Jackie Somerville, PhD, RN, senior vice president of patient care services and CNO of Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital, will step down from her position Oct. 1, according to a Boston Business Journal report.
She is stepping down to focus on "opportunities in academia and consulting," the hospital administration said in a memo to staff, according to the report.
Dr. Somerville has been senior vice president of patient care services and CNO of Brigham and Women's since January 2011. Prior to joining Brigham and Women's, she worked for Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital as associate chief nurse of the MGH Cancer Center, surgical services, orthopedics and neuroscience nursing.
During her tenure at Brigham and Women's, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents 3,300 nurses at Brigham and Women's, reached an agreement with the hospital, averting what would have been the largest nurse strike in the state's history.
Boston-based Partners HealthCare, which owns Brigham and Women's, took an $8 million hit from spending on strike preparations earlier this summer at the hospital. The week before the planned the strike, the hospital dialed down operations, transferred hundreds of patients and canceled procedures and appointments, causing the hospital to lose another $16 million in revenue.
Still, hospital officials complimented Dr. Somerville's work, noting that under her leadership, Brigham and Women's was recognized as one of 13 national affiliates of the international nonprofit foundation Watson Caring Science Institute, according to the report. Dr. Somerville was also inducted into the American Academy of Nursing as an academy fellow, one of the highest honors in the nursing field, in July 2015.
The hospital hopes to name Dr. Somerville's successor by the end of this year.