Molly K. McCarthy MBA, RN-BC is the Managing Director, US Provider/Plans and Chief Nursing Officer for Microsoft. I had the pleasure of speaking with Molly about her journey in nursing, her work for Microsoft, nurses and board membership, and the future of nursing.  
 
I was very curious not only about Molly’s role at Microsoft, but also how she came upon that position. Like many of us, Molly’s journey is not one that could have been predicted, and to me, that is one of the biggest advantages of our profession: opportunities truly abound in both clinical and nonclinical roles.
 
Please listen to our full conversation and learn about Molly’s transition from majoring in French to nursing, then working in NICU and pediatric settings, followed by business school, and the path to her current career at Microsoft.
 
Additional highlights from our conversation include:

• Finding your “sweet spot” in nursing
• The importance of “branding” yourself as a nurse
• Having a “growth mindset”
• Following the “MSH” (make stuff happen) line of thinking
• The collaboration between Microsoft and the Nurses on Boards Coalition
• The importance of nurses on all types of boards

Molly also enlightened me on initial planning for Year of the Nurse and Midwife, and how Microsoft pivoted with the arrival of COVID-19. In May 2020, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, the Society of Nurse Scientists Innovators Entrepreneurs and Leaders (SONSIEL), and DevUP held the first NurseHack4Health: COVID-19 Virtual Hackathon. The virtual hackathon convened nurses and other frontline healthcare professionals, developers, and engineers to help solve COVID-19 healthcare challenges using technology. With over 900 registrants, this event highlighted how nurses have been instrumental at solving problems during the pandemic. Next month, the event will focus on Pandemic Management--Improving Education & Communication.

Listen now...

Uniting Technology & Clinicians: Molly McCarthy, MBA, RN-BC

If healthcare and tech is something you are interested in learning more about, I encourage you to also check out the Microsoft US Health and Life Sciences Confessions of Health Geeks podcast!
 
Molly K. McCarthy MBA, RN-BC is the Managing Director, US Provider/Plans and Chief Nursing Officer for Microsoft. With over twenty-five years’ experience in the healthcare industry, Molly is passionate about uniting technology, clinicians, and patients to improve care delivery, safety and outcomes. Molly joined Microsoft in 2013, and now leads a team of industry subject matter experts across the US to help both health provider and health plan organizations digitally transform.  

Molly graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Georgetown University, and began her career as a nurse in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Pediatric Units. Upon receiving her Master of Business Administration from the University of San Francisco, she combined her clinical and business backgrounds within the medical device and clinical informatics industry. Molly started in a product and market development role at Natus Medical, Inc, in Silicon Valley. She furthered her career in a business development role for the Association for Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN), where she was responsible for piloting a benchmark database that extracted data from hospital EHRs in order to provide business intelligence to hospital leadership. Immediately prior to joining Microsoft, she worked with Philips Healthcare’s Patient Care and Clinical Informatics Divisions, where she orchestrated large enterprise system integrations of patient monitoring networks into hospital EMRs. 

Connect with Molly on LinkedIn and Twitter @MSFTMollyRN.