I’m finally back home after a whole week away from the family, attending an exciting boot camp and conference in sunny Arizona. It was fantastic seeing and hugging the family again when they picked me up at the airport – Newark Terminal A kicks arse!

On the way home from the airport, we stopped at a great soul food place in Newark that I’ve wanted to visit for a long time. It did not disappoint. Cornbread Soul is a small fast-food joint on the main road through Newark and serves excellent quality food. We enjoyed cornbread (of course), collard greens, black-eyed peas, mac n’ cheese, waffles and chicken, and fried chicken.

I can highly recommend visiting Cornbread Soul—excellent service and food.

CIO Bootcamp

Last week, as you read in my previous post, I traveled to Phoenix, AZ, where I had the incredible opportunity to attend a Healthcare CIO boot camp hosted by the CHIME organization.

I have not attended a classroom setting or boot camp for a long time, so I was apprehensive about spending three days locked away in a conference meeting room on the outskirts of Phoenix, AZ.

The last time I sat an official course was when I worked through the various topics for my MBA while working full-time.

Without disclosing my age, it was around the same time my oldest kids were born!

During the boot camp, I quickly learned I’m not the most innovative or experienced healthcare leader in the room. I was surrounded by very technical and industry-savvy peers who had spent many years in healthcare and had been exposed to many different challenges. It was also evident that working in a healthcare center differs from working in large-scale hospitals and medical centers.

Most of my new peers work within huge teams of 500-800 IT employees and have deployed a more rigid governance structure. They also focus on hospital beds and emergency departments and have much larger budgets due to the more extensive organization needs.

Their achievements and experiences make my healthcare journey insignificant!

My professional healthcare journey has focused on building an enterprise-ready IT organization from scratch, stabilizing the application stack, redesigning and securing the network, and providing a more mature IT support structure. It is a fascinating journey, and I’ve loved most of the challenges.

I need to explore and learn more about healthcare so I can provide a better, so attending the boot camp was a perfect catapult into healthcare leadership.

Usually, I’m not shy and love to share my story, debate technologies, listen to approaches, talk about essential learnings, and share my experiences.

However, being surrounded by many great and experienced individuals with 10+ years of experience in healthcare quickly made me the quiet person in the room.  I did not want to embarrass myself with some healthcare beginner gaffs and was very conscious about my lack of healthcare experience. Suddenly, I questioned myself and my decade-long IT career. So, I spent most of the time listening and learning from my peers and avoided participating in debates. For bizarre reasons, I also removed myself from social interaction with my peers and sat quietly, looking and listening.

Moving from corporate America to healthcare comes with its own set of challenges.

The technology is not different, but there are many more facets to healthcare that I do not know – not to mention terminology used, processes deployed, stakeholder relations, governance, and the overarching goal of improving patient care, which is badly needed across the US.

Despite my doubts, I thoroughly enjoyed the boot camp and learned a lot of valuable lessons.

My healthcare peers (regardless of the size of their organization) and I agree that we must change healthcare, starting with our organizations. We must participate and push forward with ways to improve and change how we provide for our patients. The class agreed to support each other and the industry through these changes.

We own the future of healthcare and how we enhance the patient experience.

Moods around Phoenix

I had some free time during the week and went for a quick sightseeing, and of course, food was involved.

Lazy Dinners

I was spending a whole week away from home in a hotel that “forced” me to eat a lot of less healthy food and probably too much food. Most days, the boot camp and conference offered breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was nice but heavy on salt and fat; I might have challenged my portion size quota.

A few vendors I met invited me to dinner and other food-related events, which added to my unhealthy consumption of food and alcohol, especially as one event was bourbon testing combined with charcuterie.

I tasted a $900 bottle of bourbon and didn’t enjoy it!

I arrived home late Sunday evening and had not spent time creating next week’s meal plan. However, we still have a few meals in the freezer and might as well clear some much-needed freezer space before I get the half-pig delivered.

That said, I might update the meal plan during the week as I will go grocery shopping tonight and will attempt to make a few simple dinners.

For now, I created a few simple school lunches and will make a few 30-minute meals that can be done when I get home from work.

Meal Plan

	Lunch	Dinner
Monday	Bagel with Roast Beef, mozzarella, and Chick-a-Fill mustard spread	Freezer Surprise – Part I
Tuesday	Super Healthy Chicken Wrap	Louisiana Red Beans And Rice
Wednesday	Ciabatta, dried tomato and pesto	Creamy Parmesan Cajun Chicken Pasta Soup
Thursday	Pigs in Blankets	Creamy Gnocchi Soup with Bacon
Friday	Frozen Pizza Delight	Take Out

Have a fantastic week, my friends. I hope you enjoy these meal plans. It is much easier to make food in advance, although you must invest several hours preparing meals during the weekend.

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