybody.” He goes, “Well that’s a good thing, I’m glad you think that.” Anyway, I left and then I went back home and it was probably at least two months easy, before they wanted to see if I wanted to come back. In the meantime, I was just about to get a job offer and I came back out, and then this time it was some of the same people but more in-depth interviews. I finished with Tom again and he asked me how everything went and I said, “Again, I want to tell you, it feels like I work here.” I said, “This feels seamless.” I said, “Maybe because I knew all your data and now I’m here in a different light but it’s very familiar.” Everybody was very positive and everybody wanted somebody that was strong on quality. And then I left again and then probably—it was going faster now, because they knew I was interviewing. Then I told my children, my children were young adults, but I have a very close family. I was preparing them, not thinking I would come here, but preparing them to say, of the—now I have—this is one of the three serious searches I’m in. So I told my kids, I said listen, place A is great and I could work there as well, they were wonderful to me and I believe I’m going to get a job offer, I said, “But if MD Anderson offers me the job I have to take it.” I said, “So I want you to know, I have to do it, it’s the number one hospital in cancer in the world. I just need to know what that feels like.” Mount Sinai was great but it’s not number one, and I just wanted a different adventure. Eventually, they were telling me, “Well mom, if MD Anderson offers you a job, you have to take it,” so I figured I did my job.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
You did your job, yes. [laughs]
Carol Porter, DNP, RN, FAAN:
So, I happened to be in the Caribbean with my daughter and her husband, we rented a little—I rented a place overlooking the ocean, and MD Anderson wanted to have a conference call with me. My daughter and my son in-law were like in the next room and I said, “You have to be quiet, I’m on an interview here,” but I’m in my shorts and flip-flops, the ocean is here, we have these like Caribbean birds walking around, and they offered me the job. So I said to Tim, I said, “Well how do I accept it? I’m looking at the Caribbean and I’m in flip-flops and shorts.” He said, “I think you just said yes.” I said okay, I was like yes, and then we had more negotiations. So that’s how I accepted MD Anderson, and my daughter and my son in-law were like watching faces pressed against the glass.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
That’s so funny. I have to ask you, what were the questions that you asked Beth Garcia, that you couldn’t ask anybody else, I mean what were the things you needed to know?
Carol Porter, DNP, RN, FAAN:
I wanted to know the real deal about the culture, like the culture of the hospital, what it was like to work here. I felt like I would get her honest opinion.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
And what did she say?
Carol Porter, DNP, RN, FAAN:
Oh, she loves it, I mean she’s still here. She loves it, she was very happy working here, she was praying to God that I would come, because she knew that we worked well together, and she thought it was so ironic that eight to ten years before that she worked for me. I just think it was a familiar person you could trust.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Sure.
Carol Porter, DNP, RN, FAAN:
Even if I’ve met you before, I’m asking you a question, you may be giving me an answer that you think I want to hear, but she’s going to give me the real answer, so that’s why I wanted to talk to her.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Oh absolutely, I mean you need to find somebody who is going to kind of give you the unvarnished version.
Carol Porter, DNP, RN, FAAN:
Right.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, it’s very important.
Carol Porter, DNP, RN, FAAN:
I have to tell you though, the last thing about that. Once I accepted, I got off the phone and I said, “Oh my God, I accepted, oh my God I accepted, I’m going to Texas?” I said you’ve got to be kidding me, and then I had to brace myself for that, like what’s that whole experience going to be.
T.A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, the northerner coming to Texas.
Carol Porter, DNP, RN, FAAN:
I just felt it was not just an adventure in healthcare, it was an adventure in a different culture, an adventure in okay number one, what can I do to make them better than they even are now, like how can I contribute to nursing, to even up the bar a little bit more. I’m bringing to MD Anderson, a very strong knowledge of quality and how to lead it, and magnet, so I felt like I could contribute.
Recommended Citation
Porter, Carol DNP, RN, FAAN and Rosolowski, Tacey A., "Chapter 05: CNO and VP of Nursing Practice at MD Anderson" (2018). Interview Chapters. 1379.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1379
Conditions Governing Access
Open
