Path to Leadership: Be your own greatest advocate
We celebrate women across our NAPA family. In this Women of NAPA series: Paths to Leadership, we share stories of challenges, successes, and lessons learned on the career journeys of women throughout our organization.
By Kaia Finney, MSN, CRNA
Chief CRNA/Vice Chair, University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center
Nursing is my second career. I emigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica in 2000, and my initial undergraduate education was biology and chemistry. However, I felt my career path was not fulfilling, a realization that led me to nursing school at the University of Maryland. After working in intensive care, I completed my nurse anesthesia training at Georgetown University in 2014.
I began my first anesthesia job at the University of Maryland at the Midtown Campus. Just three months later, my employer’s contract ended, and I found myself jobless. Oddly enough, a team at another hospital also lost its contract. In the end, we basically did a site swap, so to speak. It was an interesting transition experience, especially since that was my first position out of anesthesia school, and I was five months pregnant!
Soon after, my career settled on its path. I joined NAPA in 2015 and assumed the Chief CRNA position at my site in 2018. In 2020—in the middle of the pandemic—we earned the anesthesia contract at the University of Maryland, Prince George’s Hospital Center. In less than two months, I was in another new position as the Chief CRNA/Vice Chair at the University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center.
Learn to advocate for yourself
Throughout my career, a skill I have developed is self-advocacy. I say this is a skill because I had to learn to champion myself. When I first rose to the position of a chief, I had the responsibility but not the title for some time. I realized if I wanted to see a change in my position, I needed to have a conversation with my leadership. Thankfully, they were receptive to my message, recognized my professional goals, and understood what I could offer to the role. They were excited to support me.
Building the skill of self-advocacy is my best piece of career advice for anyone, but especially my female colleagues. Do not settle. Advocate for yourself, and then keep advocating for yourself.
Lead authentically
Self-advocacy is supported by being your authentic self, and that’s how I approach leadership. If I do not plan to do something, I do not expect my team to do it either. I set an example and hope others will follow. This could be something such as creating a more equitable call schedule. I will not assign shifts without taking shifts myself. When I step up, others join me because they realize I understand we are in this together.
Building the team at our Level II trauma center has been one of the most rewarding challenges of my career. It was eye-opening to hit the ground running at this new site, while interviewing candidates and making sure we are working as a team—meeting the needs of our patients and our hospital.
What kept me going was watching the results of our efforts unfold. I like to see the end product of hard work.