Dear Colleagues,
As I join BWH as your chief nursing officer, I’d like to share with you a little about my experience so far. I’ve had the great pleasure of meeting many of you at the receptions, on unit rounds or at the Nurse In-Charge Forum. I have so appreciated the warm welcome you extended to me. I am struck by the pride you have in your practice and the excellence I have personally witnessed as I round on the inpatient units, perioperative and procedural areas, as well as the ambulatory areas.
There is often a real fear that a new CNO will enter a Department of Nursing with a personal agenda and dismantle the work that has so thoughtfully been accomplished. I have learned some valuable lessons over my years as a nurse executive. First and foremost, celebrate the legacy you have been given and care for it with the utmost respect. Second, surround yourself with bright people like you who have lived the history of practice evolution, and work with them to continue to shepherd the work into the future, however that might unfold. As long as we keep patients and their families at the core of our decisions, we will maintain our true north as a profession and as a Department of Nursing.
Handoffs are a time of risk and vulnerability. Mairead Hickey, Trish Gibbons and I agreed to structure this transition based on the same principles we have learned are effective in patient care. My research focused on patients’ perceptions of feeling known by their nurses, and these patients taught me a lot about transitions. They identified four themes when they felt known: 1. they felt recognized as a unique human being; 2. they felt safe; 3. they felt a meaningful personal connection with their nurse; and 4. they felt empowered by their nurse to participate in their own care. The parallels for me to my transition are strikingly similar. Staff and leadership at BWH are proud of your practice. You have told me that you want the uniqueness of it to be understood, valued and preserved. You want to feel that the practice environment is healthy and promotes excellence, safety and effective teamwork. You want to be valued as unique human beings by your leaders and for your voice to shape and influence practice and the practice environment at the local and departmental level.
To be an effective CNO requires tremendous humility. Representing patients, families and committed nurses like you is an enormous challenge. I believe the trust you place in me to do this work is sacred. Who sits in this seat matters less, because we all will come and go. What matters most is that each CNO has the humility to build on what’s been accomplished before and the creativity to recognize that, in service of our patients and staff, learning is life-long and the possibilities are endless.
I look forward with great enthusiasm and energy to partnering with you in discovering the possibilities.
Sincerely,
Jackie Somerville, PhD, RN
Senior Vice President of Patient Care Services and Chief Nurse