Paul Sunmbola, RN, Ascension Saint Agnes, Baltimore, Maryland
Ascension is committed to delivering compassionate and personalized care for all, especially those who need it most.
Our Mission
Rooted in the loving ministry of Jesus as healer, we commit ourselves to serving all persons with special attention to those who are poor and vulnerable. Our Catholic health ministry is dedicated to spiritually centered, holistic care which sustains and improves the health of individuals and communities. We are advocates for a compassionate and just society through our actions and our words.
Our
Vision
Answering God’s call to bring health, healing and hope to all
Our Values
Service of the poor
Generosity of spirit, especially for persons most in need
Reverence
Respect and compassion for the dignity and diversity of life
Integrity
Inspiring trust through personal leadership
Wisdom
Integrating excellence and stewardship
Creativity
Courageous innovation
Dedication
Affirming the hope and joy of our ministry
Welcome from Sally Deitch, Executive Vice President, Nursing & Operations
Infrastructure and Mo Chadwick, Senior Vice President, Nursing and Chief Nursing Officer 2
Mo Chadwick, Senior Vice President, Nursing and Chief Nursing Officer
“It is with great pleasure that we share our inaugural Ascension Nursing Annual Report with you. ”
— Sally Deitch
“This report is a representation of our nursing communities’ collective efforts driven by our Mission, rooted in the loving ministry of Jesus as healer.”
— Mo Chadwick
Investing in associate development and experience
Amy Menard, RN (left) and Jessica Thomas, RN (right), Ascension All Saints Hospital, Racine, Wisconsin
Strengthening Ascension, one ANNA group at a time
Ascension National Nurse Affinity (ANNA) groups are a strategic force. Through direct care nursing and leader engagement, these groups identify opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce costs and enhance the overall value delivered to our patients and communities drawing on research, data and evidence-based practice to guide their efforts. They empower our nurses by listening to understand their suggestions, providing opportunities for connection across teams or markets and truly demonstrating what happens when hearts and many hands unite to support our Mission.
Ascension National Nurse Affinity Groups
Simply put, through your voice, ANNA groups strengthen Ascension across the practice environment. See what our members have to say.
Ascension empowers nurse leaders to enhance care
RN Practice Specialist
Nurses provided valuable feedback about the capacity of their leaders, and we listened.
NURSING LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE
Regional Chief Nursing Officer
Site Chief Nursing Officer
Nursing Director
Nurse Manager
Assistant Nurse Manager
RN Clinical Lead
Assistant Chief Nursing Officer
Operations Support Coordinator
This model aligns to the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) Compendium.
Preceptor program creates foundation for nurses to succeed
A strong foundation for new nurses ensures patient safety and high-quality care. In 2024, Ascension reinvigorated its nurse preceptor program to provide a seamless and supportive onboarding experience for incoming nurses.
The nurse preceptor program is an Ascension initiative with workshops and training. The program is designed to ensure our preceptors have the knowledge, skills and tools to support our newest nurses.
The training program utilizes a multi-faceted approach:
• WEB-BASED TRAINING MODULES:
Provide foundational knowledge and information through an online learning platform.
• WORKSHOPS AND TRAINING SESSIONS:
Offer in-depth training and skill-building opportunities for preceptors.
• ONLINE RESOURCES:
Support our leaders and preceptors by providing resources and answering frequently asked questions regarding preceptors and the training process.
• STEERING COMMITTEE OVERSIGHT:
Ensure the program’s effectiveness and alignment with evidence-based best practices.
The dedication and compassion of our preceptors supports new team members and elevates the practice of nursing across Ascension.
By investing in developing skilled and confident nurse preceptors, Ascension improved the onboarding experience for new nurses and enhanced the quality of patient care across the organization.
What is a nurse preceptor?
A nurse preceptor is an experienced, competent clinical nurse who acts as a role model, guide and coach to new nurses*, facilitating their integration into the unit and building their confidence in providing safe and effective patient care.
