HealthIMPACT Live Presents: Spotlight on Nurse Entrepreneurship - Innovation on the Front Lines - Addressing Systemic Issues Driving Disparities in Healthcare
Original Publish Date: Oct 26, 2022
YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/-v-vsCzhuHg
As a Black registered nurse, Layo George has worked ambitiously to tackle the systemic issue that has single-handedly created a disparity in the healthcare experiences of Black mothers compared to white mothers. She created an app to not only help women thrive in the joy of pregnancy but to drive better maternal outcomes for both the mothers and their babies. Wolomi, which began as a nonprofit organization, is a digital community of women of color that offers clinical support in the form of online courses, virtual group coaching, and one-on-one tutorials for women of color during pre-pregnancy planning, pregnancy, and postpartum. These are all led by a registered nurse. We'll discuss innovation on the front lines of healthcare, hear Layo’s founder's story, and talk about how to develop technology that makes healthcare better for everyone.
Layo George, RN-MHSA CEO, Chief Clinical Officer, & Founder, Wolomi
Janae Sharp, Founder, The Sharp Index
Spotlight on Nurse Entrepreneurship - Innovation on the Front Lines - Addressing Systemic Issues Driving Disparities in Healthcare
Janae Sharp: Welcome to Health Impact Live. I'm really, looking forward to hearing about your work and what you do for our participants as a black registered nurse, Layo George
Layo George: problem.
Janae Sharp: Hi. She has worked to ambitiously fight against a systemic issue that impacts mothers as we know health outcomes.
Show huge disparity for black mothers compared to white mothers. So she's created an app to help you thrive in pregnancy and to actually enjoy it.
Layo George: Yeah.
Janae Sharp: And also most importantly, to drive like a better experience and better outcomes. Yeah. And overcome some of that gap. So I am looking forward to sitting down with you and talking about Wolomi the digital community. If you wanna introduce your yourself and tell us a little bit about that would be awesome.
Layo George: Yeah. Hi everybody. Great to be here. Thank you for having me. My name Layo George, and I am the founder of Wolomi. Wolomi is a companion app made for women of color, for women of color. Made by a woman of color, for women of color to help us own our pregnancy journey, get joy and get better outcomes.
So oftentimes it always feels like the healthcare system just takes over our pregnancy and our motherhood journey and tell us what to do and all of that. While, you know, that could be useful But we wanna create an environment where moms are feeling like they're part of the journey, that they are able to own that journey and they know what is needed to own that journey so that they could get the kind of outcomes that they want.
So, at the end of your pregnancy, or you know, your kids are like three years old, we want you to look back and say, you know, I really had a great experience. I had the best doctor, the best mid-wife. You know, I had the best team. And it was a great experience, and that's what we want. You know, oftentimes we focus on the death part, which, you know, is also traumatizing.
Janae Sharp: You don't wanna die, but also it can be bad even if you don't die.
Layo George: Yeah. And so the status shouldn't be, oh my gosh, I didn't die. That's like the, that, that shouldn't be the goal. It should be. I had a great, I had a great journey. I felt impacted. I felt like this was something, a meaningful experience.
I'm bringing life into this world and I was very much part of it. And so for us That's what we are all about. We are about supporting the moms. We do, our clients are moms and health insurance and employers, but we are kind I guess the b2b, b2c, and sometimes moms can also come to us directly on our website.
So that's how we started and that's a key part of who we are. We're but I wanted to tell you a little bit about how. The name.
Janae Sharp: Let's talk about the name. I was thinking about what you're saying with Joy too. Like, cuz I, we used to joke when I was pregnant, I'd be like, you go to the doctor and you're like, Hey, I'm bleeding outta my eyes.
And they're like, well, you're pregnant so you're fine. Like, and I was talking to some of my friends who were black mothers in Utah at the time. And I think they had different experiences.
Like, it's that feeling where it's like you go there with that and get that same advice. It's like whatever's happening that's just pregnancy, but that might not be true. Like maybe someone's not listening to you. Yeah. So I'd love to hear about the name and about the community. How do you create that environment where people can check it and advocate for themselves and know what's normal and what's not?
Layo George: Yeah. So the name comes from a urba from Nigeria.
