Carolyn Swinton, Chief Nursing Officer, Prisma Health

Carolyn Swinton, senior vice president and Chief Nursing Officer at Prisma Health has a sincere discussion with Dr. Nicole Gruebling, associate vice president of Member Connections at Vizient. Carolyn believes a successful leader brings their authentic self to the profession, partners and cares for others even when making tough decisions.
 
Guest speaker:
Carolyn Swinton, RN, MN, NEA-BC, FACHE
Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer
Prisma Health
 
Moderator:
Nicole Gruebling, DNP, RN, NEA-BC
Associate Vice President, Member Connections
Vizient
 
Show Notes:
[1:13] Being self-aware, authentic and caring about her team’s experience are all factors to Carolyn Swinton’s success. They pave the way for problem-solving, strategic visioning and for performance excellence.
[02:25] Courage happens over time on daily walks of big and little decision makings.
[03:55] Turning point in her career was when she participated in a nurse leader development fellowship. There she learned strengths and opportunities for improvement and became more intentional and focused on relationships and communications with colleagues.
[03:55] Example: When she was part of the leadership team, she found her voice to disagree with the organization when the discussions weren’t helpful for the nurses.  
[5:16] Carolyn’s mentor taught her the importance of love and leadership.
[5:16] Other lessons: help your team reach their full potential, make the tough decisions for the good of the organization and to make good on our commitment to the community.
[6:15] Leadership is creating in others a desire to follow, and then taking them to places they’ve never gone before. Sometimes helping people to be their best selves means you help them leave the organization.
[7:22] As a leader, your team members don’t work for you; you work for them.
[10:04] Nurses can’t do all the work alone. We must partner with physicians and administrative leaders.
[10:51] Nurses can have an equal voice at the executive level by being open-minded and interested in issues and concerns of other disciplines and partnering with those disciplines to create overall strategic initiatives.  
[11:44] Qualities of a good leader: humility, courage, heart, resilience, open mind and commitment to continuous learning and improvement.
[13:46] The pandemic has taught us to be comfortable with change and to look at different ways of doing business with new staffing models and flexible scheduling. Nursing leaders guide our work in a more intentional way.
[16:33] Bring your whole self to the nursing profession. If we commit to living a purposeful life, bringing our gifts forward we can make a difference in the world.
 
Links | Resources:
Carolyn Swinton’s biography Click here
 
Care to Lead’s email: Care_to_Lead_Podcast@vizientinc.com
 
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