Hospitals don’t just save lives, they can also endanger them when early warning signs are missed or when concerns don’t get heard.
In this episode of The Bossy Nurse Podcast, Marsha Battee sits down with Dr. Julie Siemers, DNP, MSN, RN, to talk patient safety, communication, and how she turned decades of bedside lessons into education, tools, and a business mission.
Dr. Siemers is a nurse, educator, patient safety consultant, TEDx Speaker, and founder of Lifebeat Solutions.
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Key takeaways
- Patients and families can be powerful safety partners by asking questions, tracking changes, and speaking up early.
- Building nurse readiness takes intentional training: Dr. Siemers shares research-based concerns about practice readiness and how that shaped her course development.
- Mission-driven business can amplify impact: from TEDx prep to course creation and outreach to hospital leaders, she breaks down what it really takes.
Show notes / what you’ll hear in this episode:
- Failure to rescue: Dr. Siemers connects “failure to rescue” to what nurses see every day. Patients show signs of deterioration hours before a major event, and early recognition changes outcomes.
- Spot the red flags: Marsha and Dr. Siemers make the case for counting respiratory rate (not guessing) and taking altered mental status seriously as a red-flag trend.
- Advocacy cuss words: You’ll hear the patient advocacy “cuss words” framework. It helps nurses and families escalate with clarity.
- Communication saves lives: Dr. Siemers shares why communication failures matter so much in safety work.
- A simple safety habit: The practical habit that protects patients, documenting what providers say, changes you notice, and questions you don’t want to forget.
- From flight nurse to founder: Dr. Siemers explains how she moved from flight nursing and education into entrepreneurship and why she decided hospitals and nurse leaders needed stronger clinical judgment training.
- Building the products: Dr. Siemers talks openly about what it took to build her education products.
- What’s next for families: You’ll also get a preview of what she’s building for patients and families.
Resources Mentioned & Where to Find Dr. Siemers Online
- Dr. Julie Siemers’ Website
- Dr. Julie Siemers’ TEDx Talk
- Patient Safety Checklist
- SafeGuard Health App
- Dr. Siemers’ Book – Surviving Your Hospital Stay: A Nurse Educator’s Guide to Staying Safe and Living to Tell About It
Bio: Dr. Julie Siemers, DNP, MSN, RN
Dr. Juile SIemers, nurse, educator, and founder of Lifebeat Solutions, has dedicated her 45-year career to preventing harm in healthcare. Lifebeat Solutions offers training that empowers nurses with clinical judgment tools, communication skills to advocate for patients, and systems that prioritize safety as a practice, not just a policy. Her mission is to transform nurse education to improve patient outcomes—one course, one hospital, one voice at a time. Through her work, she champions patient advocacy and equips healthcare professionals to recognize and prevent harm before it happens.
Timestamps
- 00:00 — “I’m really concerned…”: a real-world escalation moment and what happens when concerns don’t land
- 00:15 — Why early warning signs get missed—and how that became the seed for LIFEbeat Solutions
- 00:16 — Failure to rescue + the case for counting respirations (and not guessing “16”)
- 00:21 — The “CUSS” words framework for escalating safety concerns
- 00:25 — Patient/family documentation: how a notebook helps you advocate in real time
- 00:28 — Nurse readiness research and why she built structured education tools
- 00:31 — Building courses (time, cost, and staying committed to the mission)
- 00:43 — Patient harm stats + why she’s building an app for patients and families
