Tell us a little bit about the different roles you play.
I have been a nurse for over 25 years. My background is cardiovascular intensive care, CCU, critical care… IVIG infusions in the home nursing… legal nursing consulting, and any ICU dealing with adults, especially cardiovascular ICU. Now I have my wonderful company, Your Healthcare Nurse Advocates, we are educators, advocators, and navigators. So a lot of people get us confused with a home-health company, we are not hands-on. We are basically your liaison, for you and your loved one, your family, to help you navigate the complex healthcare system.
Tell us about your clients
It’s mostly people who are “add to”, this is the sandwich generation, meaning they are anywhere from maybe 30 to 50 and they’re caring for their loved one, their parents. And the reason we call them a sandwich generation is because you’ve got a job, you’ve got to work, you’ve got your life, you’ve got your kids, you’ve got your husband, but you also have mom and dad. So you’re in like a sandwich. And so your talent is pulled in several directions. So most of my clients are what we call people like us, you got a job, you have a career, you have a life, a busy lifestyle, but you also have your parents that have five or six positions. The other set of my clients are people who maybe have a chronic illness, maybe you were just diagnosed with congestive heart failure, maybe you were just diagnosed with lupus, and you have more than three physicians. You have more than three physicians, everybody needs a patient advocate because the physicians, unfortunately, don’t have the time to talk with each other and update each other who did what, why, when, or you. So that’s where we come in as healthcare advocates.
“When I think of an accomplishment it is, sticking and staying in this business. Being able to pivot, especially during COVID…”
What inspired you to get started with patient advocacy?
Going through my career, I would see so many things that just didn’t sit right with me, as a nurse. Whether it was a patient interaction with another healthcare professional, an event that wasn’t explained properly, or the patient circled right back into the hospital because they did not know or understand what they were supposed to be doing on their part. And I said that that’s not right…But then, the final call was my mom, at the age of 52, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, MS —she had already had asthma—she had colon cancer…and then her primary care physician. So that’s five positions that we had to navigate… So, learning that frustration and having to be in the sandwich generation, and fighting with my supervisors about getting time off from work…The misunderstanding about medications, the misunderstanding about procedures, the misunderstanding about who does what, when, where, what was already ordered, what doesn’t need to be ordered, what should be ordered, you know, just different things like that. And I said to myself, “Well? What if I was a layperson, maybe not in the healthcare field at all, and I had to fight this battle”… if I could have a neurology nurse, go to the doctors with my mom, and I could still conduct my life and go to work, I would hire that nurse to give me the good, the bad, the ugly. So that’s how I came up with Your Healthcare Nurse Advocates.
Can you tell us about a project or accomplishment that you consider to be one of the most significant in your career?
Because I’m just getting started… when I think of an accomplishment it is, sticking and staying in this business. Being able to pivot, especially doing COVID, because I started the business right at the beginning of COVID. And it was like everyone else,“What do I do now?” How do I pivot? How do I change? How do I survive? And so, I’m gonna say surviving during COVID; in a business that you thought of, and you know it’s a great idea; you know this is going to change lives; and you know it’s going to help people in a different way. So, anybody who survives a business during COVID, whether startup or continuing, that’s a major accomplishment.
“The most rewarding thing about what I do is when I see somebody go, ‘I can be my own advocate, now!’”
What is the most rewarding thing about what you do?
The most rewarding thing about what I do is when I see somebody go, “I can be my own advocate, now!” I know how to speak up for myself, now. The right way. Being able to see that person say, “I understand now and I’m a part of this. And, I know what responsibilities I have and understand what responsibilities to hold others accountable for, and I can do this.” That’s rewarding!
Tell us about a personal or business discovery that you’ve made and how it affected where you are today.
A business discovery that I made was knowing in my heart that people needed this service, but then when I implemented the service, confirmation that people need this service. Because, you can talk about it all day, there’s really nobody, other than private duty advocates, it’s an emerging industry. So, you can talk about the advocates that are behind the scenes, the advocates that are in the hospital, the advocates that work for surgical centers, the advocates that work for insurance companies. But this, right here? It’s amazing!
Nominated by Sir Dion Magee
“Ms. Kindred is amazing! She is truly a pillar of leadership, support, and 1st responder helping others manage through their medical journey. She loves educating individuals and families with the right information to make the right choices for themselves… Her business helped me to assist my very ill Mom during her medical issues and final journey to heaven…[S]he is deserving of such an honor and is a wonderful woman of leadership excellence.”
Jenn Wells, Co-Founder & Marketing Director of BrandSwan
Why Deidra Kindred is On this List
“Deidra has such a passion for helping through what is often the most difficult time of their lives — when a loved one is in the hospital and they aren’t sure what their choices are. I love that someone is addressing this very real need for patients and families to help them feel in control of their medical decisions!”
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