Before she was the Chief Nursing Information Officer at Microsoft, Kathleen McGrow, DNP, MS, RN, PMP, FHIMSS, FAAN saved lives in a trauma unit. One night, she cared for an 18-year-old whose arm had been crushed in a motor vehicle accident. The patient needed surgery fast, but McGrow was stuck navigating a clunky computer system designed by people who had never worked at the bedside. “Why didn’t they ask us what we wanted? Who are the people building systems that impact us without our input?” she wondered. That question changed her career. Years later, it’s one she’s helping Microsoft answer.

Read on to learn more about McGrow’s nursing career, how she ended up at Microsoft, and her advice to nurses hoping to venture into tech and innovation roles. 

Q: What is your nursing background?

A: My background is as a trauma care nurse. I live in Baltimore, and I worked at Johns Hopkins in the SICU. I also worked at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center, in the Trauma Resuscitation Unit, so I was very heavily focused on acute care. I loved taking care of patients when doing hands-on bedside care. Later, one of my coworkers told me that the University of Maryland had a nursing informatics program, and it was literally across the street. So, I thought I would try it out.

But, in all honesty, I didn't know if it was going to work out. Like a typical nurse, I was very pragmatic. Even when I had a full-time corporate job, I still worked one shift every other Saturday from 7 pm to 3:30 a.m., and I did that for five years. It really helped me, because I could bring that clinical knowledge into that vendor and think more holistically. 

Once I had been there for five years, someone reached out to me with a new job opportunity. And that job was actually at Microsoft. I was in the Health Solutions Group in Microsoft Research for a period of time in the late 2010s, and everything snowballed from there. I also got very good advice from a manager who said if I ever wanted to be Chief Nursing Information Officer at Microsoft, I should pursue a doctoral degree, and then he said he would encourage and support me in doing that. I took that advice and eventually got my DNP. 

Q: Why does Microsoft have a nursing executive? 

A: I've worked very hard in Microsoft to have nurses recognized and amplify nursing voices. There are many clinicians and researchers at Microsoft who bring forth a specialized point of view to the work we’re doing to improve how care is provided. The nursing workflow is unique, and any solutions developed for nurses must be purpose-built to integrate with the way in which they work.

That’s why we placed the voice of nurses at the center of our ongoing work to design and develop technologies that augment nurses’ daily workflows. We’re trying to make it better for all healthcare providers; when we make it better for the providers, we make it better for the patients. 

Q: What’s your best career advice for nurses?

A: My top career advice for nurses is:

• Invest time in yourself to get educated about something. It will always benefit you.
• Network. Build your network and make great connections. Make sure you maintain that network with credibility and humility. Don’t ever burn any bridges. 
• Be good to people, and they’ll be good to you. When people ask me for something, I try to respond. I believe in giving back. 
• Have a good mentor. Someone who gives you very honest feedback. 
• Learn tech. If you want to get into tech, try to get involved at your organization if there is an innovation center, or if there are any kind of technology advancements, and learn more about that. Think of what your skill set is and what you have to offer. 
• Pursue education. I have my Master’s and my Doctorate, so I’m a proponent of formal education. Getting a degree can be very helpful. But if formal education is not an option,
• look for other opportunities for learning. Be a ‘learn it all’.

Q: Where do you see the future of nursing?

A: We need to address the problems we are facing. With fewer nurses graduating and more patients getting sicker, keeping up is challenging. We’ll need to use technology to help nurses provide better care. Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays a significant role in healthcare. For instance, there is an abundance of patient data that exceeds what a single individual can process.

AI can assist in summarizing and aggregating this data to enhance our understanding of patients. Additionally, technology is likely to facilitate solutions such as ambient voice documentation for nurses to help improve workflow efficiency. The real challenge isn’t the technology itself, but implementing it and managing the change. Change is tough, but involving nurses early in the process and incorporating their feedback can make it successful.

Q: What is a day in the life of the CNIO of Microsoft?

A: I am very heavily clinical. I have a ton of years of clinical experience, and I say, “I have enough information technology to be dangerous!” My role is to bridge the gap between clinical and information technology, which involves these tasks: 

• I talk with clinicians within their organizations, whether an education organization or hospital healthcare organization.
• I identify what problems clinicians are trying to solve. 
• Based on what clinicians share, I determine what solution within the Microsoft portfolio would be the right fit. 
• I work with multidisciplinary departments; someone from legal, someone from marketing, or product management internally—it just depends on the day.
• I also do a lot of speaking engagements and try to amplify the voice of nurses..

Ultimately, my goal is to make healthcare better for the patients. I also evangelize internally to folks who don't have a lot of healthcare background and share what’s going on with nurses.

Rapid Fire Round

Q: If Microsoft Teams had a “nurse-only” feature, what would it be?

A: A wellness tracker to monitor nurse burnout and stress levels that can let the nurse know when they need to take a breath and care for themselves.

Q: What is one tech solution every nurse should use?

A: Every nurse should have Copilot. 

Q: If you could shadow any nurse specialty or organization for a day, what would it be?

A: I’ve done a lot of observations with so many specialties, but I would like to shadow a nurse who runs an innovation center and see the different technologies and innovations they’re working on. I think part of that would be virtual reality. 

Final Thoughts

Nurses play a crucial role in shaping the future of healthcare daily, yet they often do not fully recognize their potential to drive change. According to McGrow, nurses are inherently problem solvers. In essence, managing a patient’s care is a significant undertaking because nurses oversee all aspects of it. While many nurses may hesitate to identify as “innovators,” they are indeed engaging in innovation whenever they solve problems in their practice. McGrow encourages nurses to confidently acknowledge the power and skillset they possess. As a nursing innovator, staying ahead of the trends means you’ll always be part of the conversation. Subscribe to The Nursing Beat to join the community and lead the charge.