Capstone Project: Taryn Browning & Jan Zisman

To thrive in future healthcare leadership roles, students often need access to more than curriculum and resources. They need a mentor.

Bonds between students and mentors often shine during the MHA program capstone project, which requires students to create a product with measurable value for a healthcare organization of their choice. 

Influenced by one of the MHA program’s core competencies, communication, recent MHA graduate Taryn Browning’s project aimed to improve the “likelihood to recommend” patient scores in Intermountain Health’s emergency department. This idea came to life when Browning connected with Jan Zisman, Intermountain Health’s clinical excellence operations director. 

“I love building relationships with people,” Zisman said. “I love learning what they do, meeting them where they are, and I enjoy making things happen. I'm a catalyst for change.” 

Zisman acted as Browning’s capstone project preceptor and was a critical supporter of Browning’s success. 

“Jan was able to introduce me to people at Intermountain to ask them questions and see how their role works,” Browning said about Zisman. 

Browning’s work was able to identify a lapse in communication between nurses and nurse leaders during their patient briefings at the end of each shift. While the ER had fairly high likelihood-to-recommend ratings, Browning found that most nurses were uncomfortable confronting peers and patients about caregiving needs and challenges. Zisman works directly with Intermountain Health’s patient experience and helped Browning create a template for addressing these issues. 

“I think her natural ability to seek information, be curious, learn, and connect dots, coupled with a solid program, like Weber State’s MHA program, has really helped her continue to grow and blossom,” said Zisman about Browning. 

Learn more about Browning’s capstone project experience and her road to success.