Brigham and Women’s names new chief nursing officer

Eight months after its previous chief nursing officer stepped down, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston has named a replacement: Madelyn Pearson, MSN, MA, RN, who will take on the titles of CNO and senior vice president of patient care services on June 12.

“Following an extensive national search, it is clear that Maddy’s devotion to exceptional patient care, combined with her extensive nursing leadership experience and focus on improving quality, safety and the patient experience, make her an excellent fit within our Brigham community,” Brigham Health President Betsy Nabel, MD, said in a statement.

Pearson currently serves in the same two roles at the Mount Sinai Health System Downtown Campus in New York City. From 1999 to 2015, she worked at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in New Jersey, first as vice president of clinical services, then as CNO beginning in 2010.

According to Brigham, she held “staff nurse and nursing leadership roles” at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York and St. Barnabas Medical Center in New Jersey earlier in her career. Her bachelor’s degree in nursing was earned from the State University of New York, College of Plattsburgh, followed by earning her master’s in nursing administration from New York University, and her master of science in nursing from Rutgers University. She is also pursuing her doctorate at Rutgers, according to Brigham.

An interim CNO has been filling the role since Oct. 1, 2016, when Jackie Somerville, PhD, RN, stepped down following an averted nursing strike at Brigham. What would’ve been the largest nursing strike in Massachusetts history was called off with a new labor agreement just before a planned one-day walkout. The threat of a strike still hurt Brigham financially, as it had spent about $8 million in preparations and lost another $16 million in revenue by scaling back to 60 percent capacity in the week before the scheduled walkout.