StoryCorps and Intermountain Healthcare partner to share conversations of hope and healing.
Marc Harrison, MD, Intermountain's president and CEO, and Katy Welkie, administrator at Primary Children's Hospital, first worked together at Primary Children's Hospital in the 1990s, when Dr. Harrison was completing an pediatric intensive care fellowship and Katy worked as a nursing director. The two shared - and continue to share - a passion for people, healing, and improving healthcare. "If the world is going to be cruel at times, I want to be part of something that tries to be the counterbalance to that."
Katy Welkie: I really had no intention of going into leadership and management. I was actually in school to become a nurse practitioner and work in the intensive care unit. But the nursing director at the time went on maternity leave and asked me to fill in for her, and I loved it.
She came back from maternity leave and said, "Did you like it?" I was like, "Oh yeah, it was fun." She said, "That's good, because I'm leaving, and we want you to do this job." I was like, "Oh, but I'm going in a different direction." She goes, "You're meant to do this."
Marc Harrison, MD: You are meant to do it, and you are great at it. You played a very big role in my professional development. I was a new pediatric intensive care fellow. You took me aside and said, "Hey, can I talk to you in my office?" Do you have any recollection of that conversation, or not really?
Katy: What I remember was more of the impetus to do it, because I saw great things in you, and things weren't clicking. I thought, "This is a great opportunity to help smooth the way for somebody."
Dr. Harrison: You're very direct. You said, "You've got to stop patronizing the nurses." You said, "Whenever you leave a bedside, you say, 'Are you okay with the plan?' " I said, "Well, I really want to know." You said, "Well, they aren't used to having people ask them that." I said, "Well, they should be used to it."
Clearly we weren't clicking. I was genuinely interested in whether this person who was much more experienced than I was at that point in time agreed with the plan. But I must have been delivering it in a way that intimidated them, or they thought that I was asking it in a sarcastic way. I remember being crushed but also being grateful that you had taken the time and energy to share that with me so that I could get better.
When you were a clinical leader, was it hard for you not to take some of the tough stuff you saw home?
Katy: I think there's always part of it that you take home. I have this very, very distinct time when I think I'd had three children die on me that week, which is unusual. I was going to keep it together, and Father Piacitelli walked up and looked at me and said, "Are you doing okay, Katy?" I just burst into tears.
Dr. Harrison: I was on call the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving one of the years during my fellowship. My whole family had flown in to Salt Lake to have Thanksgiving with Mary Carol and with me. At that point, we had Alex, who was about two-and-a-half or three, and Martin was still an infant. I had taken care of a child whose first name was Autumn. Autumn was almost exactly the same age as Martin was. The child was floridly septic, and we did an excellent resuscitation. Over the next 12 hours, she died.
I remember going home, and I was fine until I saw Martin. I just couldn't believe what had happened and how lucky we were and how that family would never be the same. But part of the thought process, what a privilege to be able to do the work we do even when it doesn't go well. Having balance and perspective and a sense of greater meaning has been the antidote for me. If the world is going to be so cruel at times, I want to be part of something that tries to be the counterbalance to that.
She came back from maternity leave and said, "Did you like it?" I was like, "Oh yeah, it was fun." She said, "That's good, because I'm leaving, and we want you to do this job." I was like, "Oh, but I'm going in a different direction." She goes, "You're meant to do this."
Marc Harrison, MD: You are meant to do it, and you are great at it. You played a very big role in my professional development. I was a new pediatric intensive care fellow. You took me aside and said, "Hey, can I talk to you in my office?" Do you have any recollection of that conversation, or not really?
Katy: What I remember was more of the impetus to do it, because I saw great things in you, and things weren't clicking. I thought, "This is a great opportunity to help smooth the way for somebody."
Dr. Harrison: You're very direct. You said, "You've got to stop patronizing the nurses." You said, "Whenever you leave a bedside, you say, 'Are you okay with the plan?' " I said, "Well, I really want to know." You said, "Well, they aren't used to having people ask them that." I said, "Well, they should be used to it."
Clearly we weren't clicking. I was genuinely interested in whether this person who was much more experienced than I was at that point in time agreed with the plan. But I must have been delivering it in a way that intimidated them, or they thought that I was asking it in a sarcastic way. I remember being crushed but also being grateful that you had taken the time and energy to share that with me so that I could get better.
When you were a clinical leader, was it hard for you not to take some of the tough stuff you saw home?
Katy: I think there's always part of it that you take home. I have this very, very distinct time when I think I'd had three children die on me that week, which is unusual. I was going to keep it together, and Father Piacitelli walked up and looked at me and said, "Are you doing okay, Katy?" I just burst into tears.
Dr. Harrison: I was on call the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving one of the years during my fellowship. My whole family had flown in to Salt Lake to have Thanksgiving with Mary Carol and with me. At that point, we had Alex, who was about two-and-a-half or three, and Martin was still an infant. I had taken care of a child whose first name was Autumn. Autumn was almost exactly the same age as Martin was. The child was floridly septic, and we did an excellent resuscitation. Over the next 12 hours, she died.
I remember going home, and I was fine until I saw Martin. I just couldn't believe what had happened and how lucky we were and how that family would never be the same. But part of the thought process, what a privilege to be able to do the work we do even when it doesn't go well. Having balance and perspective and a sense of greater meaning has been the antidote for me. If the world is going to be so cruel at times, I want to be part of something that tries to be the counterbalance to that.