Becker's Hospital Review

38 38 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Cleveland Clinic's first chief caregiver officer on supporting 70,000 employees during crisis By Kelly Gooch K elly Hancock, DNP, RN, be- came Cleveland Clinic's first chief caregiver officer June 19, bringing 27 years of experience to the organization. Most recently, Dr. Hancock was exec- utive chief nursing officer of Cleveland Clinic Health System and chief nursing officer of its main campus. She now is the executive leader of hu- man resources, overseeing 70,000 U.S. and international employees. She is also responsible for Cleveland Clinic's Stanley Shalom Zielony Institute for Nursing Excellence, which oversees the practice and education of about 28,000 nursing caregivers. Dr. Hancock told Becker's Hospital Review she is excited about the op- portunities she has in the newly created role and shared her top prior- ities for her first year. She also discussed her greatest challenge amid the COVID-19 pandemic and offered some advice for colleagues. Editor's note: Responses were edited for length and clarity. Question: What has you most excited about your new role as chief caregiver officer? Dr. Kelly Hancock: I believe we have a great culture and organiza- tion, so what excites me is partnering with all 70,000 caregivers both domestically and internationally to make this an even better organi- zation to work at. I am excited as it relates to the opportunities around our caregivers. is role is the first of its kind at Cleveland Clinic, and I think it is unique. When I think about the vision for this role, it is to focus on enhancing our unique team-based culture Cleveland Clinic is known for and fos- tering it further by providing strategic direction as it relates to certain human resources functions. It's exciting to think about the possibil- ities, and I think it's a credit to CEO Tom Mihaljevic, MD, and his vision. I liken it to about 10 years ago when the organization had its first chief patient experience officer. At the time, that was a statement that a healthcare organization cared so much about the experience of our patients that they are dedicating someone at the helm of it, as well as an overall office for that. When you think about the first chief caregiver officer, it is a similar approach. Tom and the organization think so highly of one of its greatest assets — caregivers — that they are dedicating somebody to lead this and an office that will support it. Q: What are a few of your top priorities for this year? KH: Caregiver wellness and resiliency are top of mind across the board. Our organization already has well-established practices and strategies to support our caregivers, particularly in the time of COVID-19, but we know we have to partner with employees to see what else we need to put in place to support them. When we think about mitigating burnout and improving wellness for our caregivers beyond traditional wellness programs, there is a lot of opportunity there that can be tapped into to provide a stronger strategy to support that culture for the caregivers. Q: What is the greatest challenge you are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic? KH: Keeping our caregivers resilient. eir dedication and com- mitment to the organization, our patients and one another has been extraordinary. But with that comes a cost. I think the pandemic has caused anxiety for all of us, not knowing what will happen. On their emotional well-being, I imagine that has taken its toll. From an orga- nizational standpoint, I think our caregivers would tell you they feel very supported. We conducted a brief survey on engagement during COVID-19 to understand how we could better support caregivers during these times. Some good news: We had a high participation rate. In my opinion, the first step in engagement is participation. e second thing I would share is the overall sense from our caregivers about communication — particularly from our executive leadership — was at an all-time high. One of the things our caregivers value the most is open, honest, transparent communication. To take what we've learned during COVID-19 and apply the strategies to take us to the next level post-COVID will be extremely powerful, and fostering the culture we want to continue to build at our organization. Q: Staffing has been a big concern at hospitals across the country as they prepare for COVID-19 patients. With respect to nursing, what does your staffing preparation look like at Cleveland Clinic? KH: We had no idea when the year opened that this was ahead of us. at said, we always were in a state of readiness as it relates to pre- paring for any internal or external disaster. e pandemic tested our exercise in that. Early on, based on predictive modeling, we were able to look at current resources as it relates to nursing and identify how many types of nurses we need. For example, if we had a surge with COVID-positive patients on the medicine side, we were able to look at our resources in the nursing department and identify where we still had opportunities. Our nursing organization has about 15,000 registered nurses, and we were able to provide some education to be in that state of readiness if we needed more medicine nurses or ICU nurses. Luckily, we never experienced surges some of our colleagues saw in New York City and Detroit. We were so prepared at that time. As we sat by and watched on the news what was happening to our colleagues and reached out to them, we were able to send volunteer nurses to New York City and Henry Ford Health System in Detroit to help because at the time we didn't experience the surge. Today, I feel comfortable with the amount of nursing staff we have. Q: If you could pass along a piece of pandemic advice to other nurses and nursing executives, what would it be? KH: Update your practices and policies to ensure you keep hospitals safe for caregivers and limit the spread of the virus. en, of course, make sure to provide the needed care to patients. Also, I would be present. Communicating in real time with transparency is the safest way to manage this situation. Early on in the pandemic, things were changing on a daily basis, so it was especially important for caregivers to know the steps and actions their leadership team will take to reme- dy issues and maintain safety for themselves and patients. n

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