Quality and Safety in Healthcare, Part LXXVII: Major Roles of the Chief Nursing Officer.

The chief nursing officer serves in multiple roles, but among the most important are being the chief administrator for the division of nursing, the chief voice in the organization to engage and empower nurses as professionals, and a major leader for increasing patient satisfaction, quality, and safety. Each of these roles has overlapping responsibilities, and failure in any one of could result in failure in all of them. If all of these roles are done well, the value of the care rendered by the healthcare organization will be substantially increased.