AONL 2025 is well underway as nurse leaders discuss AI, wellbeing, and DEI strategies.
After the first day of AONL 2025 in Boston, it's clear that CNOs and other nurse leaders have a few key concerns and focuses for nurse wellbeing, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and tackling AI implementation.
Hesitations about AI
To no one’s surprise, AI is top of mind at the conference this year, and nurse leaders are feeling apprehensive. As the technology progresses, CNOs have to decide how and when to embrace it and incorporate it into workflows.
The nurse leaders participating in the discussion were concerned about documentation errors, transparency, and deskilling among the workforce. There were also ethical concerns about patient confusion when talking to a chatbot.
A new kind of mental health support
Nurse mental health continues to be a top priority for CNOs, as burnout and turnover rates remain high in many organizations. Yarisbell Collazo, DNP, RN, MLD-C, MEDSURG-BC, nurse manager at UF Health, helped implement a new program for mental health resource nurses (MHRNs), who can help staff deal with stress and mental health concerns at work.
Each MHRN specializes in a different skill, ranging from organization to de-escalation, confidence, anxiety, depression, and coping mechanisms. The nurses are certified in mental health first aid, and they provide monthly materials to staff related to mental health issues and themes. The goal is to make their roles official, so that they can dedicate more time to mental health education, which they are now taking on in addition to seeing patients.
Withstanding attacks on DEI
Under the waves of executive orders from the Trump administration, many organizations are hesitant to move forward with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives out of fear of noncompliance.
They also advocated for an inclusive excellence strategy based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which begins with equality and results in human flourishing and self-actualization. The goal is to achieve equal opportunity for nurses while also prioritizing equitable patient care.
Having a virtual nurse available during discharges eliminates distractions, says this CNE.
On this episode of HL Shorts, we hear from Catherine Hughes, senior vice president and chief nurse executive of Virtua Health, about the concrete benefits that Virtua Health has seen from their virtual nursing program. Tune in to hear her insights.
Nurse leaders are gathering in Boston this year to strategize best practices for AI, virtual nursing, and how to streamline care models with technology.
As technology continues to embed itself into every industry, healthcare is bracing for the impact that AI will have on everything.
From the C-suite down to the bedside, AI and other new technologies will soon become care staples that nurses and patients alike will need to become familiar with. However, there is a right way and a wrong way for leaders to implement these changes.
That's why thousands of nurse leaders are coming together in Boston from March 30 to April 2 to brainstorm at the AONL 2025 Aspiring Leaders conference.
What to watch
The conference consists of daily sessions where various nurse leaders will highlight industry trends and provide their high-level insights to their peers. Generative AI and its pros and cons will be a hot button issue, as well as digital transformation strategies and the role of virtual nursing in care delivery.
Leadership development, specifically for nurse managers, is also top of mind as CNOs and CNEs engage in succession planning. In the fall 2024 Trends and Innovations Nurse Manager Retention report published by AONL and Laudio, nurse managers had four priorities that they want CNOs and other nurse leaders to focus on: ensuring a healthy work environment, promoting leadership development, identifying new leaders early, and addressing role complexity. These priorities and more will be central to the discussions in Boston.
Last but not least, workplace violence continues to be a large trend as incidents continue to rise and nurses keep bringing the issue to light. CNOs and other nurse leaders must keep working on prevention efforts while also streamlining the processes for reporting and following up on incidents when they occur.
As this year's AONL attendees come up with strategies for these issues, HealthLeaders will be there to take note of what is and isn't working.
Other sessions will cover policy and advocacy, transition to practice, and how to create a more diverse, stable workforce that values mental health and wellness. Attendees will have the opportunity to attend these sessions as well as walk through the exhibit hall.
Here are three tools that nurses and nurse leaders can use to prioritize their wellbeing.
Focusing on wellbeing is critical for nurse leaders who want to combat burnout and lower nurse turnover rates.
For CNOs who want to prioritize wellbeing and self-leadership for their workforces, Diane Sieg, a registered nurse, author, and the creator of the Well-Being Coaching Initiative, suggested "CPR," but not in the traditional sense of the term.
"CPR stands for compassion, presence, and recovery," Sieg said. "It's not the CPR that nurses are familiar with, but [it's] just as lifesaving because it infuses more energy, more engagement, [and] more connection into your work and life."
CNOs must look at metrics that will help them leverage virtual nursing through the future and continue to improve the experience for nurses and patients.
On this episode of HL Shorts, we hear from Jennie Van Antwerp, director of digital acute care at OSF OnCall, about the ROI metrics CNOs can use to make a financial case for virtual nursing. Tune in to hear her insights.
CNOs must look at metrics that will help them leverage virtual nursing through the future and continue to improve the experience for nurses and patients.
On this episode of HL Shorts, we hear from Jennie Van Antwerp, director of digital acute care at OSF OnCall, about the ROI metrics CNOs can use to make a financial case for virtual nursing. Tune in to hear her insights.
