Nursing Institute Names Second Associate Chief Nursing Officer for Main Campus

The Stanley Shalom Zielony Institute for Nursing Excellence has announced the appointment of Shannon L. Pengel, MSN, RN, NE-BC, as associate chief nursing officer (ACNO) for Cleveland Clinic’s 165-acre main campus location. In a dual-ACNO role, Pengel joins Kim Hunter, DNP, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, as the Zielony Institute’s second main campus ACNO.

Moving forward, Pengel will help to lead nursing strategy and advance clinical practice by creating a continuous improvement environment that promotes innovative patient care delivery. She will also provide clinical oversight and strategic direction for the rapid response teams and telemedicine areas, including the Central Monitoring Unit and eHospital, which provides remote critical care resources for the enterprise.

Pengel will maintain her role as clinical nursing director for Cleveland Clinic’s Anesthesiology Institute and the renowned Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute, which has ranked No. 1 by U.S. News & World Report for the past two decades. The Heart & Vascular Institute includes 312 cardiac step-down beds, 140 intensive care beds, all cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology labs, and multiple outpatient units.

“Shannon has been a recognized and driven nurse leader with Cleveland Clinic main campus for many years, and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome her into this new position,” says Executive Chief Nursing Officer K. Kelly Hancock, DNP, RN, NE-BC. “With 1,400 hospital beds, more than 100 operating rooms, and growing tertiary care, she will contribute significantly to our continued pursuit to deliver the best in care to some of the world’s sickest patients.”

Engaged, results-oriented leader

Pengel has spent her 20-year nursing career within Cleveland Clinic health system, joining the organization as a staff nurse in the cardiothoracic step-down unit on main campus in 1997. She is a clinical expert in cardiothoracic surgery, rapid response, transplantation and interventional cardiology and has held positions of leadership at the director level since 2011.

Across Cleveland Clinic, she is known for her ability to effectively manage clinical operations while meeting capital and financial targets, maintaining turnover rates and more.

Her career includes the successful system-wide integration of numerous new nursing unit specialties, including vascular surgery intensive care, the cardiac float pool and central monitoring for telemetry. She was instrumental in facilitating the standardization of rapid response care across the health system and, in 2008, she assisted with the planning and successful activation of Cleveland Clinic’s Miller Pavilion, the largest free-standing specialty hospital in the country, spanning more than one million square-feet.

Dedicated to advancing nursing practice

From her involvement in the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses and the American Organization of Nurse Executives to her active participation in numerous Cleveland Clinic initiatives, councils and committees, Pengel has worked to enhance the landscape of the nursing profession.

She actively supports nurse managers and staff nurses in research initiatives, which has led to numerous publications in nursing journals on topics ranging from patient perceptions of call lights and cardiac tamponade to chest tube clotting and infection rates from ECG leads.

As a proponent of nursing staff education, she has promoted the offerings of on-site certification preparation courses at Cleveland Clinic, resulting in 107 nurses achieving certification in critical care registered nursing (CCRN) and 29 nurses achieving certification in progressive care nursing (PCCN).

She has also been instrumental in encouraging Cleveland Clinic’s nurse leaders to earn master’s degrees and become board-certified nurse executives (NE-BC). Of the nurse leaders who report to Pengel, 74 percent are master’s degree-prepared and 64 percent are certified in their specialty or as a nurse executive.

“In my role as ACNO, I have the unique opportunity to elevate the practice of nursing at Cleveland Clinic and empower our caregivers to deliver on the promise of world-class care,” says Pengel. “This legacy of nursing excellence is what sets Cleveland Clinic apart from other institutions, and I’m honored to contribute to our ongoing success in this new leadership position.”

Pengel holds a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Phoenix and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Kent State University.