Courtney Vose became Yale New Haven Hospital’s chief nursing officer in February 2025. She recently reflected on her first year and shared some exciting initiatives that are under way or coming soon.
What has impressed you most about YNHH nurses?
So many things. They are true advocates for our patients, their families and each other. They really lean into improving their practice and their practice environment. I try to do leadership rounds somewhere every day, and every time I talk to the people who are taking care of our patients and families I am energized to move forward.
What do nurses tell you they enjoy most about working at YNHH?
Their teammates and their nursing leaders on the front lines. They truly respect and value each other; it’s more like a family. Another thing that stands out is the relationship with physicians. I see mutual trust and mutual respect, which make this a really special place for nurses to work.
What are nurses’ – and YNHH Nursing’s – biggest challenges?
Like most of the country our biggest challenge is making sure that we can staff for volume, acuity and workload, every patient, every time. We are making changes to support staffing and improve the work environment that are quantifiable and palpable. This is occurring through the work of our Staffing Committee – which largely consists of frontline staff – in partnership with Talent Acquisition, with the advocacy of staff and leaders, and leaders spending more time where the work is done.
What are some of those changes?
We brought in travelers in the short term to stabilize the workforce, but there is no stone going unturned in terms of recruitment and retention. We have more than 15 different work groups engaged in recruitment and retention. We are looking at bringing in more international nurses. We have increased our visibility at every recruiting event. We will soon have formal liaisons with every school and university to build pipelines to bring graduate nurses to Yale New Haven Hospital. We are bringing in more student nurses to work as patient care associates or techs so they can get experience, and we have increased the size of our Student Nurse Internship. These students often convert into our own employees after graduation. We are working on our first-ever strategic plan with Yale School of Nursing. The school will have several exciting programs to announce in the near future, including some that we will be partnering on.
What are your three top goals for 2026?
- Ensure safe staffing, every patient every time. We have a staffing team that includes me, the vice presidents of Nursing, Talent Acquisition, Finance, and Marketing and Communications that meets every week. It is a do-not-miss meeting because we know staffing is critical to our status as a premiere academic medical center. The Office of Strategy Management provided invaluable support with this effort.
- Improve employee engagement through greater leader visibility where the work is done and active listening and subsequent tactics to improve.
- Promote leader development through Lean methodologies. These are designed to improve workflows and efficiencies, helping leaders to be more proactive vs. reactive and allowing them to have more joy in their work.
Any other topics you’d like to address?
This is a very special place, and the people here are outstanding. Any time I feel frustrated at the speed at which we can move things, I go and talk to the caregivers at the frontline – our nurses, respiratory therapists, physicians, APPs and others – and I’m just so inspired.