They:
• Create a supportive environment and foster a sense of belonging
• Guide new nurses through their learning process and help them develop the skills and knowledge needed for success
• Evaluate new nurses’ performance to ensure they meet practice standards and deliver safe, high-quality care
“Each preceptor brought a unique perspective to nursing workflows and patient care, allowing me to adapt and integrate diverse approaches into my practice.”
— Racha Basraoui, RN, New float nurse at Ascension Alexian Brothers in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.
*Preceptors may work with a clinical nurse in their first job or one with 20 years of experience but who is new to the area or department.
Nurse leaders champion workplace civility
Ascension is dedicated to creating a respectful and supportive environment where everyone at our sites of care — patients, families, associates, clinicians and our aligned partners — upholds human dignity and is treated with reverence. To disrupt incivility and bullying, we introduced “Promoting Workplace Civility” content based on our Service Commitments as part of our Nursing Leadership Development Series (NLDS).
Led by Senior Vice President of Nursing and Chief Nursing Officer, Mo Chadwick, the office hours post-NLDS were open to all leaders, demonstrating our commitment to developing a safe, supportive environment for our entire nursing community. These highly successful conversations, with record-breaking engagement, equipped nurse leaders to disrupt and proactively address concerns of incivility and support frontline nurses. We expect to see the impact on culture of safety and employee engagement metrics.
In the fall of 2024, Mo sat down with Tom Aloia, MD, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, for a conversation in Ascend, Ascension’s podcast series. They discussed the hierarchy gap between physicians and nurses, the importance of psychological safety in the workplace and expanded on topics from the “Promoting Workplace Civility” and “We Got Your Back” sessions.
For additional perspective, listen to this podcast with Mo Chadwick and Dr. Renee Thompson on disrupting incivility.
In response to feedback shared through the Associate Experience Survey, Ascension took action to improve psychological safety and listening.
Celebrating success: Ascension’s high nurse retention rates
“I wish I had confetti poppers that I could bring to every Ascension facility to celebrate our nurses for our remarkable 90-day and one-year retention numbers in calendar year 2024. These numbers are a testament to the dedication of our entire nursing community, particularly our experienced nurses who foster a welcoming and supportive environment. Our nursing community is at the heart of our Mission, and their unwavering dedication is truly inspiring. As we continue to build on this success, I am proud to work alongside all of our Ascension nurses.”
— Mo Chadwick, Senior Vice President, Nursing and Chief Nursing Officer, Ascension
1-YEAR RETENTION RATE
Graphs include only delivery markets and exclude FY24/25 divestitures.
OVERALL NURSING RETENTION
OVER THE LAST 5 YEARS
QUALITY AND SAFETY
Fulfilling our promise to heal without harm
A nursing huddle at Ascension St. Vincent Southside, Jacksonville, Florida
Ascension nurses drive reduction in patient falls
Imagine a world where patient falls, a common and costly hospital occurrence, are drastically reduced. At Ascension, this is a reality forged by the unwavering dedication of our nurses.
Falls in acute care settings are a challenge for patients, caregivers and hospitals. Each fall results in an average of $35,000 in direct care costs in addition to the impact to patient health and safety. Traditional approaches to prevention often fall short, leaving patients vulnerable.
Ascension nurses, driven by a commitment to patient safety, took a different approach. They spearheaded a strategic initiative that blended interdisciplinary collaboration and innovative solutions. It wasn’t just about adding new protocols; it was about fundamentally changing the culture of care.
Ascension’s success lies in its collaborative environment, where patient and family involvement is paramount. By moving beyond traditional education efforts, they are fostering a culture of prevention and education through the Fall TIPS program. This is a testament to the power of dedicated nurses and innovative strategies in
transforming patient safety.
“When we reviewed our fall prevention practices, it was evident that a critical gap existed in the engagement of patients and their families in fall prevention interventions,” said Holly Rollo, Vice President Patient Care, Ascension St. Joseph Hospital, Chicago. “Since implementing TIPS, we have seen a significant reduction in both overall falls and falls with injury, along with improved nurse-patient engagement and greater overall satisfaction.”
