Nurses are being recognized for the work they do during this long-standing week of observance.
Amidst the chaos of the healthcare industry, it's important to honor the nurses serving on the front lines who provide patients with compassionate care, as well as the nurse leaders who support them.
The annual celebration of National Nurses Week takes place on May 6-12, and HealthLeaders is taking part. Join us for our very own Nursing Week, where we'll recognize the important role that nurse leaders play in the success of their organizations and community.
Flexibility is key for workforce development, says this nurse leader.
On this week’s episode of HL Shorts, we hear from Peggy Norton-Rosko, the new chief nurse executive at the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), about strategies for recruiting and retaining nurses in all generations. Tune in to hear her insights.
CNOs have complex intersecting issues to overcome in the modern landscape of nursing.
Modern problems require modern solutions, and in nursing it's no different.
Current pain points for nurse leaders surpass the realm of just caring for patients. From the rise of AI to the surge of negative perceptions on social media, CNOs have a lot to address.
The 2024 HealthLeaders CNO Exchange wrapped up last week in Florida after three days of enthusiastic idea-sharing and elevated discussion about the biggest topics in nursing. Here's how CNOs are tackling the key issues that are keeping them on their toes.
Creative recruiting
Recruiting is a huge piece of the puzzle, especially amid the nursing shortage. The Exchange members spoke about implementing scholarship and tuition reimbursement programs as a way to both recruit and retain nurses who are beginning their careers or continuing their education. CNOs should also consider elevating the role of LPNs to help support patient care in a more effective way.
Additionally, the members talked about the importance of sourcing new nurses from local communities in a socially responsible way. If the community is serving itself, it can result in improved recruitment, retention, representation, and potentially less workplace violence incidents. Having that positive cycle of community can also influence the narrative surrounding nursing and push a more positive message about the profession.
Growing new leaders
One of the biggest challenges in the nursing industry is the growing generational gap between tenured nurses and new nurses. Concerns have been raised about how to keep the knowledge of retiring nurses in the industry and how to deal with the fallout of nurse leader turnover.
At the Exchange, many members expressed the need for more nurse leaders and educators to help guide the next generation of nurses. They advocated for academic partnerships and the creation of pipelines into the nursing industry, and for starting the education process earlier.
Rather than starting nurse residency programs after new nurses graduate, CNOs could consider starting those programs during the students' junior or senior year, so that they can finish up their education and residencies simultaneously and be ready to work right away. The members also recommended that CNOs identify leaders among their workforce early and invest in growing their careers.
Building resiliency
Another generational challenge with new nurses is their lack of experience with the difficulties that come with nursing. To the Exchange members, it's important that nurses are taught throughout their education about what happens on a nursing shift and how to handle tough situations with patients, families, visitors, and other hospital staff.
On the leadership side, CNOs need to understand wellbeing and see their nurses as whole people who are processing events both at work and at home. The members emphasized the importance of this especially with nurse managers, who are often spread too thin and who are trying to appease both the frontline nurses and higher leadership.
Additionally, with workplace violence increasing across the industry, it's critical that CNOs and other nurse leaders develop more effective prevention methods. The members recommended partnering with security to create better responses when incidents occur, and empowering nurses to feel confident handling tough situations with patients.
Integrating technology
When it comes to technology, it seems like all roads lead to virtual nursing and AI. Currently, virtual nursing is largely being used to offload documentation from bedside nurses, for mentorship opportunities, and to assist with admissions and discharges. Virtual nursing has a broad future ahead, and the members spoke about how the future of all healthcare is virtual, beyond just nursing.
The Exchange members also emphasized the importance of giving nurses a seat at the table in AI integration and implementation discussions, so that the technology doesn't become a burden. CNOs need to pay attention to the messaging around AI and communicate clearly with their nurses about how the goal is to support them, not act as a replacement.
See more key takeaways from the 2024 CNO Exchange here.
The HealthLeaders Exchange is an executive community for sharing ideas, solutions, and insights. Please join the community at our LinkedIn page.
From the frontline to the C-Suite, nurse leaders say they need a seat at the table.
Nurse leaders have a lot on their plates.
From ensuring nurses have a say in the integration of AI into healthcare systems, to improving the public perception of nursing, to demonstrating the value of nursing to the C-Suite, a CNO’s work is complex.
In times like these strategizing with peers is key, and that’s exactly what dozens of nurse leaders from across the country are doing right now.
The HealthLeaders CNO Exchange is well on its way as the participating members discuss these pain points in nursing and innovative solutions for dealing with them.
Here are three areas where nurse leaders say nurses need a seat at the table.
AI
The emergence of AI in healthcare has the potential to turn the industry upside down, and in many ways it already has.
The biggest concern amongst nurses, according to the Exchange members, is making sure that nurses have a seat at the table in determining how AI will be integrated into their health systems. The implementation of any new technology can become a hindrance if not implemented correctly, so it is crucial that CNOs partner with technology teams to determine the best ways to move forward.
