Vice President of Clinical Operations & Chief Nursing Officer

Saint Thomas West Hospital

Saint Thomas Midtown Hospital

Jennifer Elliott never met a challenge that didn’t intrigue her.

“Every door that opens, I love to walk through,” she said. “An opportunity is an opportunity … if you don’t take them when you get them, who knows if they will ever come your way again.”

Perhaps destined for her current role, the Nashville native was born at Saint Thomas Midtown. However, she didn’t really consider a nursing career until high school. Students at Davidson Academy were expected to research a profession as a senior project. Elliott opted to shadow a friend who was a nurse in Vanderbilt’s pediatric ICU.

“As a 17-year-old, I had profound respect for what those nurses did that night,” Elliott recalled.

Before that evening, she leaned toward a career in law enforcement. “All the men in my family are Metro police officers,” Elliott noted. In nursing school, a clinical rotation in the Emergency Department felt like she had found her niche. She said the ED had the same kind of ‘you never know what’s next’ atmosphere that police officers face.

Elliott began work as a nurse tech at the previously named Baptist Hospital in 2001 while finishing her undergraduate degree. “I have worked my way up every single bedside position from tech all the way to nurse executive,” she explained, adding the varied experiences have given her perspective regarding what her nurses face each day.

While she relished the organized chaos of working in emergency and critical care situations, it’s the quieter moments of nursing she has come to appreciate the most.

Advocates, mentors, clinicians, caregivers … Elliott said nurses are at the forefront of a patient’s experience. “Nursing is an incredibly meaningful career, allowing the opportunity to be a part of someone’s life when they need someone to care the most.”

In the course of going about their duties, Elliott said it is easy for nurses to forget just how much they matter. She has made it her mission to change that.

“I think it is important that we take the time to say ‘thank you’ and to make people feel valued for the work that they do,” Elliott said. Each month, she sends a hand-written note to every unit at both hospitals thanking an individual or the department for an act of kindness, great idea, catching an error, or delivering exceptional care.

She is passionate about the patient experience and about empowering nurses to be leaders on the floor and in the field. Balancing finances, managing quality and safety, and advocating on behalf of her nurses in today’s rapidly changing healthcare environment have provided new challenges. “Nurses just want to have what they need to take care of their patients. It’s my job to ensure their needs are met so that they can provide the highest quality and safest care possible to every single patient they encounter.”

One of her biggest challenges is balancing a rich professional and personal life. With her husband Steve, a partner at Chappell Smith & Associates, the couple is raising their 11-year-old son, Dylan, and 17-month-old daughter, Parker. Elliott readily admits Parker was a surprise … to everyone.

The opportunity to adopt their daughter came up just a few weeks before her birth and only two weeks before Elliott began the CNO role at Saint Thomas Midtown. By October last year, she had added CNO duties at Saint Thomas West, as well. “So,” she laughed, “I completely turned my life upside down at work and at home.”

For the woman who loves a challenge, though, she wouldn’t have it any other way. As for what the future holds, Elliott said, “I am open to the opportunities that present themselves to me and look forward to what is around the next corner.”

It’s a philosophy that has served her well so far.