https://mailchi.mp/f12ce6f07b28/the-weekly-gist-november-10-2023?e=d1e747d2d8

One welcome side effect of the current economic challenges health systems face has been the return to prominence of the chief nursing officer (CNO) as a pivotal driver of system strategy. 

So many of a hospital’s important operating and margin pressures intersect with the CNO’s domain: staffing shortages, nurse recruiting and retention, workplace violence, rising union activity, care model redesign, adoption of new care technologies (including AI), the shift of the clinical workforce into non-hospital settings, and on and on. 

Never has the role of the CNO been more important to ensuring systems’ continued ability to deliver high-quality, cost-effective care in a sustainable way. 

Even more heartening, we’ve been part of a number of system board retreats and strategy discussions over the past several months at which the CNO has been an important voice in the room.

We’d argue that, given how important these issues will be over the coming years, it may be time to give CNOs a permanent role in health system governance, just as boards often include physician members.

One additional agenda item that will be critical for systems to address, given the demographics of nursing executives: 

what’s being done to cultivate the next generation of strong nursing leadership to fill the CNO role? A topic worth keeping an eye on.