Another key factor is messaging. CNOs need to make sure they are communicating to their nurses that AI is not there to replace them, but rather to support them and help offload some of the more administrative tasks so they can spend more time at the bedside.
Perception of nursing
In terms of recruitment and retention, the public perception of nursing on social media has been affecting the number of people wanting to become nurses. According to the members, the public outlook on the profession has become very negative, and nurse leaders have lost control of the narrative.
Some of the solutions that were discussed include utilizing social media to spin a more positive message about nursing and about working in healthcare. CNOs should consider bringing in experts who are familiar with social media and enlisting their help to create a more positive message that can then help draw new potential candidates into the industry.
Value of nursing
One of the biggest hurdles that CNOs have to jump through is presenting the ROI for nursing to the rest of the C-Suite. According to the Exchange members, the cost of nursing is distributed between other parts of the budget, even though nursing makes up the largest portion of the healthcare workforce.
To the members, the important thing is that nurses are valued and appreciated for the services they provide, and recognized for the revenue that they bring to the health systems through quality care and patient interactions. One recommendation from the members is that CNOs should round with their CFOs, when possible, to demonstrate what's happening at the bedside, and have open lines of communication with other members of the C-Suite.
Stay tuned for more takeaways from the 2024 CNO Exchange.
The HealthLeaders Exchange is an executive community for sharing ideas, solutions, and insights. Please join the community at our LinkedIn page.
Workforce development continues to be a top concern for nurse leaders.
Many nurse leaders are strategizing as best they can to deal with the growing nursing shortage and how to incorporate new innovative solutions for redesigning care models to fit the modern care needs of patients.
Here are some of the workforce development issues keeping CNOs up at night.
Nurse leaders must come together to tackle these three main pain points in workforce development.
2024 has been a wild ride in the world of healthcare so far. With increasing turnover rates and the rapid rise of new technologies pushing their way to the forefront, the question of how to address core issues becomes increasingly dizzying.
In nursing, it's no different.
Many nurse leaders are strategizing as best they can to deal with the growing nursing shortage and how to incorporate new innovative solutions for redesigning care models to fit the modern care needs of patients.
From April 24 to 26, the members of the HealthLeaders CNO Exchange will be meeting in Miramar Beach, Florida, to talk about how to address the workforce development issues facing CNOs today.
Strategic workforce planning
To combat the nursing shortage, CNOs need to develop a plan of action that involves several different components. Leaders must come up with new recruitment strategies that include promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as building pipelines through academic partnerships.
Retention strategies must include how to build resiliency, and transition-to-practice programs that help situate new graduate nurses in their roles. Additionally, leaders must offer educational and personal growth opportunities, along with robust and competitive career paths.
At the Exchange, the members will come up with new ideas to tackle these challenges as well as ideas for new innovative care models that have the potential for positive outcomes.
Digital solutions
Modern health systems should be up to speed on the best uses of AI and robotics, as well as successful methods of device integration. Leaders should be using data and analytics to support the nursing workforce and the nurse managers by minimizing the burden of documentation.
In addition to workforce strategy, the Exchange members will brainstorm digital solutions to fill gaps and enhance nurse workflows. They will also discuss how to plan and execute virtual nursing models, and the constraints, outcomes, and ROI of using virtual technology.
Leadership
The key to all of these strategies is strong leadership. CNOs should be fostering teamwork between colleagues and nurse departments, and they should be able to clearly communicate with staff and build relationships with them.
The Exchange members will discuss change management and how to get to a "Yes we can" culture. They will strategize ways to create healthier work environments by reducing staff assaults and implementing more effective patient behavior policies. Lastly, they will discuss C-suite trends and financial stewardship and come up with strategies that align the CNO with the CFO and improve performance metrics.
Follow along to learn more about these topics and solutions for workforce development.
The HealthLeaders Exchange is an executive community for sharing ideas, solutions, and insights. Please join the community at our LinkedIn page.
UMMS' new CNE aims to lead the health system on a journey to become a high reliability organization.
Peggy Norton-Rosko brings more than three decades of nursing experience and leadership. Most recently, Norton-Rosko served as the Regional Chief Nursing Officer for Trinity Health's Illinois and Indiana regions, where she oversaw nursing practices across a network that included an academic medical center, two community hospitals and a large ambulatory care network. She also served as an affiliate faculty member with the Loyola University Chicago Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing.
Following a nationwide search, Norton-Rosko has been named Chief Nurse Executive for the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), an academic-focused system which employs more than 9,300 nurses, effective May 20th.
For our latest installment of the Exec, we sat down with Norton-Rosko to discuss how she began her journey into nursing, her thoughts on the future of virtual nursing, and meeting the needs of a multigenerational workforce.
The nurse leaders at AONL looked to the future to solve the current workforce issues.
