Cynthia's guest today is Michele Nadolsky, pediatric nurse and Emergency Department Clinical Team Leader at Dayton Children's Hospital. Michele shares her own struggles and strategies dealing with pandemic stress and burnout, offering hope, not only from her own life, but also from her first hand experience with nurses helping their fellow nurses through tough times.

Cynthia is joined by Dr. Elizabeth Lolli, Superintendent of Dayton Public Schools, to discuss pandemic challenges and the unique and important role played by school nurses in keeping kids and staff members safe. Dr. Lolli also discusses the accomplishments of one of her district's school nurses, Dawn Abbott, who was named Ohio’s School Nurse of the Year by the Ohio Association of School Nurses.

Dealing with pandemic workload and stress can dominate our concerns. Cynthia and Paula discuss the importance of nurses taking time to care for themselves and for each other, and the crucial importance of nurturing and encouraging the next generation of nurses.

Cynthia is joined by Jayne Gmeiner, Chief Nursing Officer at Dayton Children's Hospital. Jayne and Cynthia strategies for self care, including connection with family as a key foundation for empowering nurses to care for their patients. They also discuss the importance of listening to nurses' voices so that the nursing community can work together to better support one another and increase resilience and trust.

Our conversations with the Chief Nursing Officers of the three major Health Systems in the Dayton, Ohio area continue this week as host Cynthia Hammond spends a few minutes with Peggy Mark, Chief Nursing Officer at Premier Health. Peggy and Cynthia discuss a wide range of topics including taking a more wholistic approach to nursing and how this approach can contribute to nurse resilience in the midst of the COVID pandemic. Peggy also shares strategies for supporting bedside nurses as well as how to nurture and bring emotional support to nurse leadership, enabling them, in turn, to provide greater support to frontline staff.

In our previous episode, we had brief introductory conversations with the Chief Nursing Officers of the three major Health Systems in the Dayton, Ohio area. Today, we begin a series of "deeper dives" with each of those CNOs individually, beginning with Jen Shull, Chief Nursing Officer at Kettering Health. Jen and Cynthia discuss lessons learned during the first wave of the COVID pandemic with a focus on strategies that enable nurses to care better for themselves and for one another.

In this introductory episode, our host, Cynthia Hammond, PhD, MS, MSN, RN, chats briefly with the Chief Nursing Officers of the three major Health Systems in the Dayton, Ohio area, which gives us a preview of our next three episodes, each of which will focus on insights individually from each of these CNOs.  In this episode, as in every episode, we focus on nurse wellness and a a positive vision for the future of nursing.