In this episode of the Exxat-ly Podcast, host Brooke McIntosh PT, DPT,OCS talks with Laura Smith (Johns Hopkins Hospital) and Lori M. Harris (University of Maryland, School of Nursing), two leaders who turned shared frustration into the Maryland DC Nursing Collaborative a regional network of hospitals, outpatient sites, and nursing programs working from shared goals, shared language, and a shared platform.

They break down how this started as informal venting about broken systems and evolved into a structured, sustainable collaborative that is already changing the experience for students, faculty, and clinical partners.

In this episode, you will hear how they:

• Moved from siloed complaints and a failing vendor to the first statewide meeting that launched the collaborative
• Got the right people in the room, built trust, and turned venting into action
• Set up four subcommittees to tackle platform selection, timelines, compliance, and scope of practice
• Created a regional clinical calendar that cut down the “Hunger Games” rush and gave students schedules earlier
• Chose a shared platform across competing systems while keeping partners included in the decision
• Turned a high turnover, often isolated role into a supported community for placement coordinators
• Are planning the next phase, from capacity and data analysis to grant funding, advanced practice nursing, and allied health expansion
• What they would do first if they were building a regional collaborative all over again

About our guests

Laura Smith is the Nursing Placement Coordinator at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She partners with academic programs across the region and helped convene the first formal meetings that led to the Maryland DC Nursing Collaborative, shaping its structure, shared objectives, and subcommittees.

Lori M. Harris is the Director of Student Placements at the University of Maryland, School of Nursing. After seeing a collapsing system impact students and partners, she initiated the original “meeting of the minds” that brought hospitals and schools together and now leads efforts around data, capacity, and the student experience.

Tune in to hear what happens when the people doing the work get in the same room, name the problems out loud, and choose to build something better together.