It's called so when a mom has a child when they're pregnant, when they have a child, normally it's a greeting that says happy, dipping hands and water. So this idea. The community rallies around you and you, they always have the cloth diaper, they're washing that they giving the baby a bath.
There's a whole ceremony behind the FUS bath, they cooking for the mom. So everything has to do with water. You're always washing your hands, dipping your hands in water. And so we wanted to bring that back. The community effect of it, the joy of it. Fundamentally that's who we are with thriving community.
And so we shorten it to dipping hands in water. So that's literally means dipping hands in water. So, Again, that idea of a community. And so how do we, how are we building that community? So I wanna say like we're working hard on it. And so the fundamental things for us is creating a safe space.
So a lot of our events moderated by healthcare specialist. Oh, health specialist. So we have something called pregnancy circle. A pregnancy circle is either moderated by a midwife, doula, or a therapist. So again, for us mental health and how you are getting there is very important to us as, as much as the outcomes that you get.
And so we are making sure that we're integrating all of those. So in the, in that community, most of our events are digital. And so in a, on the platform, you get on the app, you know, you RSVP for the event and we just created an environment that's not like the healthcare system where. Again you like, okay, something is wrong with me.
And it, and they're like, yeah, you're just pregnant. And then a few months later you find out that you're like, you're
Janae Sharp: pregnant. Yeah. You have a large parasite.
Layo George: Yeah. Like, but then sometimes it's more than that, right? Like that's what trips up. That's the problem with black and brown women. It's like, it's more than that.
And nobody cared to. And ask more questions. And we find out that research shows like in white women, they do ask more questions. They do take it seriously. I was attending a a webinar at Johns Hopkins where they were talking about cardiac problems in pregnancy. They find out that even ivonne when black women actually complain about the same symptoms that are supposed to be what you talk to your provider, There is delay in initiating that care and we know anything cardiac initiating care, I, me, as you hear about it, is very important.
That's what is causing the disparity in pregnancy related cardiac issue when you look at white women investors in comparison to black women. Sorry, I feel like sneezing, so in case I do, you should.
Janae Sharp: I was thinking about also There are a lot of disparities. Also, our maternal health outcomes are not great across the board.
I like what you're doing with community because the mental health of mothers during pregnancy has such a huge impact on health outcomes.
Layo George: Yeah. And quality of life. Yeah.
Janae Sharp: And being able to create a stronger community. I feel like in healthcare right now, like it's kind of trendy to be like, oh yeah, we have.
Worry about the whole person, but they're not very good at doing that, so, yeah.
Layo George: Yeah. And I think the thing about community is it also creates an avenue to bring up that problem, right? For example, like, okay, so I went to my doctor I said, you know, I don't feel that great. But they say, yeah, it's because of pregnancy.
But then in the atmosphere we are able to also say, you know this and this is what I'm feeling, and then what one of the things is somebody else can say, oh, you know, I felt that, and this is what it actually. Maybe you should ask about this, right? Cause we always wanna strengthen that provider, provide mom relationship.
So as much as we can give the mom the words and the tools to ask the right question, to press harder the way to press harder. So so that's kind of what it is. So you're like empowering
Janae Sharp: moms with so they know cuz not every mom knows the right way to
Layo George: ask. Yeah. Or the right way to.
Right. And it's not obvious. Yeah. It's not I always joke that it's almost seems like you need to get another degree just to be pregnant. I need to be . Yeah. It's
Janae Sharp: a nursing degree. I wanted to talk about that too, like you have a nursing degree, you're registered nurse, and you are now also an entrepreneur.
What tips do
Layo George: you give people? Yeah. Who wants to kind of get into that space? I think for me one, one of the most important thing is being, making sure that if you're, for example, if you're a bedside nurse and you're kind of thinking about entrepreneurship or you're thinking about what you wanna do the first step is finding opportunities.
That are not solely bedside or finding opportunities that are available where you are that allows you to be seen and heard outside of the bedside. So, for example, if there's a committee, like maybe the hospital wide, well there's a hospital wide initiative that's like, oh, we need volunteers for this.
