title: The ascension health experience: maximizing the chief nursing officer role in a large, multihospital system to advance patient care quality and safety.
abstract: Ascension Health is the largest Catholic and nonprofit health system in the United States, encompassing 70 acute care hospitals organized into 34 health ministries. Consistent with its distributed leadership model, Ascension Health has created a Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) Advisory Council to provide strategic direction and thought leadership on major system-level initiatives that impact quality, safety, operational performance, nursing leadership, and patient care delivery. The council fosters systemwide CNO engagement and dialogue through a unique structure of regional CNO work teams called "pods," each of which is chaired by a member of the council. This communication structure has facilitated consensus on major system initiatives at Ascension Health related to clinical goals, patient safety, nursing leadership, and systemwide capital investments. This article describes the history, structure, goals, processes, and successes of the CNO Advisory Council shared governance model.
authors.affiliation: Ascension Health, St Louis, Missouri 63134, USA. aHendrich@ascensionhealth.org
authors.forename: Ann L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Hendrich
authors.forename: Joyce
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Batcheller
authors.forename: Darcy A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Ellison
authors.forename: Angela M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Janik
authors.forename: Nina B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Jeffords
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Gwynn L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Perlich
authors.forename: Gerri
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Staffileno
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Strom
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Williams
mesh_terms: D016542:Chief Executive Officers, Hospital; D002983:Clinical Competence; D054976:Clinical Governance; D004522:Educational Status; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D009718:Nurse Administrators; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D017751:Safety Management; D014481:United States