Carol S. Harris
After serving as a nurse for 36 years at St. Alexius Medical Center in Bismarck, N.D., Linda Knodel figured she’d stay there for the remainder of her career.
But after a pesky recruiter persuaded her to explore an opportunity to work in southwest Missouri, Knodel says she visited St. John’s Health System in Springfield unannounced in late 2009.
“I just walked around the halls and tried to be an inconspicuous visitor. The people were so friendly, and the place was impeccable in cleanliness,” she says. She also was impressed that St. John’s was rated as one of the nation’s top integrated facilities, employing physicians along with other medical staff. Knodel, who always has worked for faith-based organizations, was smitten.
She left the 300-bed St. Alexius as its senior vice president and chief nursing officer to work as vice president and chief nurse executive for the 700-bed St. John’s system.
Knodel’s three decades of well-rounded nursing experience prepared her for the transition to lead 2,100 nurses across six hospitals with St John’s.
“We’re all health care communities of Mercy, and we all use the same documentation tools. I have had experience with that,” she says.
During her career in North Dakota, Knodel was a staff nurse and a medical floor and dialysis nurse before becoming director of the acute outpatient, home dialysis and apheresis programs at St. Alexius. She also served as the quality review and risk management director before stepping into the role of chief nursing officer for 11 years.
Even with her multiple degrees, including two at the master’s level, she says she is most proud of the influence she’s had in giving nurses a voice in decision-making leadership development.
Her book, “Nurse to Nurse: Nursing Management” was published by McGraw-Hill in 2010.
Since joining St. John’s, Knodel has developed a mission statement and in May 2010, introduced a model of shared governance for the health system.
Rather than having all of the directives travel top-down from management to the nurses, the shared governance model gives nurses the opportunity to lead functional committees and have a voice in their professional practice, Knodel says. To go along with this model, Knodel held open forums for St. John’s nurses in July 2010 and November 2010. Along with answering questions and dispelling rumors, the forums help her keep her finger on the pulse of the health system. Her biggest project, she says, is pursuing the Magnet Recognition Program offered by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
The program establishes a benchmark for such practices as quality outcome in patient care, adequate nursing staff and professional nursing environment.
“Only 370 hospitals have achieved this excellence,” Knodel says. “It’s about a two-year process.”
For more information on the 12 People You Need to Know series, click here.[[In-content Ad]]