We need somebody to champion this. We need, so, and to champion that, that's the first step. Stepping out and being in the space where you find all the interdisciplinary people, the administration, that this people that are talking and having conversation that will start to pick your interest in what, how things are run.
Number one, what are people most worried about? Leadership. The people actually running the hospital. What the Cause one of the things that I, on my journey and I'm working and with a lot of nurses is that, and clinical people, not just nurses, clinical people in general, we don't all, while we make the best healthcare entrepreneurs, but we are not naturally the.
Healthcare entrepreneurs. Yeah, if I can say that. Because we are so focused on helping that one individual doing our job well, and we don't always think about anything outside of that. Like how different things manifest to create a successful hospital, to create a success. So like one of the things I did was of course making sure that you're volunteering for things that gives you exposure to administrators and people who are making different decision in the healthcare setting.
And another thing is, I actually know that you need to do this. I actually went back and got my masters in healthcare administration. So that I would start to think about, yeah, so I could start to think about the healthcare system and how to make that work. And from there, that's hash actually, how I got introduced to entrepreneurship.
That was not what I wanted to do. I wanted to, 1 thing that I started with was because I realized people making the decision in the healthcare system didn't necessarily look like. And a lot of the people that they're making the decision about look like me. And so I felt that
Janae Sharp: yeah, that's true. The people make the people responsible for making the changes that are necessary to improve your life are the people who are impacted least.
Layo George: And it's not that they cannot make the best decisions, but you don't know the community. You don't know. What is really affecting and impacting what would make the best even honestly, even me, I have to continue to learn and I'm, I have lived experience of being birthing white black in America.
So that's the path I wanted. I wanted to be at least make myself avail. I have the clinical experience and I was like, okay, I wanted to make myself available so that I felt as qualified to. To have solutions that would improve lives in the healthcare system. So I wanted to be part of that. I wanted to you know, go to the c-suite and be able to make those impactful, give my experience and my clinical experience so that we could make better decisions that can actually impact people that we are, that we know the.
The population is expanding, and so there's a need for that. And so that's why I went to, to, I wanted to learn how to run a healthcare business, you know, not as an entrepreneur.
I met a professor who was teaching us a social entrepreneurship and all of that things. And I was working, my thesis in grad school was working around improving Sinai Healthcare.
At that time I was pregnant and so my thesis was all around that and. And so my professor was like, you. Every time we had an assignment so like at the business school and we had business classes and all that. I would pitch, like the classes always involve a pitch and I will pitch about, it's always about health and my thesis is about health.
So he just basically said, you know, why don't you think about a life in entrepreneurship? And I was like, no, , I wanna make money. You sound like. You sound like you're calling me to a life of like permanent, like brokeness, and I do not want to do that. Cause I want to, I have student loans, you know, my husband has student loans.
I'm doing this two years already. I'm not having any income. And so anyway he at the end of graduation, he basically said to me, he was like, I. I don't have money to give you, but I can introduce you to people who you can actually talk to and verify your ideas and all of those things so you feel supported.
And I would do a three of charge. And so that's how I started this journey. So I think my sort of advice would be to stay curious outside of the one-to-one clinical. And learn how business and healthcare works and yeah, I think, I love that. Like you have to stay
Janae Sharp: curious. You have to be able to also, it helps you be able to bridge the gap, like be able to speak the language
Layo George: they're speaking.
Yeah.
Janae Sharp: And it also sounds like you were able to listen to people who believed in you. You know, , that's a big leap of trust. Like, you know, you're
Layo George: like's . It was hard. It was hard, but you know. Sometimes you know that. What else? My husband's, he he told me once, like when we were talking about it, he was like, what else are you gonna do?
You're gonna go back to work and you're gonna always wanna make change because you feel like, you know, you have the idea you know what? You know what's gonna work. You wanna test something out and somebody's gonna tell you no, you're gonna be frustrated and then you are gonna wanna leave. So like, you might as well just do.
Yeah, I spoke
Janae Sharp: to a founder once actually who talked about that. I was like, maybe I should just do something easy, like and relaxed. And she's like, here's what I found. Like you gotta know who you are and know your audience. Like what you're gonna do if you do that is you're going to be doing the same work.
You just aren't gonna be getting recognized that's
Layo George: is'. Yeah. Yeah.