These achievements also translate to improved CMS Stars and Leapfrog scores, reflecting the high-quality, safe care Ascension provides. This commitment to sustainability ensures positive outcomes continue to benefit patients.
Informed by the autonomous genius at the point of care, Ascension’s Emergency Department nurses have tailored this successful approach to meet the unique needs of emergency patients. See Cutting-edge solutions improve emergency care on page 20.
Reducing Falls with Harm
92% of patients and families can explain risks (up from 85%) Hip fractures due to falls down 28.2% outperforming the national benchmark by 26.6%
13.4% year-over-year improvement in acute care falls with injury
48,000 nurses completed a rigorous, innovative training program
Achieving a 6.7% reduction in falls in just one year exceeding a system-wide goal set in June 2023 of 5% and outperforming the national benchmark by 26.6%
13.7%
year-over-year improvement of falls with mild to severe harm
Driving quality care: How Ascension nurses use performance indicators
Ascension nurses are dedicated to delivering safe, quality, compassionate care that respects the human dignity of our patients and families we serve, in alignment with our Mission. Our nursing community’s commitment to positive change led to tremendous year-over-year improvement across our six nurse-sensitive indicators (NSIs), which measure and improve nursing care.
Ascension is committed to improving maternal health outcomes while advancing health equity. The Ascension FY25-27 clinical priority goal is focused on reducing rates of severe obstetric complications with accelerated improvements in women from vulnerable communities (as defined by the CDC’s social vulnerability index - SVI). The SVI is a composite measure encompassing multiple variables that correspond to key social determinants of health.
Nurse sensitive indicators: FY24-FY25 performance
Ascension’s exceptional maternal care results in positive health outcomes for all patients, particularly those from historically underserved communities.
1 in 50 babies in the U.S. are born at an Ascension hospital (From 2019–2024)
32.6%
20.48%
Ascension maternal morbidity rate for all patients compared to the national average. (Oct. 2022–2023)
Ascension maternal morbidity rate for Black/ African American patients compared to the national average. (Oct. 2022–2023)
Culture of Safety survey sees significant improvement
Our annual Culture of Safety survey received 55,547 responses, indicating higher engagement. This analysis confirms that emphasizing High Reliability principles strengthens our safety culture and benefits community health.
Key results:
These results highlight the positive impact of our efforts to create a safer environment. A strong safety culture is crucial to our journey toward zero preventable harm. We encourage a questioning attitude, emphasizing validation and verification to prevent errors.
Culture of Safety survey results
STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT IN 68% of the individual survey items within the hospital setting across Ascension:
Staffing and work pace +7%
Hospital management support for patient safety +2%
56,547 total responses Improved response RATES across Ascension hospitals (for both employed associates and affiliated providers)
Organizational learning +2%
Supervisor/manager/ leader support for patient safety +1%
IMPROVED OVERALL PERCEPTION OF PATIENT SAFETY in the following settings:
HOSPITAL: 2.3% improvement
NURSING HOME/SENIOR LIVING: 3% improvement
STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT IN FIVE MARKETS in overall rating of patient safety
THE BOTTOM LINE: Our amplification of High Reliability principles is improving safety culture.
Telemetry nurses at Ascension St. Joseph Hospital, Chicago, Illinois
Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) empowers nurses
The relationship between evidence-based practice culture, nurse job satisfaction and intent to stay is well documented (Melnyk, 2021). Many efforts have been underway driving and demonstrating examples reflecting our evidence-based culture. Examples include:
• National and market evidence reviews
• National and market sustained performance on nurse-sensitive indicators
• Evidence-based professional governance
• EBP Academy
• Internal EBP conferences and bootcamp
The structured curriculum offered by the EBP Academy builds capacity for nurses at all levels to have the authority, autonomy and accountability to advocate for those we serve and serve beside — through evidence.
The vision and strategy to scale evidence-based practice capacity among all nurses, at all levels and in all settings remain a priority and will be further developed as we plan for FY26 and beyond.
