Maureen Padilla, who for the past year has been serving as senior vice president of nursing for Harris Health System and chief nursing officer of the system�s Ben Taub Hospital, will transition to the full-time role of senior vice president and chief nurse executive for Harris Health, effective June 14.
�Nursing services at Harris Health has experienced significant change in the past year,� says George V. Masi, president and CEO, Harris Health System. �Given the value and importance of system-level nursing leadership, I am activating the role of senior vice president and chief nurse executive as a full-time position. Maureen�s wealth of experience, leadership and ability to collaborate within an inter-professional environment will assist Harris Health in achieving nursing excellence.�
Padilla assumed the position of chief nursing officer for Ben Taub and Quentin Mease hospitals last year. In July 2014, she was given additional system-wide nursing responsibilities.
�I am excited to begin this leadership role on a full-time basis,� she says. �We have a great nursing leadership team and I'm humbled to be able to lead them forward.�
One of her major goals is to help Harris Health achieve nurse Magnet Recognition Program� status, one of the highest nursing recognitions for hospitals in the U.S.
�Advancing education and certification in our nursing workforce, continuing to improve nursing sensitive outcomes and using evidence-based practices are some of the ways we're achieving this goal now,� Padilla says. �Nursing at Harris Health has come a long way in the past few years. Our patients are getting the best nursing care in the city, and our outcomes show that to be true.�
She and her nursing leadership team also want to standardize high nursing practice benchmarks across the 46-facility (inpatient and outpatient) system.
�We are working now to write our strategic plan for nursing as a system and identify the committee structures we believe we'll need to put in place with representatives from each pavilion to work toward our goals,� she says. �Healthcare is a �team sport� and our collaborative approach will include multiple disciplines�physicians, administrators and ancillary partners�to move us forward.�
Padilla joined Harris Health in 2011, serving as administrative director of Ben Taub�s Women and Infants Services. She has degrees (bachelor�s and a master�s) in nurse midwifery from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and a doctorate degree in nursing executive leadership from Texas Tech University in Lubbock.
She lives in Pearland with her husband of 34 years. They have seven children, 11 grandchildren and a great-grandchild. Two of her daughters also are nurses and a third is working on a career in child life therapy.
Jan Keller-Unger, the current associate chief nurse officer at Ben Taub Hospital will assume the interim-CNO role until the position is permanently filled.