Janae Sharp: Speaking of satisfaction, we've spoken to a lot of nurses. You know, and I don't know if you've heard the news, but people are leaving healthcare , which part of me is like they're taking back the power the idea that this is not going to work the way it is and how
Layo George: to change.
Janae Sharp: Tell me about that. Was that part of your journey? It sounds like you also have like something inside, but also would you tell nurses now that are like, they feel trapped, they have student loans, they don't feel like they can help patients. Like what do you tell those people when they're, when. They're getting to know the healthcare system and it's not working for them.
Layo George: Yeah, I think you have to always know your why. Even now that I'm here I don't, so a lot of us going into healthcare because we love people and we love to help and that's what started our journey. And so I would say that the first step is not to leave unless you truly feel like this is not your calling.
So like, one of the reason why I left bedside is because I always, from the beginning wanted to be a public health nurse. And so I wanted to, my, when I went to undergrad, I started as a public health person. But then I also felt like, okay I don't know how much impact I'm gonna make, just public healthy.
My mom was a midwife and I was kind of curious about that. And so I didn't feel like I could make a lot of impact just public health. Whenever I was out there talking to people, I felt like a lot of people who I looked around and I saw the person in charge of public health in the district.
Columbia is like a clinical person, you know, like, so I started to think like if I've always wanted to make the best, the most impact that I could make. And in order to do that I felt like okay, I needed to go into, to understand clinical background. So that's how I got into a clinical, again, my mom was clinical as well.
She's a nurse. She doesn't practice me midwifery now. But when I was growing up, she was a midwife. So that's how I got into it. So it was easier for me to leave of like mothers, you know, I love that it was easier for me to leave because that was not my first love. So I am, if we're speaking to people where bedside nursing is their first love, I know a lot of people like don't get driven away because you are having all those other challenges.
Think about your why. I say that to say that even when I'm here I also miss people, miss listening to people and being there for them. The hard when times are hard and just being there. That's what feels. And so one of the things that I've been working with my coach on is to join our pregnancy circles or our feeding lounge once a month.
You know, just join as, not as ly the founder, just as ly somebody who is there to listen and support other moms and pour into other moms, right? And. That doesn't change your why of going into healthcare if it's truly to help people in support that it's not gonna go away. So if you feel like truly the bedside is what you wanna do there, couple of options, right?
If you're a registered nurse and you feel like, okay, the, I'm not really getting recognized, I feel stuck think about getting an advanced degree, finding out the hospital, paying for the advanced degree. Maybe you could become a nurse practitioner or something where you have more autonomy and you can make decisions or so you feel like you have more control.
So you have to figure out what it is that's giving you burnout, that's giving you less satisfaction. Because the fact of the matter is we do need bedside nurses, right? We need people clinical people to do clinical. If that's your true passion, so that I'm speaking to those people who, that is your true passion.
If your passion, to be honest, is to make money. Some people come into it because a degree in sociology is not gonna pay the bills. No offense to people with sociology. They needed something. My sister has that. If he's an attorney, no, no offense to
That's right. That's like, that's going like that was.
There's nothing wrong with that. I wanted to do public health. Like I said, I wanted to do public health with the under, with the concentration in anthropology. Right. Then I had my come to Jesus moments where I said, you need to get a job while you graduate. That's gonna, so like, there's some people, like, you know, there's the same reason why we tell people to go to trade Google, go to s, sees Google, go to, you know, like, and.
Something that's gonna pay your bills in this economy. Also,
sometimes
Janae Sharp: I think it's not just that, I think it's also the change. Like you have to look at where you're going to actually be able to do the things you wanna do, and it's not always the system you've
Layo George: thought about. Yes. So, so for those people, right, for those people.
I think that, just remember that your Y would never, your y will always need to be. So even though you find rev, find other ways, I mean, we kind of talked about what other, how you can start to grow your other ways and while you're feeling your curiosity, you will figure out what, where you need to go and how to stay passionate.
But I think the most important thing is if your reason is to make money and have a sustainable lifestyle. Look at other spaces. Like for example, I know people who became nurse atheist. They're making a lot of money, you know, travel nurses, you know, like, so even for people who love bedside nursing, right?