Safety matters for Ascension associates
The partnership between Nursing and Associate Occupational Health (AOH) has played a pivotal role in significantly reducing associate-related injuries, including needlesticks, slips/trips/falls and those related to safe patient mobilization. In collaboration with nursing and interdisciplinary teams, AOH leads work in each market to review associate injuries and leverages evidence-based strategies to create and implement interventions to not only enhance associate safety but also advance patient care.
This integrated approach demonstrates how cross-disciplinary teamwork, along with a commitment to continuous improvement, fosters a culture of safety that benefits both associates and patients, ultimately strengthening the overall healthcare system.
Trended Ascension Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) incident rates
... builds capacity for nurses at all levels to have the authority, autonomy and accountability to advocate for those we serve ...
Transforming healthcare: Ascension’s commitment to nursing research
Research plays an essential role in nursing by generating new knowledge that informs patient care and the healthcare systems in which care is delivered; it is the foundation of evidence-based practice. Nurses from across Ascension are leading over 100 studies that aim to answer clinically meaningful questions. Their novel work is being nationally recognized through professional presentations, publications, media mentions and grant awards. Key to this success is bringing together our nurse scientists, clinicians and operational leaders to identify these questions and collaborate to answer them.
FY24 to FY25 Q2 Nursing Research Accomplishments
44 publications in peer-reviewed journals or book chapters that included one or more Ascension nurses
116 active research studies with nurses as investigators
24 regional, national and international presentations nurse scientist led and supported $1,020,000 funding in grants being implemented for STAGE (Skin Tone Assessment for Greater Equity) Telehealth and Ascension Texas Student Nurse Intern Registered Apprenticeship Program
Media mentions/acknowledgments of work:
• Publication Exploration of the Current State of Peripheral Intravenous Catheter Complications and Documentation (written by Ascension nurses) was one of Infusion Nurses’ Society’s “Top Articles” of 2024.
• Multiple media outlets highlighted Call to Action: Blueprint for Change in Acute and Critical Care Nursing publication in Nursing Outlook.
• Becker’s Health IT article called A Gap in the Literature: Why Ascension Aims to Diversify Telehealth was published about our nursing research team’s investigations of skin tone and telehealth.
Delivering patient-centered care for older adults
Ascension is committed to delivering compassionate and personalized care, especially for our older adult population. By 2040, about one in five Americans will be age 65 or older, up from about one in eight in 2000.
One way Ascension aims to build relationships with older adults is by prioritizing Medicare Annual Wellness Visits (AWVs) and providing age-friendly care. During Medicare AWVs, patients have the opportunity to have a conversation with their doctor, when they can discuss their health history, talk about advance care planning options, schedule screenings — and most importantly — set their health goals for the year ahead.
Teamwork leads to positive results in older patients in FY24
ADDITIONAL 80,000 seniors served 23% increase in AWV completions
In AWV completers:
11.7 increase in colorectal cancer screenings
14.8% increase in breast cancer screenings
During these visits, our care teams also apply an evidence-based approach called the 4M Framework that focuses on what matters most to the patient; their medication needs; their mentation/mental health; and any mobility concerns to deliver holistic care.
As critical collaborators, our nurses have been a key driver of the promotion of these important visits and improved screening rates. We applaud their accomplishments and appreciate the positive impact they’ve had on this important community.
Nurse scientists partner with Marquette University to drive health improvements
Our Value of Reverence (respect and compassion for the dignity and diversity of life) compels us to foster a culture where associates are encouraged to bring their full selves to work each day, enabling them to provide care to patients of all backgrounds. Our nurse scientists have taken this commitment a step further. They are part of a team awarded a grant to improve healthcare for people with darker skin tones. The grant will help develop digital health image standards to better assess skin conditions in telehealth settings for populations where the assessment has been difficult in the past.
View this video to learn more about our sentinel skin tone research.
