Keenan Joins Tower 8AB as Nursing Director
After years of working as a staff nurse, nurse practitioner and nurse manager on pediatric units, Peter Keenan, MS, RN, joined BWH in March as nursing director on Tower 8AB.
“From a nursing perspective, the diverse patient population on this unit draws on so many skills, including psychiatric, medical and surgical,” he said of the unit, which cares for burn/trauma, head and neck injury and renal transplant patients. “The staff here are excellent.”
As director, Keenan works with about 70 nurses, patient care assistants and unit coordinators to ensure the unit runs smoothly. As a way to increase communication among staff, the unit recently instituted morning huddles.
“The nurses, patient care assistants and unit coordinators gather for a few minutes at 10 a.m. so we can check in on how things are going, if anyone is overwhelmed or if there are sudden changes in a patient’s condition,” Keenan said. “Our plan is to institute huddles on every shift eventually.”
Keenan, who has held nursing leadership positions at the Floating Hospital for Children and Children’s Hospital Boston, most recently served as academic administrator at Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital School of Nursing. There, he increased staff satisfaction by ten percent; successfully advocated for creation and funding of a simulation laboratory coordinator for the school; and incorporated patient satisfaction into all curricula for the school.
Keenan earned both his MS in Nursing and BSN from Northeastern University.
Scanlan Joins Pain Management Center as Nursing Director
Elizabeth Scanlan, MS, FNP, RN, has been a family nurse practitioner for more than 30 years, delivering primary care to patients ranging in age from newborns to adults. This spring, Scanlan joined the Pain Management Center as its first nursing director.
“The idea of having a nursing director was to blend clinical work with the administrative work,” said Scanlan. “It was important to have a nurse practitioner in this role because one of the current goals of the Pain Management Center is to improve management of patients with chronic opioid use. A nurse practitioner brings the advanced practice skills needed to do this work.”
In her new role, Scanlan will also help the Pain Management Center develop a relationship with the University of Massachusetts nurse practitioner program to precept nurse practitioner students.
“I’m really excited to be here,” Scanlan said. “The team is great, the staff are very committed and the nurses are excellent. It’s truly a teaching and learning environment.”
Scanlan most recently served as nursing director at Brookside Community Health Center, where she developed and maintained a program of excellence in clinical practice and quality service, secured substantial funding to support program goals and assumed a key clinical role for the implementation of the electronic medical record system.
Scanlan earned her BSN from Villanova University, her MSN from Boston University and her FNP certificate from the University of Massachusetts. She joined Brookside Community Health Center in 1978, where she served as a family nurse practitioner and as a team leader for seven years before she was promoted to nursing director in 1985.
Willard Named Director of CWN-7
Lauren Willard, MSN, RN, has been a staff nurse in the Gynecology Oncology unit since 1980. “I really have a passion for this patient population,” she said. “There’s something about caring for oncology patients that’s very special and gratifying.”
Willard was recently appointed nursing director of CWN-7, a position that enables her to continue caring for these patients and supporting a team of about 70 nurses, patient care assistants and unit coordinators. “We have a really wonderful and dedicated team on CWN-7,” she said.
The unit is currently one of nine clinical areas participating in a continuity pilot led by the Department of Nursing to ensure patients feel known and cared for.
“It’s about knowing the patient and having the patient feel known, and how we as nurses do that,” Willard said. “It’s more than just assigning the same nurse to care for the same patient—it’s really about how you establish a connection with each patient.”
Willard earned her MSN from the University of Phoenix and her BSN from Simmons College. She has served as nurse in-charge on CWN-7 since 2002, and as a staff nurse on the unit before that. She was mentored by previous nursing director Detta Quigley-Lavoie, RN, who retired from BWH last year.