 Welcome to the Hack and Sack Meridian Healths podcast series for Women's History Month. I'm your host, Jody Mayberry. This episode, we're going to talk to Audrey Murphy. Audrey is the executive vice president and hospital enterprise general counsel. With Audrey, we're going to explore networking. We're going to find out why networking is viable to you and the organization, my networking can be a viable learning tool and some of the best ways to get started. This podcast is part of a series of dynamic short interviews sponsored by the Hack and Sack Meridian Healths Women in Leadership Team member resource group. The group selected the topics of this series that they knew were important to your career. Let's get started with Audrey Murphy. Audrey, we're going to talk about networking and I know some people may have a different idea in their head of what networking is. Let's start with a basic question. What is networking? To me, networking is professionals reaching out to other professionals in similar situations, similar professions and trying to connect with them on various levels, gathering information about their practices at their particular institutions or in their particular area and then sharing best practices, etc. In my career, first as a nurse and now as a lawyer, you would try to network within your own groups. In other words, when I was a nurse, I was part of the American Nurses Association where there are groups nationally as well as on a local level. On a local level, I was part of a critical care nursing group. So I think once you establish yourself with those groups, you can also then become a speaker and interact even more with other people within the profession. But sometimes I think it's good to also sort of reach outside your comfort zone, reach into other groups to network. But still within, if it's a healthcare group, still within the healthcare group, but not necessarily staying in your comfort zone is when you go to a national meeting and you sit with the same group of people that you know, you want to branch out, sit with people that you don't know or go to a conference where it's not just nurses or lawyers, there are other professionals. So you get to understand the business as a whole. Networking is really putting yourself out there to try and connect. And of course, with this generation, it's not so much about the formal joining of groups such as the American Health Lawyers Association or the American Nursing Association. It's more about joining groups online, whether it's LinkedIn, which is the big professional group that a lot of us all are taking, or having individual groups that have been set up and they set them up themselves. The millennials are much more attuned to that. They're much more willing to set up group chats, sharing of information and sharing of best practice. And that's really how you network, either on a national level or a local level. And sometimes you just have to get outside of your comfort zone to really be able to share information and best practice. Your answer touched on some of this, but I'm just going to ask it directly. Why is networking valuable and how can it help us in our career and to do our job better? To do your job better is definitely a byproduct of networking because you're able to glean information from other professionals who are in your area of practice, who have best practices, maybe their own institutions. So that can only help in your own practice. I think in terms of helping the individual grow, we want to reach out to other folks, make connections, because this group of millennials, they're not as a previous generation's work. They will not look to stay in an organization for 20, 30, 40 years. It seems to me that these folks like to move around, they like to travel. The more you network, the more you will have those opportunities because you will have connected with people all across the country in your profession. So you will have those connections. And when you look to move, that can only help you. You've talked about networking at events, networking online places like LinkedIn. I imagine it's also valuable in an organization as large as Hackensack Meridian Health. It's also valuable to network within your own organization. What are some of the best ways you can do that to network within a large organization? You network on a national but also a local level. So for instance, if you're a nursing leader at Bayshore, there are groups that meet together, other nursing leaders at all of the other hospitals and the long-term care facilities. And you don't have to wait for a formal group. You can reach out yourself and make those connections. It's the same thing in starting a book club. You want to reach out and establish yourself and to connect with those people. And certainly, if you're a nursing leader, if you're a physician, any of the clinical people, as well as the administrative people. If you're a president of one hospital to make the connections with the presidents of the other hospitals. And I think it's about reaching out. I think as professionals, we need to do that. We need to make those connections. And sometimes it's a little bit difficult because you're putting yourself out there. But what you glean from those relationships is something that will come back to you tenfold. Do you feel networking is something that benefited you early in your career? Definitely, absolutely. When I was first a nurse, I belonged to the Critical Care Association, as well as the American Nurses Association. And the Critical Care Nursing Group was on a local level. And we would meet regularly and share best practices. And then on a national level, we had different groups that I belong to. Again, sharing best practices and getting to know people. And getting to know how they practiced, what they did in their institutions. And then as a lawyer, joining the American Health Lawyers Association was key. They have all different groups focusing on different areas. And once again, meeting those people, learning from them, developing best practices, sharing policies and procedures. And then you glean so much from other professionals. And in my experience with a lot of my colleagues, that did translate then into professional development, as well as promotions, et cetera. I see you've touched on two aspects of networking. The connections and then best practices, things you've learned. Can you tell us a little more about that? Some of the ways networking can be a learning tool? When you attend some of the conferences, you are able to hear from other folks around the country what has worked in their institutions and what hasn't worked. I know at Hackensack, we also did that in terms of speaking around the country, whether it was the nursing piece or compliance. And I think you are able to then hear about best practices or maybe even a practice that didn't work somewhere that maybe you were thinking about and now you've heard about pitfalls there. So you can avoid the pitfalls if you want to instituted at your organization. It's not only the connection, but also the learning opportunities. Once you're comfortable networking, you can also then, when you go to these different seminars, et cetera, you now have networked enough to be one of the presenters. So now you're telling your story about best practice. So I think it's very helpful for the professionals. If we haven't started this yet, if we haven't done much networking in our career, where's a good place to start? How do you recommend we begin down this path? So I would think for professionals today, LinkedIn is a great start. Get yourself on LinkedIn. Then the national organizations are great as well. Whatever your national organization is, I think all the professions have national organizations and going to your area. But I think another great organization for health care professionals is American Health Care Association because they have all different groups. And sometimes it is very helpful not only to be with your group, but also getting outside your comfort zone a little bit and learning about a little more of the business. But there are so many opportunities with LinkedIn. There's online groups now. And also I think this group of young professionals can certainly start their own group. I think networking is so important to today's professionals. I think it's a way of getting your name out there, getting recognition. I think it's a way of educating yourself, getting to know what's best practice out there. And I think since this is such a mobile working force, the connections are invaluable. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this conversation, check out the other topics in this series of podcasts.