Travel nurses can give you a lot of freedom, right? Where you only think about the money. , you're doing what you. And you doing what you love and you also get way reward for it and that you could use that income to feed your passion somewhere else, right? Like it's not always Oh, right.
Janae Sharp: I feel like it's also applicable to your creation process.
Like you saw something you. Like you wanted to improve, like health outcomes? Like, and then you had to get there. How did you find that? Like did you look at technologies that exist? Did you look at your history? Like how did you
Layo George: Yeah. How did I get to the technology part? Also, everyone, I know
Janae Sharp: That is talking about this, we talk about health disparities.
There are so many guidelines, but then when you talk to people, they're like, just like, can you just tell me what to actually do? That would help
Layo George: yeah, I think you have to listen. And I think nurses, honestly, that's tough. That's not gonna happen. . I think nurses, honestly, at the best at it. We are with the patients all the time.
We know what's needed. And you have to take it a day at a time. So again, I started with, okay, I know Best Side was now, I think honestly I wasn't the best side person. To be honest, some people like that. It's, I mean, like, not the compassion part, but the, like the skill sets part wasn't the actual Yeah, the actual, yeah.
It wasn't quite clicking for me. So I knew, again, you know, that, you know where you're supposed to be . And so what I started to do was find a I find a job outside of bedside where. An innovation job. At that time, there was a healthcare clinic that was, that got a grants from the federal government to do innovation work in the community.
So again, they were looking for nurses. I took that opportunity and from there is where I set it. So it was a small com. It was a small innovation. Where they had, we had a few nurses who were leading the care coordination at the time, and then on in the same office near us was the IT people. And so that's where I started to look.
We were developing our own platform, they at that time. So that's where I that pick, again, be curious because you might just find your way out . And so. So I started to talk to them how what are we developing? What is this thing? What is that thing? And so that's where so that's where we started to I started to learn about it and then when I was in grad school so I started to learn about health it and, you know, learning more about it.
And then when I was in grad school, one of the thing is that one of the thing my professor said it to us was like, A solution is not just, oh, I'm gonna throw an app at it. So when we, so that's not a solution. So when we first started, yeah. When we first started Wolomi, it started with a walking group.
Because I wanted to listen to people and listen to what their needs are. And then from there we had a popup event. And from there, so from the feedback that people told me, so talking about where to start, the feedback that people told me from the walking group, we developed a popup event. And with the pediatrician from that pop events, we went to WhatsApp group and cause people wanted to stay connected and from that WhatsApp group would develop.
So it's a journey. Yeah. So just start somewhere. I love that. And get mentors and support and people just start somewhere
and stay curious, like look outside yourself. Yeah. I'm thrilled. Like I'm gonna be obsessed with this app and this community.
Yes,
Janae Sharp: please. I just think it's such an important thing and.
It's something people are looking at now for good
Layo George: reason. Yeah. And just to, so we support moms, anyone who needs the help, but we focus mostly on women of color, which means sometimes people always think that's just black women. No, it's, you know, Hispanic blackness. It's good for me to say that.
Janae Sharp: I'm like, I'm white as the tube suck. So,
Layo George: I mean, whatever, you know, like you know anyone who feels like they fall in that category and that can look any kind, you know, differently, right? So so, so that's who we support. Yes. You know I am black and a lot, you know, and we do have quite a big part of our community is our black, but we welcome anyone who falls in spectrum because we know while the black ache is worse, but there it's, there is, there's a spectrum of bad , you know, like that we have in the US We have a lot of work to do in the Sinai health space.
Yeah. The communities
Janae Sharp: matter. Thank you so much for coming and for your story.
Layo George: Yeah, thank you. People can find us on Instagram at Wolomi app or we are on the play store, iOS, Android and also they can just email us on our website www.wolomi.com, which is WOLOMI thank you.
Looking it up. I'm looking it up. See that? Oh look, I found you. Yeah. Well, me app, yes, please follow. Yeah,
and I'll find that also on, I'll share that as well on our social network. Yes, please.
Janae Sharp: Thank you. You thank you so much for coming and thank you for this work cuz
it's really important.
Layo George: Oh, thank you.