As part of its ongoing initiative sponsored by the Rita & Alex Hillman Foundation to recognize nurses in board leadership roles, the American Nurses Foundation interviewed Cole Edmonson, DNP, RN, FACHE, NEA-BC, FAAN. Edmonson is the chief nursing officer (CNO) at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, a three-time designated Magnet® hospital.
Collaboration between these two valuable resources depends on understanding how their roles differ.
“Doing the right thing is not easy, but it needs to be done,” observed Captain Jacqlyn Sanchez, RNCOB, as she recalled a difficult time in her career with the U.S. Air Force. “My decisions were not popular at that time,” she said, “and I felt defeated and powerless.” Fortunately, a close friend and fellow nurse, Major (Ret.) Dana Albalate, gave Sanchez the motivation she needed to make those hard decisions and move forward. “She told me, ‘Just be yourself,’” Sanchez explained. “‘Your work will speak for itself.’”
As the 2014-2015 Distinguished Nurse Scholar-in-Residence at the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies (now the National Academy of Medicine), Sally S. Cohen, PhD, RN, FAAN, focused on childhood bullying prevention and policy. (The scholarship is supported by the American Academy of Nursing, American Nurses Association [ANA], and American Nurses Foundation.) Cohen, who is an ANA-NY member, is a clinical professor at the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing.
A survey of attitudes, knowledge and genomic competency
Our trajectory as nurse leaders frequently begins when someone notices our clinical acumen and informal leadership skills. We’re handed a set of keys to an office and asked to take on a management role. Not surprisingly, we may question if we really know how to do every part of our expanding role, from budgets to quality metrics to program implementation and management focused on outcomes.
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