Director of Perioperative Services/Healthcare Administrator at NBJ Healthcare Consulting and Management Company in Coconut Creek, Florida
By Matt Skoufalos
From her early days volunteering as a middle-school candy striper in Clewiston, Florida, to establishing her own health care consulting company, Natalie Jones has enjoyed a rich career in nursing; one that has taken her across the United States and internationally, through various levels of academic achievement, and to the top levels of leadership in her field.
“I always had a desire and a passion for health care,” Jones said. “I would see nurses on the television and think, ‘I would like to be a nurse someday.’ ” That passion was invigorated even more when she expressed her desires to her parents.
“My parents encouraged me to follow my dreams and always reassured me that nothing was impossible for me to achieve,” Jones said.
After graduating a year early from Clewiston High School, Jones pursued her passion, and was accepted into the nursing program at Palm Beach Junior College, in West Palm Beach, Florida. While completing nursing school, she joined John F. Kennedy (JFK) Medical Center in Lake Worth, Florida as a patient care technician. When she had completed the nursing program in 1984, however, jobs in her chosen profession were scarce. Jones was hired as a graduate nurse, and then as a Registered Nurse on a medical-surgical unit after she completed her state board examination.
Jones gained exceptional experience in patient care on that unit, but her introduction to perioperative nursing came when a PACU nurse remarked that she would be great working in the operating room, and encouraged her to seek an opportunity in a new ambulatory center recently built by JFK Medical Center.
“She said, ‘You’d really be good. Talk to the director and see what openings they have,’ ” Jones recalled. “There were no openings in the operating room at the time, but I was offered a position in endoscopy. I thought, why not? Change is good and accepting the position in endoscopy would at least get my foot in the door.”
After only a week and a half of working in the endoscopy department, the only other nurse there at the time went on vacation, providing Jones the first of what would become many opportunities to oversee a perioperative department. But even after becoming the endoscopy charge nurse, Jones retained such an interest in the perioperative environment that she took every spare moment to go into the OR. Whether observing cases, learning to pick cases, wiping down the rooms in the mornings, or updating preference cards, Jones made it known that she would do anything she could do to begin transitioning into the OR.
“I learned how to scrub before I learned to circulate,” Jones said. “I was already assisting in the OR, by coming in in the morning, wiping down the rooms, spreading the cases around, and starting the sterilizers for the OR team in the morning, and I wasn’t even in the OR yet. I availed myself and committed any additional time that I had to learn the processes and to demonstrate my desire to become an OR Nurse. I continued to work hard, and was not ever satisfied with just the status quo,” she said.
Finally, Jones gained the attention of one of the top general surgeons at the facility, Dr. Charles Moore. Moore, whom she remembered for his dedication to patient care, tenacity, strong will and meticulous surgical technique, took note of Jones’ enthusiasm, and advocated on her behalf. He asked the perioperative director, “Why are you wasting her talent? Why don’t you teach her how to scrub? Put her in my room, and I’ll teach her.”
For Jones, this surgeon’s willingness to advocate on her behalf was the start of a rewarding and lasting nursing career in perioperative services.
Despite seeking alternative (advanced) positions as a charge nurse, or nurse manager in the OR, Jones ran into objections, obstacles and barriers over her lack of either additional experience or additional education. She went on to earn a Bachelor’s in Healthcare Administration at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, and then a Master’s in Business Administration from Nova Southeastern University.
“In one of my first organizations, I was there for a very long time, trying to advance and get to the next level,” she said. “Here I am this young, eager, motivated, hair-on-fire, can-do-anything-in-the-world nurse, and kept getting all kinds of excuses. It all worked for me because it was a motivating factor for me to say, ‘Education will never be an Achilles’ heel again.’ ”
Besides a strong work ethic and the pursuit of higher education had always been instilled in her by her parents, who both held college degrees and worked as educators in the school system.
“I had to be self-motivated to work hard – not because anybody told me I needed to, but because I wanted to,” Jones said.
“I wanted to know more about leadership and the business of health care,” she said. “My leadership track was to become a chief operating officer (COO) or chief nursing officer (CNO). I advanced from charge nurse to nurse manager to perioperative director to administrator, leading perioperative and cardiovascular services both nationally and internationally.”
Jones credits her high degree of self-motivation with providing her the resolve necessary to push herself into positions of greater opportunity. Eventually, she also realized that when she wasn’t finding them where she was, choices abounded elsewhere in the health care space if she was willing to branch out.
Jones eventually joined Palms West Hospital, where she became a manager of perioperative services, and developed experience with strategic planning, budgeting, equipment acquisition, physician and nursing recruitment, physician relations and patient safety. She parlayed that into a nurse manager position at Mercy Hospital in Miami, and eventually into a role as the director of surgical services at Parkway Medical Center. The chief nursing executive who opened the door for Jones to ascend to that position, Rhue LaMont, became a transformative mentor
“We had to perform, but there was nothing like being a first-time director and someone taking the time to make sure you succeed,” Jones said. “Rhue gave several of us the opportunity for directorship positions; she mentored us and supported us, and that experience was invaluable.”
With her confidence – and resume – bolstered, Jones began to move into interim management and leadership roles on a consultancy basis. She began traveling to Minnesota, Michigan, Washington State and eventually Dohar, Qatar in the Middle East. All the while, Jones felt more and more empowered in roles of increasing responsibility. Even if she began a contract with a three-month tenure, Jones never served less than a year and oftentimes a year-and-a-half in any role. Today, she remains a steadfast advocate of the opportunities available to contract nurses and nursing leaders to serve health care organizations.
“They’re eager to have you there, and you make a difference,” Jones said. “I was so blessed in every aspect. You have to be easily adaptable and quick on your feet. You have to be able to effectively assess and evaluate the organizational landscape quickly. And my experience expanded so much – I got to see different hospitals, organizations, executive teams, and gain phenomenal experience.”
“You break out of the siloes,” she continued. “You see different parts of the world. Your knowledge base is expanded, and that knowledge that you take from one organization is beneficial to another organization. The most rewarding aspect for me with interim traveling was taking that skill and expertise onto your next organization.”
Jones further enhanced her experience and expertise, earning a doctorate in health administration, then going back to earn her BSN, and launching NBJ Healthcare, her self-directed health care consultancy consulting company. Other accomplishments include serving as a member and an officer of Association of periOperative Registered Nursing Nurses (AORN) South Florida Chapter 1004, as a member of the Board of Directors for the Florida Council of periOperative Registered Nurses, and as a member of the AORN National Nominating Committee. In her current position as Associate Faculty for the Doctoral Health Administration Program at the University of Phoenix, Jones enjoys the opportunity to help cultivate future health care leaders.
When she’s not working, traveling or spending time with her husband, Gilbert, Jones says that she enjoys attending comedy shows, bowling, horseback riding and a good spa day. She and Gilbert are also active members of their church, Redemptive Life Palm Beach, in West Palm Beach Florida where they have served as faithful members for 25-plus years.
Professional Spotlight Nomination
