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On today’s episode, I talk with Mary Beth Kingston, executive vice president and chief nursing officer at Advocate Health. She also is a past president of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership and current AHA board member. We discuss nursing leadership trends and strategies that can make an impact as hospitals and health systems look for new approaches to address ongoing workforce challenges.

Mary Beth emphasizes that it’s important to actively seek out nurses and other individuals providing care to share their ideas and discuss potential solutions to better support care teams and different care models.

Virtual nursing has “tremendous promise,” but it won’t close the nursing shortage gap, says Mary Beth. She also discusses the need to expand our knowledge of artificial intelligence and its potential in health care to enhance current work. “Integrating technology is not about replacing positions; it’s about being able to provide care in a more efficient and effective way,” she observes.

Building strong teams and supporting leaders, departments and units are key to ensure the well-being of the workforce, explains Mary Beth. That includes addressing workplace violence. Patient safety is “job one,” but “workforce safety is a piece of that,” she adds.

I hope you find these conversations interesting and insightful. Look for them once a month as part of the Chair File.

Watch the episode.