Innovative Inputs

NPD Rock Stars

NPD Rock Star: Matthew Geisz

Matthew Geisz
Program Manager
Nursing Education and Professional Development                                                             
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

This month’s NPD Rock Star is Matthew Geisz, a Program Manager for the Nursing Education and Professional Development (NEPD) department at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in Nashville, TN. From a young age, he knew that he wanted to have a role in healthcare. His parents could never understand how he could sit and watch the gory medical shows—he always found them fascinating. Matthew entered college as a pre-medical student and, about halfway through, decided that the leadership and management side of healthcare was where his passion lay. He got his foot in the door at Vanderbilt as a Medical Receptionist on 7S Cardiac Stepdown, quickly becoming a high-performer that led to several opportunities such as being a part of a Lean event and member of the unit's Visual Management Board committee. The Nursing Education Specialist—or nursing professional development (NPD) practitioner—on the unit noticed his skills, abilities, and passions and, upon hearing of a Program Manager vacancy in the NEPD department, quickly encouraged him to apply. In October 2019, Matthew was hired for the job and has loved every moment in this department.

In his current role as Program Manager, his two primary responsibilities include the management of the organization's initial and annual competency process, as well as day-to-day assistance with new educational initiatives for the adult hospital at VUMC. As a member of the VUMC Competency Team, each year, Matthew is responsible for the building, completion, and tracking of both initial and annual competencies. In the current fiscal year, he has created nearly 800 e-learning modules and curricula in VUMC’s learning management system (LMS) so that both new hires and existing staff can complete all organizational and educational requirements for their area of work. The NEPD team also processes over 10,000 competency submissions annually, and this work could not be done without the support of the incredible professional development (PD) associates.

In addition to competency management processes, Matthew is also integral to new product or initiative rollouts across the adult hospital. Over the past 2 years, there have been dozens of new products or initiatives that staff must be aware of, and this requires Matthew to build content into the LMS, assign it to over 3,000 clinical staff, and run completion reports that can be provided to hospital leadership. He has quickly become an expert in many of the systems and processes that the NEPD department uses and is looked at to orient and mentor new and existing members of the team to a variety of processes and skills to maximize workflow.

Earlier this year, Matthew had the opportunity to present during February’s PD Associate Quarterly Update with his leader, Rachel Kromer, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, NEA-BC, the Director of Clinical Education and Professional Development for the Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital. Their presentation focused on how to leverage the role of the PD associate in competency management. The recording of this highly-rated session can be found here. In April 2022, Matthew and Rachel partnered again to share with the ANPD of Middle Tennessee affiliate on their work related to program and project management.

When Matthew was asked to reflect on his proudest NPD accomplishment, he proudly recalls when he was nominated and won the 2021 Friend of Nursing Award during VUMC’s Nurses Week celebration—he was one of over 20 nominees! This award is bestowed to a full-time, non-nurse who exemplifies the essential elements of a Magnet culture in ways such as consistently supporting nurses and nursing in achieving quality outcomes; actively promoting nursing throughout VUMC to other team members, patients, families, and the larger community; and participating collaboratively in the mentoring and education of nurses. Matthew humbly states how honored and grateful he is to work with such an amazing team.