Prioritizing wellbeing requires leadership and individual commitment, says this nurse well-being thought leader.
The term "well-being" is a broad term defined in many ways today, depending on the person and their environment.
For CNOs, well-being programs and initiatives can focus on employee mental health, physical wellness, finding solutions to combat burnout, and creating healthy work environments.
For Diane Sieg, RN, CYT, CSP, the definition is simple.
"Well-being is how you feel about yourself and what you do every day," Sieg said. "Self-leadership is making the best decisions for yourself that supports your well-being."
Sieg, who is a registered nurse, author, coach, and creator of the Well-Being Coaching Initiative, explained to HealthLeaders that nurses traditionally don't always prioritize their own wellbeing, since they are so focused on patients, families, and their communities. Nurses know what to do to take care of themselves, they just don’t often do it.
However, there are major quantitative and qualitative benefits to CNOs and other nurse leaders focusing on nurse wellbeing.
"When nurses that feel good about themselves and what they do every day, they are less stressed and more connected, engaged, and energized in their work and in their life, which is what wellbeing can do for us," Sieg said.
The ROI of wellbeing
According to Sieg, the quantitative benefits of well-being can be found in improving retention and the bottom line. Through a pilot of the Well-Being Coaching Initiative started during the COVID-19 pandemic, Atrium Health reported a 30% improvement in stress, burnout, and engagement that correlated to a 30% reduction in turnover and $3 million in savings in one year.
There is also qualitative value in wellbeing.
"I have witnessed these nurses transform in their careers and lives," Sieg said. "They get promoted, create new positions, go back to school, and engage in and lead projects, because when you prioritize yourself, you have more to give, period."
To measure the ROI for well-being, Sieg recommended using standard validated assessments to measure burnout, engagement, stress and self-compassion. As with any new initiative, it's important to track metrics before, during, and after implementation.
"We measured self-compassion," Sieg said, "and then lastly was self-leadership, because we want to understand where [the nurses] start and where they are immediately after [intervention], in our case it was the coaching."
Prioritizing well-being requires leadership and individual commitment. Well-being initiatives must be supported by leadership as a benefit to recognize, acknowledge and value their nurses and the vital role they play in patient experience and outcomes, Sieg explained. Nurses need to commit to making changes by practicing self-leadership with the skills, structure and support provided.
The CPR method
For CNOs who want to prioritize wellbeing and self-leadership for their workforces, Sieg suggested "CPR," but not in the traditional sense of the term.
"This CPR stands for compassion, presence, and recovery," Sieg said. "It's not the CPR that nurses are familiar with, but [it's] just as lifesaving because it infuses more energy, purpose and meaning in your work and life."
The practice of compassion, according to Sieg, specifically refers to compassion for yourself. Nurses can have very high expectations of what they can accomplish in a shift, and when they don't meet those unrealistic expectations, are critical of themselves, Sieg explained. explained.
"Nurses have plenty of compassion for others, but what we don't have is compassion for ourselves," Sieg said. "Being kind to yourself is giving yourself a break, literally and figuratively, because you are human and require it."
The second practice is presence, which, to Sieg, is slowing down to experience the present moment fully. When nurses are focused on all their unfinished tasks, they can't engage with themselves or their patients as effectively, and this leads to more stress, exhaustion, and feeling overwhelmed.
"To be present to yourself is to realizing when you're overwhelmed, hungry, or grumpy, and then asking for help," Sieg says. "This focusing on yourself first, supports you to give your best to everyone and everything else."
The third practice is recovery, which to Sieg means finding ways to re-energize yourself, not just on vacation, or days off, but every day.
"[It's the] idea of filling yourself back up, doing things that help you feel good about yourself, that bring you joy," Sieg said, "not for hours, but even a few minutes of listening to your favorite music, creating some quiet space, moving, or getting outside to help you reset and renew yourself."
Incorporating these practices into nursing must begin with leadership.
"It's very important for nurse leaders to role model and support these practices for themselves and their staff" Sieg said. "Leaders need to treat themselves with kindness and not run themselves ragged, slow down to engage with staff, and prioritize their own recovery to support their staff to do the same."
For CNOs who are just starting a new wellbeing program, Sieg emphasized the importance of fully committing to it.
"Whatever you start and initiate, I encourage the nurse leaders to continue, so it is not a one-and-done program," Sieg said. "Well-being is about culture change and it takes time, consistency, and commitment, but it is so worth the investment to empower our nurses."
To learn more about the Well-Being Coaching Initiative, you can contact Diane here: diane@dianesieg.com.
Nurse leaders should leverage both virtual nursing and multidisciplinary care teams to remove burdens from the bedside nurse, say these nurse leaders.
Virtual nursing will continue to become the standard of care in health systems across the industry.
However, there are still several roadblocks that stand in the way of virtual nursing becoming the perfect solution for staffing and care delivery issues.
The HealthLeaders 2025 Virtual Nursing Mastermind program participants met earlier this week in Atlanta to discuss their virtual nursing programs and the outcomes they have achieved so far. There are two key points that CNOs can take back to their health systems to help fine tune their own virtual nursing programs.
