Webinar: A Discussion with Chief Nursing Officers

How Certified Clinical Nurse Leaders (CNLs) Improve Your Healthcare Facility

The Commission on Nurse Certificate celebrates 10 years of offering the Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) Certification Program! Join CNC along with Chief Nursing Officers and representatives from the VA to discuss the positive outcomes of hiring certified CNLs. As an attendee, you will learn more about the Clinical Nurse Leader and the value they bring to your healthcare facility as master’s educated nurses. You will also learn about the VHA Office of Nursing Services implementation and support of the CNL role. The VHA will also discuss their CNL Orientation Toolkit; a resource for the CNL Collegial Mentoring Program that is also designed as a resource for practicing CNLs.

The CNL is a leader at the point of care focusing on:

• Care Coordination
• Transitions of Care
• Risk Assessment
• Outcomes Measurement
• Quality Improvement
• Interprofessional Communication & Team Leadership
• Interprofessional Communication & Team Leadership

Moderator

Shantal Hall, Director, CNC
Shantal Hall has served as Director of the Commission on Nursing Certification since 2014. She has over 10 years of experience developing and managing professional certification programs. In addition to hosting CNC Radio, Ms. Hall, along with the CNC Board of Commissioners, is responsible for building awareness of the certified CNL and overseeing the CNL Certification Program. During her career, she has led the development of national education conferences, elearning programs, internship programs, benchmarking tools and career centers. Ms. Hall is a member of ASAE and ICE.

Speakers

Claire Gangware, MSN, RN, CNL
Claire Gangware is Chair of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Nursing Services, Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) Field Advisory Committee. She earned her CNL certification in 2008, after receiving her MSN from Elmhurst College. Prior joining the staff at the VHA, she worked at Hines VA Hospital as a patient care coordinator and presented her CNL residency project, Improving Surgical Patient Flow, at the Tri VISN Surgical Fix Conference in Buffalo, NY. Since 2009, she has been a practicing CNL at Jesse Brown VA Medical Center (Chicago) in a 30-bed medicine/oncology unit. In 2011, she won an AACN Innovation award for implementation of Interdisciplinary Rounds and has presented her work on Project Red, to prevent hospital readmissions, at the CNL Summit. She serves on the Nursing Research Council, Lean Steering Committee, Falls Committee and Nursing Practice Council.

Grace Sotomayor, DNP, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, CNL, FACHE
Dr. Grace Sotomayer is the vice president of administration and chief nurse executive in the Central Health Division at Carolinas Medical Center (CMC) part of the Carolinas HealthCare System, which includes CMC, an 893-bed academic center; and CMC-Mercy, a 196-bed community hospital. She has served in this role since March 2007 and, in 2013, she led the CMC to achieve Magnet designation. In her current capacity, she leads nursing services and other assigned clinical departments. Prior to joining Carolinas HealthCare System, Dr. Sotomayor served as vice president, patient care services and chief nurse executive for SSM DePaul Health Center in St. Louis, MO. SSM is the first healthcare winner of the Malcolm Baldrige Award. Prior to this, she served as director of nursing for medical services at Montefiore Medical Center in New York.

Dr. Sotomayor earned her nursing degree from Herbert H. Lehman College, NY. She has a DNP from the University of Alabama, a Masters in nursing from Hunter College, New York, and an MBA from the University of Missouri, St. Louis. She is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives and a 2010 Johnson and Johnson Wharton Fellow. She is certified by the ANCC as a Nurse Executive, Advanced and is prepared as a Six Sigma Green Belt Practitioner. In 2011 Dr. Sotomayor joined the faculty at Queens University of Charlotte in their Nursing Graduate Program and became certified as a Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL).

Karen M. Mayer, MSN, MHA, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE
Karen M. Mayer is the chief nursing officer and vice president of patient care services at Rush Oak Park Hospital since 2006. She has more than 20 years of progressive experience in healthcare management with a specialty in critical care and cardiology. In this role, she oversees nursing and all therapies. She has facilitated the implementation of the Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) role in the model of care with significant improvements in nursing quality indicators, CMS core measures, and 30-day all-cause readmissions. ROPH has become LGBT certified, NICHE recognized, and has achieved The Joint Commission Inpatient Diabetes and Stroke Certifications. ROPH continually seeks to implement nursing innovations into practice. This nursing excellence has recently been recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) with Magnet^® designation.

Ms. Mayer is active in nursing research and is an active IRB member for the Rush system. She has disseminated results of the Rush Coordinated Care program—a care collaboration among CNLs and APRNs—at national professional conferences. Ms. Mayer also serves as an adjunct faculty member of Rush University College of Nursing, and is a member of Nursing Quality Advisory Boards for Dominican University and Lewis University.

Mary Lou Wesley, RN, MSN
Mary Lou Wesley has served as senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Sparrow Health System since December of 2014. Sparrow has Magnet designation for excellence in nursing services and places among the top 6% in the nation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

Ms. Wesley started her career as a medical-surgical nurse at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Pontiac, Michigan after graduating with her BSN from Mercy College of Detroit. She completed her MSN in Adult Health and Administration from Madonna University. During the 24 years she spent at St. Joseph, she held a variety of positions: Assistant to the CNO for Special Projects, Director of Medical- Surgical Nursing, Director of Medical-Surgical and Critical Care Nursing, Associate VP of Nursing, and Chief Nursing Officer. While at St. Joseph Mercy, she taught at Oakland University for four and a half years. From 2002-2010, Mary Lou was the CNO for Saint Joseph Mercy Health System, in Ann Arbor. In 2010, she became the Chief Nurse Executive for WellStar Health System, which based in Marietta, Georgia.

Registration

This webinar is free and open to everyone (members and non-members) including, Chief Nursing Officers, Executives, CNLs, communities of interest, practice representatives, and AACN member schools including deans, faculty, staff and students.

To register, please login at our partner organization’s website, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). If you don’t already have an account, you can create a free account here.

Got questions? Contact a CNC representative

Yenny Caceres
Certification Manager
ycaceres@discovercnls.org
(202) 370-3608