2024 Nursing Leadership Summit

7:15am – 8:00am
Conference Registration & Networking Breakfast 

8:00am – 8:15am
Chairperson’s Opening Remarks 

8:15am – 9:00am
Strategies to Close the Communication Gap Between Front Line Staff Nurses and Nurse Executives
Effective communication is essential in any workplace, and this is especially true in healthcare settings where collaboration and teamwork are vital. However, communication gaps between front line staff nurses and nurse executives can lead to misunderstandings, mistakes, and even patient harm. To bridge this gap, it is crucial to implement strategies that promote open communication, mutual respect, and collaboration. This session will explore practical strategies that can help nurse executives and front-line staff nurses work together more effectively.

Michele M. Hasselblad, DNP, RN, NE-BC
Vice President & Chief Nursing Officer, Ambulatory Division Nursing
Vanderbilt University Medical Center 

9:00am – 9:45am
Building trust and creating work life balance- the path to sustainable leadership roles
Trust is at the heart of healthy relationship. How we cultivate those relationships with our nursing colleagues and direct reports affects patient care and our satisfaction in a leadership role. Lack of trust is a pervasive problem that undermines employee engagement and productivity. Building trust can be achieved through reliable follow through, clear communication, setting boundaries, holding everyone accountable- including yourself, respecting confidentiality and approaching each situation in a nonjudgmental way. This session will explore ways to develop your team through the creation of trusting relationships with clear boundaries to support a sustainable nursing leadership career with work life balance.

Christi DeLemos, MS, CNRN, ACNP-BC
Chief of Advanced Practice
University of California Davis Health

9:45am – 10:15am
Networking & Refreshments Break 

10:15am – 11:00am
Different Approach to New Graduate Nursing Program:
A Regional Triad Strategy to Address the Nursing Shortage While Minimizing Financial Impact for a Hospital after COVID-19
Nursing shortage in an acute care setting and inadequate supply of graduating nurses are not new phenomena.  The trends suggest worsening imbalance in years ahead resulting from increase in healthcare needs and post COVID-19 pandemic declines in existing nursing workforce pool: reductions to a part-time status, retirements, stress levels driving nurses to leave the profession, etc.  The current nursing programs and their capacities are not able to compensate for these new compounding factors.  The pandemic has also impacted the financial situation of many hospitals.  How do healthcare organizations navigate the complex, ongoing, and seemingly worsening situation of the nursing labor?

MarinHealth’s solution to this issue was to adapt and optimize a new graduate nursing program concept: a triad of cost shift, guarantees and local community engagement.  By partnering with a local university, MarinHealth Medical Center was able to provide fourth year BSN students with extended internships-to-hire pathway upon graduation.  This was made possible via philanthropic support for both the university and the hospital to offset costs related to additional instructors, externships, onboarding, and orientation period after hire, etc.

Since 2021, MarinHealth has hired and consistently retained new graduate nurses that currently comprise 10% of the hospital’s nursing staff.  Understanding the challenges new nurses face when transitioning from student to professional, the long-term success of the program and retention of these new nurses is also attributed to subsequent support with a strong hospital-based mentorship program and ongoing opportunities to advance through a well-defined clinical ladder.

Andrew Apolinarski, MSN, RN
Chief Nursing Officer
Marin Health Medical Center Nursing Administration  

Rebecca Maxwell
Director of Education
Marin Health Medical Center Nursing Administration 

11:00am – 11:45am
Leveraging Transformative Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: A Framework for Best-in-Class Nursing Leadership
Healthcare is always dynamic — disruption and innovation are constants.  Challenges and changes demand nursing leaders understand best practices and leverage innovative ideas to improve care, enhance inclusion and address equity concerns.  This presentation will address how implementing principles of diversity, equity and inclusion can create more inclusive teams, more equitable outcomes for patients and staff and support a culture where teammates feel valued, and organizations can thrive.

Martine T. Silver, MD
Associate Medical Director
Home & Community at Landmark/Optum 

11:45am – 12:30pm
Surviving a Cyber Attack-Survival Skills from sustaining operations to operational recovery.
Cyber attacks are on the rise and health systems are incredibly vulnerable due to the number of access points including providers, governmental, payers and patients.  Organizations need to be prepared for steps that need to be undertaken prior to a cyber attack to assure business continuity and allow rapid recovery, but also what steps to take if a cyber attack occurs.  This program will discuss many of the workarounds and processes implemented during a cyber attack on a three hospital, 17 clinic system experiencing complete service loss that impacted all IT services from telephones to internet.  Most importantly, what lessons were learned to better prepare for the future.

Susan Small Russell, MSN RN
Chief Nursing and Patient Safety Officer
Singing River Health System 

12:30pm – 1:30pm
Luncheon 

1:30pm – 2:15pm
Transforming Leadership for Patient Satisfaction
In the modern healthcare landscape where value-driven performance is a key to reimbursement, hospitals must make the most of every opportunity to obtain high scores on performance measures. Multiple studies show a link between work environment and patient outcomes. Nurse leadership plays a pivotal role in creating a positive work environment on the nursing unit. It is critical for nurse leaders to collaborate with others as mutually respected partners; a leadership style which partners with employees for mutual goals is associated with better patient outcomes, fewer medical errors, and reduced staff turnover. Ensuring that nurse leaders have the proper training and exposure to the concept of transformational leadership is crucial to organizational success. This session will explore the relationship between nurse leadership and patient satisfaction. 

