March 21, 2023
Dear Colleagues,
After more than two decades at BIDMC, I am privileged to have the opportunity to serve as Interim CNO during the search for Marsha Maurer’s replacement. Though I have met many of you, I thought it would be helpful to share more about myself and why I chose to fill this role.
The first half of my career was spent as a neonatal intensive care nurse – a role that required compassion, teamwork and advocacy on behalf of families and their fragile young children. The technology and tools changed dramatically during my years in a pediatric ICU, but the steady professionalism of my colleagues in the face of both joy and sadness inspired me daily.
When I moved to BIDMC, I transitioned to nurse management roles – starting as a nurse manager in the neonatal intensive care unit and serving as Director of Nursing Operations before becoming an Associate CNO. In each role, I had an opportunity to collaborate with and advocate for our nursing colleagues. As the direct connection to patient care and nearly all aspects of operations, nurses have a unique perspective on how the medical center functions. And BIDMC has long had a culture that values the insights and input of the nursing team.
This culture was directly cultivated by Marsha, but it was also a reflection of an ACNO team, nurse directors and clinical nurses who care about advancing teamwork, recognizing successes, and solving problems. Today, our professional governance structure continues to mature and the voice of the clinical nurse influences many organizational changes. As an example, the Workforce Engagement Council was the driving force behind our Daisy Awards given to outstanding clinical nurses; other issues we have heard from unit based councils (safety, advancement programs, overnight resource nurses) have escalated to the Nurse Executive Council and resulted in meaningful changes to practice.
Even during a pandemic and many related challenges, our nursing team members – at all levels and career phases – are investing precious time to improve the quality of our care, the workplace experience and the future of nursing at BIDMC.
Identifying the right leader for this talented community of nurses is likely to take several months. In the interim, I will be continuing this important focus. Though the word “Interim” may be in front of my title, I will be as forceful an advocate for nursing and as strong a supporter of our team as possible. I will also be direct and transparent in addressing challenging issues.
As Marsha has done, I will be communicating with you each month through an editorial in our nursing newsletter. I also plan to communicate directly with you when important issues arise. To make it easier to find any direct communications I share, plus some of the timely messages that Marsha sent and information about other important workplace topics, we have created a website that can be easily accessed from any computer: www.bidmcnursingupdates.org.
And while I am happy that we have these digital tools, nothing is better than real communications and relationships. I am committed to rounding regularly and I want each of you to feel free to stop me while you are out and about. An open and transparent environment – and one where we look each other in the eye when there are good things to celebrate and challenges to solve – is the key to our strong, respectful and collaborative culture.
Thank you in advance for your collaboration and support.
Sincerely,
Jane Foley, DNP, MHA, RN