Reflections on 2025
I have the privilege of speaking regularly with mission-driven healthcare executives across the country.
As we close out 2025, I’d like to honor the fortitude, determination, persistence, and strength I see. This year has brought unrelenting pressure from all sides: changing policy, rising costs, intensifying competition, and ever-increasing uncertainty. Inside the system, clinicians, administrators, operational leads, and front-line workers are all being asked to do more with less. It has left an emotional toll, a growing sense of mental fatigue, and a creeping doubt that this pace will ease anytime soon.
Challenges:
Here is a short list of some of the challenges I have witnessed:
the no-win decisions you have to make, often without the space to explain everything behind them.
how the weight of responsibility doesn't stop at the end of the workday, with very few people seeing the ongoing personal cost.
the tension you hold between how you believe the system should be and what it rewards, often trying to shield others from the burdens it imposes.
the quiet work of repair and prevention: the problems solved, crises averted, reduced harms that will never be known, seen, or felt by people who still deserve more from the system.
the solitude of leadership and how responsibility can be professionally and personally isolating.
Resilience:
Making it through these challenges every day brings with it resilience, which I also find inspiring:
the persistent grit and sense of purpose that are driven by the mission that keep leaders going despite headwinds
a new willingness and even eagerness to take bold steps and venture into new territory
the creative thinking that emerges as teams challenge old constraints
expressions of gratitude and appreciation for colleagues sharing in these challenges and this resilience together
Do these experiences resonate with you? I’d love to hear your stories, and hopefully to some work together. At Spring Street we have concentrated on some ways to tame uncertainty and bring greater focus to planning. We can also talk about ways to embrace innovation without losing focus on critical near-term priorities.
It has never been harder to be in healthcare, and yet, we see the resilience-born opportunities around us. What a moment we are in.
If you’re going into 2026 with some big questions or thoughts, let's connect!
With warmth and admiration,
Nancy
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If you'd like to connect, I offer 25-min strategic check-ins. These conversations are informal and not part of an engagement. You can select a time with this link.