Carol Rajchel NV-Henderson
Director Of Operations Center
Dignity Health- St. Rose Dominican Hospital

2:15pm – 3:15pm
Panel: Approaches to Nurse Retention
New and experienced nurses are essential to the profession’s future but keeping them in clinical practice continues to be a challenge. Nurse turnover is a known issue, especially among recent graduates — up to 30 percent leave within their first year, and up to 57 percent leave by the end of their second. This session will explore the reasons why, and what can be done to retain them. Topics to be discussed will include: 

• Revaluating post-pandemic values
• Providing career flexibility
• Boosting competence and confidence
• Fostering inclusivity

Carl Balcom, DNP, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE
Transitional Leader, Clinical Services Group
HCA Healthcare 

3:15pm – 3:45pm
Networking & Refreshments Break 

3:45pm – 4:30pm
Ambulatory Nurse Leadership
This session will explore the role of and need for nursing leadership in ambulatory care spaces. Challenges within healthcare and increasing complexity of patients exist, regardless of whether a nurse leader works in a traditional hospital setting or outside of that setting. Regardless of setting, nurse leaders want the same things for their patients and staff. The required skill set and characteristics for nurse leaders are the same, just used in a different venue. Traditional hospital nurse leaders must collaborate with nurse leaders in ambulatory to ensure each patient navigates through the continuum with as little disruption as possible. Nurse leaders in ambulatory can offer hospital leaders a fresh perspective on leadership, highlighting the value they bring to the table and how transferrable their skill set is to this setting, given the same support for success that is fundamental in the hospital setting. Strong nurse leadership is critical for driving innovation and inspiring transformative change in ambulatory settings.

Lisa M. Derrick, M.S.N., R.N., CNML
Nurse Administrator / Instructor of Nursing- Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
Mayo Clinic 

4:30pm – 5:15pm
Addressing Workplace Violence: A Comprehensive Approach to an Epidemic Level Problem in Healthcare
It is no longer acceptable to consider workplace violence as a problem that comes with working in the
healthcare profession. Healthcare workers are 4X more likely to be exposed to workplace violence than
prison guards or police officers. In fact, in in the 2 nd quarter of 2022, on average 2 nurses were assaulted every hour In the United States. This session will focus on understanding the impact emotionally, physically, and financially on the nursing profession because of the growing workplace violence epidemic. We will discuss a comprehensive approach to reducing the incidence of workplace violence and most importantly protecting staff from physical violence.

Erin Jaynes MSN, RN
Former System CNO for SSM health and Franciscan Alliance
CNO Executive Advisor 

5:15pm
End of Day One

7:15am – 8:00am
Networking Breakfast 

8:00am – 8:15am
Chairperson’s Remarks 

8:15am – 9:00am
The Future of Nurse Leadership
Strong leadership is critical if the vision of a transformed health care system is to be realized. Yet not all nurses begin their career with thoughts of becoming a leader. The nursing profession must produce leaders throughout the health care system, from the bedside to the boardroom, who can serve as full partners with other health professionals and be accountable for their own contributions to delivering high-quality care while working collaboratively with leaders from other health professions. This session will explore the need for nurse leaders to be prepared to partner with those inside and outside of healthcare to create innovative, interprofessional care delivery models; advocate for advancements in technology to address healthcare access shortages; and lead new areas of research that can drive policy change to support nurse leaders in long-term care and the essential role of the nurse manager in creating optimal practice environments for quality outcomes.

Mila D. Sprouse EdD, MSN, RN, CCRN-K, NE-BC
Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer
Virginia Mason Medical Center Seattle, WA  

9:00am – 9:45am
Ways Nursing Leadership Improves Patient Outcomes
Nurses have traditionally been underrepresented in leadership roles because the doctors, specialists and even administrators responsible for making decisions about patient care viewed them not as partners, but as “functional doers.” That’s changing, however, as a growing body of evidence demonstrates that applying the principles of nursing leadership in clinical settings has a direct impact on patient safety, quality of care delivery, and patient outcomes. Effective leadership in nursing correlates with reduced length of stay and lower rates of medication errors, patient falls, urinary tract infections, and pneumonia. Studies even suggest that nurse leaders can have a positive impact on patient mortality. This session will explore ways nursing leadership can positively influence patient outcomes, including:

– Advocating for appropriate staff levels

– Creating a culture of safety

– Supporting collaborations

– Promoting nurse engagement

– Mitigating issues that lead to burnout

– Implementing value-based care strategies

Alma C. Gatuz, MSN, RN, MHA
Chief Nursing Officer-Pearl Healthcare
Chief Operating Officer-Pearlstone Home Health
Co-Founder/Owner 
AGMB Healthcare Group LLC

9:45am – 10:15am
Networking & Refreshments Break 

10:15am – 11:00am
Strategies to Close the Communication Gap Between Front Line Staff Nurses and Nurse Executives 

Carl Balcom, DNP, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE
Transitional Leader, Clinical Services Group
HCA Healthcare 

11:00am – 11:45am
Nursing claims & liability: Lessons for Nurse Leaders
This session will address nursing claims and liability for nurses. Case studies and claims trends and data will be presented. From this information, attendees will have better understanding of what the risk issues are and risk mitigation and best practice strategies to avoid and defend medical malpractice lawsuits. The session will address the process for medical malpractice suits and trends in nursing cases. Nurse leaders will be able to use the information to share and educate staff on best practice strategies to limit their liability risks and improve patient care.        

Arlene Luu ,RN, BSN, JD, CPHRM, CHC
Lead Sr. Risk Solutions Consultant
MedPro Group 

11:45am – 12:30pm
Pending

Duke Lim
Associate Vice President Nursing & Patient Services
U.F. Health- Shands Hospital

12:30pm
Conference Concludes

Patti Artley, DNP, RN, CPN, NEA-BC
Chief Nursing Officer
Medical Solutions