Involving multidisciplinary teams
From the beginning, the selling point for virtual nursing has been that it will remove burdens from the bedside and give time back to nurses. However, the Mastermind participants made it clear that virtual nursing is not going to solve every problem that nurses are facing in the industry. Nurses are burnt out, and while the addition of a virtual nurse can help offload administrative tasks such as admissions and discharges, there are still plenty of tasks that could be outsourced to other departments in a heath system.
Since nursing is the largest part of the workforce, it has become easy to pass things off to nurses. However, according to Derek Godino, senior program director of nursing at Geisinger and Mastermind participant, nurses should be able to rely on multidisciplinary teams to support them and remove some of their burden. The participants emphasized that not every task currently being completed by a nurse needs to necessarily be done by RNs.
To Godino, it's time to reimagine workflows at a system level.
"We have to disrupt the health system model, not individual care team models," Godino said.
To the participants, leaders should consider relocating tasks to multidisciplinary teams in addition to assigning them to virtual nurses. CNOs and other nurse leaders should also look at other industries to see how they are successfully integrating technology and try to adapt some of those strategies into their own healthcare workflows.
Reimagining the bedside model
The second takeaway from the participants is that the traditional models of care at the bedside are no longer going to be enough to sustain nursing. The nursing shortage will continue unless nurse leaders are able to incentivize people to become nurses and stay in the workforce. Virtual nursing can be one solution for that, along with incorporating other technologies such as AI and ambient listening that can further remove tasks and documentation burdens.
According to Stephanie Johnson, executive director of system virtual care for UnityPoint Health and Mastermind participant, CNEs, CNOs, and other nurse leaders must advocate for investment in technology as tools that will allow nursing to continue as a profession. The pitfalls of not investing in technology will greatly outweigh the potential savings.
"The CNE needs to be able to envision virtual nursing and other augmented resources as the way in which we will remain viable as a nursing workforce," Johnson said.
To the participants, an ideal virtual nursing program would involve consolidated technology with a streamlined user interface that allows the nurse to follow the patient throughout their entire care journey. It would take into account best nursing practices, get other disciplines involved, and ultimately enable nurses to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively, while recentering their time with patients as the focal point of the profession.
There's more to come from the 2025 Virtual Nursing Mastermind program, so stay tuned for more coverage and the final report.
The HealthLeaders Mastermind seriesis an exclusive series of calls and events with healthcare executives. This Virtual NursingMastermind series features ideas, solutions, and insights onaccelerating your virtual nursing program.Please join the community at our LinkedIn page.
To inquire about participating in an upcoming Mastermind series or attending a HealthLeaders Exchange event, email us at exchange@healthleadersmedia.com.
CNOs should partner with their technology leaders and IT departments, according to this ANO.
On this episode of HL Shorts, we hear from Sandy Alexander, associate nursing officer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, about how CNOs can choose the right technology for their virtual nursing programs. Tune in to hear her insights.
Health systems are debating the future of virtual care technology and what expanding into other departments would look like in practice.
The 2025 HealthLeaders Virtual Nursing Mastermind program participants are meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, to discuss implementing virtual nursing programs and what the future of those programs will look like.
The program consists of CNOs and other nurse and technology leaders from influential health systems across the country who are all at various stages in their virtual nursing journeys, and who are innovating with new technologies and solutions.
The technology dilemma
Since last year's run of this Mastermind program, the participants have made great strides toward integrating virtual nursing into care delivery. However, it's clear that virtual care is expanding well beyond nursing, and other departments want in on the action.
One major issue that many of them are facing is the lack of consolidation of the technology being used in the workflows. With a vast array of technology options, it can be difficult to decide which ones will suit the needs of each nursing workforce and each patient population. Those decisions get even more difficult when factoring in the other disciplines who want to use the technology.
If other departments do begin leveraging the virtual care platforms, the question arises: Who gets priority?
The pros and cons
For many of the participants, virtual care tech largely lives within the nursing department, but there are many avenues that could be taken to incorporate use from other staff.
Expanding access to the tech could cause confusion around who gets to enter the patient's room at what time, and it could potentially conflict with the bedside nurse's time with the patient. This would also create a need to manage those interactions, which could potentially be solved by a queuing system based on priority.
The upside, however, is that shared access to virtual care technology would allow for more disciplines to take on tasks that are typically done by nurses. It could save time for nurses at the bedside and provide the patient with a higher quality of care.
There are still plenty of questions to be answered regarding the future virtual nursing, so stay tuned for more coverage.
The HealthLeaders Mastermind seriesis an exclusive series of calls and events with healthcare executives. This Virtual NursingMastermind series features ideas, solutions, and insights onaccelerating your virtual nursing program.Please join the community at our LinkedIn page.
To inquire about participating in an upcoming Mastermind series or attending a HealthLeaders Exchange event, email us at exchange@healthleadersmedia.com.