The 2024 AONL Conference wrapped up last week in New Orleans after three days of brainstorming, collaboration, and leadership discussion. There were many common themes throughout the sessions and the keynotes, but as expected, workforce development was front and center. Turnover rates are high among frontline nurses and in leadership positions, and even though predictions are positive, the current nursing shortage is going strong.
The nurse leaders in attendance offered many creative and innovative solutions for the different prongs of the workforce crisis. Here are the top five subjects they focused on.
On this week’s episode of HL Shorts, we hear from Jennifer Croland, vice president and chief nursing officer at OSF HealthCare Saint Francis Medical Center, about how CNOs can identify which nurses are experiencing burnout. Tune in to hear her insights.
The nurse leaders at AONL looked to the future to solve the current workforce issues.
The 2024 AONL Conference wrapped up last week in New Orleans after three days of brainstorming, collaboration, leadership discussion, and heavy rain.
There were many common themes throughout the sessions and the keynotes, but as expected, workforce development was front and center. Turnover rates are high among frontline nurses and in leadership positions, and even though predictions are positive, the current nursing shortage is going strong.
The nurse leaders in attendance offered many creative and innovative solutions for the different prongs of the workforce crisis. Here are the top five subjects they focused on.
5. Workplace violence prevention
Workplace violence incidents are rising, and even though many physical safety measures have and are still being taken by health systems, there seems to be little to no improvement.
This is due to the wrong approach, according to Mary Beth Kingston, chief nursing officer at Advocate Health. In a conference session, Kingston suggested that taking a more patient-centered approach to workplace violence is the missing piece of the puzzle.
Kingston recommended getting to the bottom of why incidents occur, by meeting patients where they are at, and trying to understand what might be going on in their life to cause certain behaviors. De-escalation training should be meaningful and involve some kind of "customer service" training to help nurses speak to patients, families, and visitors in stressful situations.
4. Addressing burnout
Burnout was a part of almost every conversation at AONL this year. Burnout is one of the biggest reasons for turnover rates for both frontline nurses and nurse leaders. Nurses are expected to do too many extraneous tasks that take away from the time they have to spend with patients, and many of the CNOs and nurse leaders at AONL emphasized the need to remove those tasks from daily workflows.
In another conference session, Linda Alderson, chief nurse executive at Tacoma General and Allenmore Hospitals, and Jennifer Graham, chief nurse executive at MultiCare Health System, spoke about how they are leveraging technology to lessen the workload for nurses.
Graham spoke about how they use a robot called Moxi, who currently works as a delivery robot in the hospital. Moxi is responsible for running supplies and smaller lab specimens to and from locations to assist the nurses on the floor. So far, Graham said the results have been successful in diverting the task of supply delivery away from nurses.
3. Career development
Creating career development opportunities for nurses who want to become leaders in their space was also a hot button topic. In the same session, Kingston gave advice about personal career accelerators that nurses should take into consideration.
Kingston recommended that nurses who want to become leaders engage in professional organizations, and partaking in the opportunities offered by those groups. They should also become comfortable with the idea of taking calculated career risks, and recognize that they have skills that are transferable.
2. Mentorship
Along the same lines, there was a general consensus at the conference that the gap between new graduate nurses and tenured nurses is concerning, to say the least. The idea of mentorship programs is not a new one, but it is becoming more necessary in the current state of the industry.
Erin Kirk, director of patient care services at Norton Children's, discussed in a session how the health system has a mentorship program where nurses can become part of a learning cohort through a nomination process.
In the hybrid learning program, they learn skills such as interprofessional communication and how to problem solve using critical thinking. According to Kirk, 59% of participants have gone on to expand their roles or involvement with the health system since completing the program, which Kirk deems a success.
1. Virtual nursing
To no one's surprise, virtual nursing was the number one trend at AONL in 2024. Not only was the topic the subject of many of the sessions, but it was the main theme in the exhibit hall as well. It is crystal clear that the future of the nursing industry is virtual, and that nurse leaders need to be ready for the implications on workflows and patient care.
Along with Moxi, Graham and Alderson shared their findings from the new nursing care model they are currently testing. The care model involves a unit made up of an RN, an LPN, a virtual nurse, a robot, and a CNA. The model separates the duties of the virtual nurse and the RN and LPN, and outlines the places where they cross over each other.
According to Graham and Alderson, the virtual nurse is in charge of admissions, discharges, dual nurse signoffs, and mentoring and clinical support. The bedside RN and LPN are responsible for physical assessment, patient safety, medication administration, procedures, and other hands-on care. Things like patient rounding, patient education, care plan updates, pain reassessment, interdisciplinary rounding, and connecting with patients and families are all integrated duties that both parties are responsible for.
Graham and Alderson have seen success with this model, and while it still has a long way to go, this is a good example of how CNOs and other nurse leaders can incorporate virtual nursing into their hospitals.
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