CONSUMER EXPERIENCE
Driving demand through exemplary experiences
Spencer Rice, RN, Dell Children’s Medical Center North Campus, Austin, Texas
Unleashing the power of patient feedback in real time
By actively involving nurses and nurse leaders in Real-time Listening, Ascension turns feedback into action and improves every step of the care journey.
During February and March 2025, our patients gave us an all-time Net Promoter Score (which measures how likely they are to recommend our care to others), a rating that puts us in the company of some of America’s most beloved and trusted brands.
NetPromoter Score Range
Shemika Hall, RN, Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford, Nashville, Tennessee
Esther Migwi, BSN, RN, RN Case Manager, Ascension Living HOPE, Wichita, Kansas
The heart of healing: Celebrating DAISY Award nominees
We know that our nurses are the heart and soul of our organization and embody “one heart, many hands.” They go above and beyond each day, providing compassionate, extraordinary care to patients and families. Patients, families and fellow associates share their gratitude to our nurses by nominating them for DAISY Awards. The DAISY Award is an international program that recognizes exceptional nurses, nurse leaders and nursing teams. It was established to honor J. Patrick Barnes, who died from complications of an autoimmune disorder. Award ceremonies include pins, decorations and additional celebration elements.
Go deeper to meet three of our DAISY recipients: Megan Knight, Monica Taggart and Ryan Curtis
We are proud of our Ascension DAISY Award winners and are excited to celebrate even more extraordinary nurses in the future! In August 2024, Ascension entered into a pilot strategy with The DAISY Foundation and Qualtrics to collect DAISY nominations through the Qualtrics platform, integrated into our realtime listening survey. Our patients had asked for ways to recognize exceptional care more easily, and this approach allows them to nominate nurses at the same time they complete their feedback form. Since the launch we have received over 1,000 nominations combined, 60% from our Qualtrics patient survey. The majority of pilot sites experienced significant increases in DAISY award nominations. Making submissions easier
Hear what it means to be a DAISY Award recipient at Ascension.
OPERATIONAL RIGOR
Stabilizing our operations and financial position
Yolanda Atkinson, RN, Practice Specialist, Ascension St. Vincent Riverside, Jacksonville, Florida
Fast track to talent: Hiring sprint boosts nursing workforce
As we continue to strengthen our nursing workforce, Ascension is committed to recruiting and nurturing dedicated registered nurses (RNs) to ensure compassionate care remains central to our Mission. In the fall of 2024, Ascension demonstrated its commitment to addressing critical staffing needs by launching an accelerated hiring and onboarding initiative for direct care RNs. This collaborative effort involved
nursing, human resources and clinical professional development teams, successfully reducing reliance on contract labor.
To accelerate the hiring and onboarding pace, we streamlined the hiring process and focused on preceptor training to increase capacity to onboard and mentor new-to-Ascension nurses.
The results have been remarkable as we analyzed 5 months Pre-sprint vs. Oct-Feb FY25
18% increase in offers accepted:
Filling critical roles across departments and improving patient service with an increase in 793 nurses.
36% increase in internal offers accepted: Demonstrating a commitment to retaining 598 experienced nurses.
The sprint’s success underscores our commitment to building a sustainable nursing workforce of highquality talent, providing exceptional care for our patients and the communities we serve.
3.8 day reduction in time from interview to offer: Enhancing the candidate experience by reducing the average time from 8.7 days to 4.9 days.
2.4% increase in offer acceptance ratio: Driven by the same day interview-to-offer process, which resulted in an increase in 120 candidates accepting.
Nearly 300% growth in trained preceptors since January 2024: Strengthening onboarding and retention efforts. 96% retention rate maintained: Indicating the potential for long-term positive impact
“The nurse hiring sprint was the result of strong collaboration across nursing and operational leadership and Human Resources. Our collective work helped establish a framework for more efficient hiring, which resulted in a better candidate experience and an increase in offers accepted. We are excited about the early progress we’ve seen and remain focused on continuous improvement.”
