CNO Role

The title of Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) is one of high regard, influence, and inspiration. CNO’s represent nursing services at board meetings, manage nursing budgets, establish nursing policies and procedures, and create performance improvement activities. Their leadership role has a tremendous impact on nurses and their daily duties. To have a more positive impact on their nurses, CNO’s should enhance communication and appreciation of staff nurses and generate new nursing positions to aid with daily nursing duties. Chief Nursing Officers have an immense amount of responsibilities and roles within their healthcare facility. However, one of the main roles is to represent the nursing staff. Although the CNO may have relationships with managers/ directors and supervisors, their focus and tasks are not the same as staff nurses. Staff nurses are the front line employees who actually provide direct patient care and encounter problems and create …show more content…
In 2015, there was a total of $35.7 Billion dollars of uncompensated care provided by hospitals. Acute care facilities have to reduce readmissions within 30 days for high-volume conditions and procedures, and prevent hospital-acquired conditions (HAI). Discharge planning begins on admission, but the staff nurse completes the final process. If a nurse has 7 patients, more than likely there will not be adequate time to educate the patient on their home medications, signs and symptoms to watch for, and wound/incision care. Having a discharge nurse on high turnover floors, would alleviate stress from staff nurses, but also ensure the patients are properly discharged. Implementing this position, the discharge nurse can even facilitate phone calls a few weeks after to follow-up on care to answer any questions or uncertainties, significantly shrinking the readmission