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The Importance of Gratitude with Katrina Coleman, BSN, MSN – Healthcare Experience Matters Podcast

November 25, 2021


The importance of gratitude is something that should always be top of mind, but it is especially relevant to discuss around the holidays.

Being released on the same day as Thanksgiving here in the United States, Katrina Coleman, BSN, MSN, joins our Healthcare Experience Foundation partners’ Healthcare Experience Matters podcast for a chat about the many benefits of saying thanks and being grateful.

Katrina discussed how showing gratitude can increase our overall optimism towards our careers and lives. Simply put, being grateful tends to increase happiness.

Katrina Coleman, BSN, MSN

Katrina is a Leadership and Engagement Strategist with Maryland Healthcare Education Institute (MHEI) in Elkridge, Md.

“My ‘why’ is helping people grow in their courageous confidence and for today’s podcast it’s about growing courageous confidence in displaying and receiving gratitude,” she said.

According to their official website, “Founded in 1967, the MHEI is the premier provider of leadership, regulatory and quality-related programming and consultative services for its members. It is through this programming that MHEI members gain tools and skills they can implement immediately to enhance the performance of their organizations.”

Listeners of Healthcare Experience Matters may find Katrina to have a familiar voice. This is her second time joining our weekly podcast. She previously joined us for an episode entitled, “More COVID? More than I Can Take? Finding Individual Strength in Our Collective Experience.”

In that episode, Katrina joined Kathleen Lynam, RN, MPA, for a broadcast with practical steps to restore morale in the face of these unprecedented times brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Power of Gratitude

Katrina helps us define gratitude as the ability to recognize the blessings in our life.

“Gratitude is the act of feeling and communicating appreciation for people, for circumstances, for material possessions in our lives and it allows us to cherish our present in ways that make us feel in abundance rather than deprived,” she told us.

After listening to today’s podcast, it should be clear to you why gratitude is highly contagious.

“When you’re grateful you tend to exude and share that positive energy,” she said. “People are drawn to smart, talented, and pleasant people to be around.”

Gratitude Awareness

During difficult times it is easy to fall into a trap of negative thinking, and it can impact our own sense of wellbeing and the attitudes of those around us. It can be helpful to make a change by simply being aware of how our words and behaviors impact others.

As discussed in today’s podcast, practicing gratitude is contagious.

Katrina recommends watching your words and paying specific attention to how we conduct ourselves to make a difference.

“What you say is usually how you act, so we need to be aware of complaining and whining and replace that with positive words,” Katrina said. “If you want your gratitude to be contagious, start with yourself to be that change with your words and watch as the world changes around you.”

Learn More

Listen to today’s episode in its entirety here:

To learn more about Katrina and the Maryland Healthcare Education Institute (MHEI), please visit their official website: https://www.mhei.org/