— Jay Huckabee, Vice President, Organizational Effectiveness
Cutting-edge solutions improve emergency care
Fred Kraenzlin, RN (left) and Kathryn Lewis-Broussard, RN (right), ER nurses at Ascension Borgess-Pipp, Plainwell, Michigan
The nurses in our emergency departments face unique patient care challenges due to the need for broad expertise, time-sensitive conditions and the unpredictability of emergencies. To address this, Ascension has developed a new approach to standardize processes across facilities, leveraging input from our teams, data and national standards.
At Ascension, we are committed to delivering quality and compassionate care in our emergency departments. Recognizing the stressful nature of these visits, we strive to enhance the patient experience by ensuring both efficiency and empathy in our services.
In 2023, we launched a pilot program focused on emergency department throughput and flow. This initiative, now expanding across our ministries, sets out to establish standard practices benefiting both patients and staff.
Our efforts began with analyzing front-end processes like patient check-in to create an efficient system adaptable to varying staffing levels and department layouts. The objective is to prioritize patient care while optimizing workflow efficiency.
Our team collaborated with Human Resources to align our practices with national nursing standards, ensuring consistency across all Ascension facilities. We conducted pilot tests to refine these practices, incorporating feedback from our nurses.
One significant development was the adaptation of our fall risk assessment tool (the KINDER tool) for emergency use, led by our Texas team. This tool, grounded in evidence-based research, is now a standard across all Ascension emergency departments.
“We wanted to pilot the KINDER tool to determine if it would make a difference,” said Angela Wright, Chief Nursing Officer/Vice President Nursing, Ascension Seton Williamson Hospital. “The pilot was successful, and the KINDER tool is now an Ascension national standard.”
Building on national measures like “restore to provider” and “left without being seen,” we have integrated key performance indicators into our dashboard. This tool offers real-time data on metrics such as:
• Door-to-provider time
• Left without being seen or LWBS
• Discharge length of stay
• Admit length of stay
• Low acuity (non-life-threatening injuries) length of stay
What we’re hearing
Our nurses appreciate the transparency and accountability introduced by this initiative. They value having clear standards that support their work and enhance patient care. Leadership is also supportive of this win-win approach, ensuring superior care continues to be delivered by our dedicated and compassionate nurses. Ascension remains committed to the relentless pursuit of excellence in our emergency departments. By standardizing practices and utilizing data-driven decisions, we ensure our patients receive the highest quality care efficiently and effectively.
Perioperative Services: Precision and progress in surgical care
Ascension’s Perioperative Services embarked on a transformative journey this past year, focusing on enhancing surgical scheduling and minimizing avoidable delays. These strategic initiatives directly support our dedicated nursing and clinical teams, enabling them to deliver safe, timely and compassionate care to our patients.
Key achievements
Cancellation reason reduction
Ascension conducted a comprehensive review and simplification process for its 450+ surgical cancellation reasons. This resulted in a reduction to 35 clearly defined, actionable reasons, significantly improving data integrity and streamlining communication across the surgical team. This enhancement directly empowers our nursing staff, who play a critical role in managing patient experiences during scheduling disruptions. This also supports our commitment to patient recapture and continuity of care.
Standardized surgical delay reasons
Ascension created a standardized set of surgical delay reasons, which were deployed across the Ministry. This framework provides nursing and OR teams with a clear and consistent method for documenting and analyzing delay causes, enabling data-driven conversations and improvements in first case on-time starts. This standardization empowers nurses to confidently escalate issues and actively participate in operational enhancements.
By removing ambiguity, improving communication and empowering clinical teams with better tools and data, these initiatives reflect Ascension’s ongoing commitment to operational excellence and patient-centered care — while supporting the vital role of the Perioperative nursing care team at every step.
Enhanced data-driven decision making
The implementation of these standardized systems has facilitated improved data collection and analysis, enabling proactive identification and resolution of operational bottlenecks. This data-driven approach supports a culture of continuous improvement and ensures that our perioperative services are optimized for efficiency and patient safety.
