Reporting to the Hospital President, the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) is responsible for overseeing the strategy, operations, and systems that ensure the delivery of patient-centered nursing care at the highest quality. A key aspect of this role is advancing nursing practice through continuous professional development, innovation in nursing care, and a commitment to operational excellence. The CNO provides executive leadership in all areas related to nursing leadership, clinical practice, quality improvement, and cost management/revenue optimization, ensuring that nursing initiatives align with and support the hospital's strategic and operational goals.

Job Description:

• Responsible for overseeing nursing practice across all hospital service lines, including the emergency department, medical/surgical, critical care, behavioral health, perinatal, perioperative, and both hospital-based and physician group ambulatory services.
• Manage the selection, development, and performance of nursing staff, both directly and through Nursing Directors and Managers, ensuring the right talent is in place to meet goals related to staff experience, clinical performance, patient satisfaction, quality, and financial outcomes.
• Lead a team of Directors and Managers in delivering systems and programs that optimize the efficient and effective provision of nursing care. The CNO also serves as a mentor and resource to Nursing Directors and Nurse Managers, guiding them in their roles on various service line teams, and may have direct operational responsibility for specific nursing areas.
• As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, the CNO collaborates closely with colleagues to shape and achieve the hospital's strategic and operational priorities.
• Serve as the senior nursing leader in labor negotiations with unions representing nursing and clinical staff.
• Foster a constructive working relationship with union representatives and act as a point of escalation for grievances and disputes.
• Build and sustains relationships based on trust, open communication, collaboration, and respect with all staff, physicians, Board Members, Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH) partners, and community stakeholders.
• Provide leadership in shaping and implementing a nursing philosophy that advances the discipline, drives patient care redesign, fosters relationships within and beyond the nursing division, and promotes ongoing education, information sharing, and professional growth.
• Working with the Senior Leadership Team and direct reports to develop and manage operating and capital budgets, creating ongoing performance measures and evaluations, including productivity and budget targets.
• In partnership with Human Resources, the CNO ensures the recruitment, retention, professional development, and succession planning for patient care team members and leadership, fostering a highly engaged workforce.
• Play a key leadership role in addressing ethnic and racial disparities, promoting an inclusive environment for both patients and staff, and ensuring the nursing team reflects the diverse community it serves at all levels.
• Participate in the development and implementation of technology solutions that enhance both clinical and administrative operations, including systems such as EPIC, Workday, and productivity applications.
• Build and maintain relationships, identifying opportunities to expand services, drive efficiencies, and enhance collaboration across the system. Regular assessments are conducted to pinpoint areas for improvement.
• In collaboration with the Chief Medical Officer, the CNO works to enhance the care delivery model, focusing on care coordination, patient flow, length of stay, readmission rates, access to care, harm reduction, capacity management, and overall quality and efficiency.
• Sustain and strengthen the shared governance model for nursing, implementing a nursing organizational structure that supports this framework.
• Ensure effective nursing staffing plans and represents the hospital's nursing staff to external professional organizations, building and maintaining relationships with nursing schools and educational institutions.
• Provide leadership for continuous improvement in clinical quality and patient safety, including implementing National Patient Safety Standards and staying informed on trends in quality improvement. Clinical best practices are regularly integrated into care delivery.
• Ensures the ongoing compliance with all relevant regulatory bodies, including The Joint Commission, CMS, and the Department of Public Health.

Minimum Qualifications

Education

• Master's degree in Nursing and Business Administration, Healthcare Finance, or Hospital Administration required.
• Doctoral Degree Preferred. (DNP or PhD)

Licensure/Certification:

• Massachusetts Nursing License required.

Experience:

• 10 years of progressively more responsible executive/director level leadership experience in patient care in an acute care setting.
• High-level comprehension of Finance and Accounting and the ability to manage both capital and operating budgets of a complex nature.
• Experience with computer systems required, including web-based applications and some Microsoft Office applications which may include Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Access.

Skills, Knowledge & Abilities

• Advanced knowledge of professional nursing practice in an executive or specialty practice area as evidenced through certification (e.g. CENP, NEA-BC, FACHE, etc.) preferred.
• Epic experience a strong plus and/or a thorough understanding of the Electronic Medical Record system, concepts of clinical informatics, and other advanced health care technologies.
• A thorough understanding of the health care environment and all applicable laws and regulations.
• In depth knowledge of system thinking, change leadership, shared governance, matrix reporting, continuous improvement, process improvement and critical thinking

Key Responsibilities Comprise Three Principal Areas:

Nursing Practice: Directly responsible for nursing practice throughout all service lines at Anna Jaques Hospital to include the emergency department, inpatient nursing, endoscopy, surgical services, ambulatory nursing practice, Joint Commission compliance, and other support services.

Nursing Administration: Directs the delivery of systems and programs designed to promote the efficient and effective delivery of nursing care. Serve as a mentor and a resource to both the Associate Chiefs and to the nurse managers who participate on the various service line teams.

Executive Leadership: Serves at the executive level in the hospital and assumes an active leadership role with the hospital's governing body, senior leadership, medical staff, management and other clinical leaders in the hospital's decision-making structure.

Competencies

DecisionMaking: Ability to make decisions with significant, broad implications for the management and operations of a major department or multiple departments. Participates in decisions on overall strategy and direction of the organization.

Problem Solving: Ability to address problems that are broad, complex and abstract, often involving Medical Center-wide issues and requiring substantial creativity, resourcefulness, staff engagement, Lean diagnostic techniques, negotiation and diplomacy to develop solutions.

Independence of Action:Ability to set direction and vision for major departments or multiple departments. Establishes priorities, develops policies and allocates resources.

Written Communications: Ability to communicate complex information in English effectively in writing to all levels of staff, management and external customers across functional areas.

Oral Communications: Ability to verbally communicate complex concepts in English and address sensitive situations, resolve conflicts, negotiate, motivate and persuade others.

Knowledge: Ability to demonstrate broad and comprehensive knowledge of theories, concepts, practices and policies with the ability to use them in complex and/or unprecedented situations across multiple functional areas.

Team Work: Ability to lead and direct multiple collaborative teams for large projects or groups both internal and external to the Medical Center and across functional areas. Results have significant implications for the management and operations of the organization.

Customer Service: Ability to lead operational initiatives to meet or exceed customer service standards and expectations in assigned unit(s) and/or across multiple areas in a timely and respectful manner.

Pay Range:
$220,000.00 USD - $250,000.00 USD

The pay range listed for this position is the annual base salary range the organization reasonably and in good faith expects to pay for this position at this time. In addition to base compensation, this position may be eligible for additional compensation, which may include performance-based incentive bonuses.