CNO Roundtable Allows Nurses to Speak Up and Be Heard (Podcast)

When Shannon Pengel, MSN, RN, NE-BC was appointed Vice President, Chief Nursing Officer for Cleveland Clinic main campus in 2020, she wondered how she would reach out to the 8,000 clinical nurses who work at the 1,400-bed hospital.

“One of the biggest challenges of having a campus so large is just being able to connect with caregivers,” she says. “It’s hard to influence and motivate and inspire when you don’t have the opportunity to connect with every single caregiver.”

Pengel launched CNO Roundtables, where she meets monthly with representatives from every nursing unit on Main Campus so they can raise concerns and brainstorm solutions.

In this episode of Cleveland Clinic’s Nurse Essentials podcast, Pengel discusses the CNO Roundtable, including:

• Implementation and evolution of the meetings
• Formation of working groups within the roundtable to move forward with good ideas
• Examples of quick wins and long-term projects stemming from discussions
• How the CNO Roundtable encourages nurses to speak up and become leaders
• Advice for nursing leaders who want to institute roundtables

Click the podcast player above to listen to the episode now, or read on for a short, edited excerpt. Check out more Nurse Essentials episodes at my.clevelandclinic.org/podcasts/nurse-essentials or wherever you get your podcasts.

Podcast excerpt

Podcast host Carol Pehotsky, DNP, RN, NEA-BC: For the nurse who says, "Boy, I wish I had an opportunity to talk to my CNO or my nursing director," and also for leaders who are listening, thinking, "This is fantastic, and I want to do the same thing." What advice would you give those groups in terms of how to create those listening sessions and how to create the opportunity to really speak and be heard?

Pengel: I think, as a leader, you have to be able to listen without that reaction that you innately want to give, right? We're problem solvers as leaders. We want everybody to be happy at the end of the day, and that's just not the reality.

The reality is we're dealing with thousands of people, thousands of patients and thousands of problems, and not one of us has the best solution. And so I think just that active listening, really being authentic. All of our caregivers – no matter what job you have in healthcare right now – it is hard. And acknowledging that sometimes is hard for us as leaders. Just to say, "You're right. This is really hard, and I don't have a great answer."

As a leader, that doesn't feel wonderful to say. You're supposed to have all the answers, right? You're supposed to be the leader. But that's just not the reality that we have in healthcare today, and I think being vulnerable and saying, "You know, I just don't know. What ideas do you have?"

If I had advice to give to our frontline nurses, or nurses entering the profession, it is kind of what you said, Carol. You know, we want everyone to be bold and speak up, but make sure you have all the information and learn. Learn the information, ask questions, seek out your leader.

I always tell people in the roundtable and other places, "Text me, email me, whatever you want." We're all very available now as a result. But I think having those one-on-one conversations with people is something that is just so beneficial.