Julie Reeves, RN, Ascension St. John Broken Arrow, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
Getting patients home sooner: Accelerating healing and homecomings
In Fiscal Year 2025, Ascension prioritized the critical objective of facilitating timely and safe patient transitions to home, recognizing the paramount importance of returning patients to their loved ones. We achieved measurable progress, demonstrating our unwavering commitment to high-quality, efficient care that extends beyond hospital walls.
Key achievements
Length of Stay Index (LOSI) improvement:
We achieved a reduction in the LOSI (the ratio between expected length of patient stay vs. actual length of stay) from 1.25 in FY24 to 1.24 in FY25. For patients discharged home, the LOSI improved from 1.06 to 1.03, highlighting our dedication to expediting patient recovery and return to their home environments.
LOSI Home Oversight committee establishment:
We established the LOSI Home Oversight committee in February 2025. Comprising representatives from 10 Ascension hospitals with the greatest opportunities for improvement, this committee convenes weekly to analyze key drivers of LOSI. The learnings have catalyzed system-wide improvements, fostering a culture of continuous optimization.
Enhanced case management for complex needs:
Case Management teams focused on strengthening discharge planning for patients who require an extended length of stay (ELOS). These efforts have contributed to record-low in-house patient volumes in March 2025.
Nursing is central to many of these improvement efforts, including:
• Multidisciplinary Rounds (MDR): Hospital Chief Nursing Officers (CNOs) and Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) implement the process with a system-wide playbook.
• Patient mobility: National Nursing Leadership launched a Nurse-led Patient Mobility Playbook. With CNOs, the team is evaluating the most effective mobility tools. Maintaining patient mobility throughout hospitalization which can contribute to more timely discharges.
Together, these initiatives reflect our shared Mission to provide compassionate, personalized care—and to help patients get home, where healing continues and connection is restored.
Rachel Jones, RN, Ascension St. Vincent Heart Hospital, Indianapolis, Indiana.
LOOKING FORWARD
TALENT
• Amplify and expand upon the impact of our Advanced Practice, Post Acute and Ambulatory nurses
• Recognize the contributions of our Ascension Living colleagues who care for our senior residents
• Expand engagement in ambulatory and post acute care to support care transitions across the continuum
• Develop specialty fellowship programs to support clinical practice transitions
CONSUMER EXPERIENCE
• Showcase DAISY and BEE patient videos from Qualtrics, highlighting how our nurses and nursing support associates impact patients’ journeys
• Implement an enterprise-wide patient education solution
• Integrate nursing behaviors to enhance consumer experience
Building on our strong tradition, we are excited to share the innovative initiatives planned for FY26. These efforts will drive us forward as we continue to lead and inspire.
QUALITY AND SAFETY
• Amplify nurse excellence at all levels through inaugural National Database Nurse Quality Indicators (NDNQI) external benchmarking
• Inform the nursing profession through health equity, safety and workforce nurse-led research
• Explore technology-enabled situational awareness to accelerate nurse recognition and rescue
OPERATIONAL RIGOR
• Enhance our ministry by implementing Project Voyager, which will standardize processes, policies and tools while providing clear insights into our workforce demographics
• Implement UKG-extensions systemwide and transparency of nurse and patient acuity
• Demonstrate value-informed nursing, correlating nursing operations and nurse-sensitive outcomes
Anne Hiten, LPN, Ascension Via Christi, Wichita, Kansas
The Ascension Nursing Community theme, crafted “by our nurses, for our nurses,” unites our nurses and nursing support associates. This annual tradition reflects our shared values, guiding our intentions and actions as caregivers throughout the year.
NEARLY
300 ideas submitted and OVER
2,500 votes cast
Wesley Peterson, RN (left) and Guillermo Maldonado, RN (right) Ascension All Saints Hospital, Racine, Wisconsin
“As our 2025 Nursing Community theme states, “Caring with Strength, Healing with Heart,” we continue to serve our communities with dedication and compassion. We are grateful for our entire nursing community and proud to walk alongside each and every one of you in this journey.”
