Shearwater Health CHRO Jen Bales joins the HR Leaders Podcast with Chris Rainey to discuss AI, frontline teams, and why people remain at the heart of healthcare – anchored by a clinician-in-the-loop approach.
AI is changing healthcare work, but our question at Shearwater isn’t how much can we automate – it’s how do we use technology to better support the clinicians on the frontline of care? That starts with keeping clinicians in the loop at every step – from design and pilot to deployment and continuous improvement.
On the HR Leaders Podcast, Jen shares how we intentionally design processes that lift administrative load so clinicians can work at the top of their license, while building guardrails where human judgment – through clinician-in-the-loop review – guides every AI recommendation.
Shearwater Health’s Human-Centered Healthcare Workforce in the Age of AI
At Shearwater Health, our approach to AI starts with a simple belief: technology should elevate clinicians, not replace the human expertise that makes healthcare work.
For our global workforce of clinicians and healthcare professionals across the United States, Philippines, and India, that means intentionally looking for ways technology can reduce administrative burden, improve processes, and allow clinicians to spend more of their time working at the top of their license.
But as Jen explains, building the workforce of the future requires more than technology.
It requires investing in people.
During the conversation, Jen shares how Shearwater is connecting employee values, frontline engagement, leadership development, clinical talent pipelines, and technology to create one shared culture across a global organization.
She also discusses the metrics behind that work — from coaching quality and 90-day retention to employee engagement — and why even in an increasingly data-driven workplace, there is always a person behind every data point.
Watch: Jen Bales on the HR Leaders Podcast
In the episode, Jen and Chris discuss:
- How AI can help clinicians work at the top of their license
- Why healthcare organizations shouldn’t lose the human side of work as they adopt AI
- How Shearwater Health builds and develops global nursing talent through Clinical Academies and hospital partnerships
- Why leadership development and frontline coaching matter to employee retention
- How employee input helped shape shared values across Shearwater’s teams in the US, India, and the Philippines
- Why every workforce metric ultimately represents a real person
For Shearwater, the future of healthcare work isn’t people or technology.
It’s about intentionally bringing the two together — using technology to remove friction while investing even more deeply in the clinicians and people behind the work.
Watch the full conversation above, or listen to the HR Leaders Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
