Clinical Partner Spotlight: St. Vincent’s Medical Center

Dale Danowski, MBA, BSN, RN says opportunities abound at St. Vincent’s Medical Center

Dale Danowski is Vice President, Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, CT. Danowski joined the St. Vincent’s team in 1981 as a staff nurse. During her long and impressive career, she emerged as a transformational leader, successfully organizing and managing multi-disciplinary teams that improved a variety of patient outcomes while responding to the ever-changing healthcare environment. Danowski has extensive clinical knowledge and experience in all areas of hospital operations.

Danowski led St. Vincent’s successful “Magnet Hospital” designation” in 2012 and its subsequent redesignation. Magnet® status is a recognition by the American Nurses Credentialing Center of an organization’s exemplary professional practice environment, one component of which is transformational leadership.  

Danowski has also been a longtime champion of St. Vincent’s College, including its recent affiliation with Sacred Heart University, and has been a valuable mentor to many of our nursing students. In addition to her Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from the University of Connecticut, Dale has an MBA in Healthcare Administration from the University of New Haven.

What attracted you in the nursing profession?

My sister-in-law was a nurse, so I grew up with someone who was one of my role models. She was a graduate of St. Vincent’s School of Nursing. She always had the perfect white uniform with the cap on and I looked up to her. At Trumbull High, I took a CNA course at St. Joseph’s Manor that provided hands-on experience with the elderly, which I loved. That was what sparked me to apply to nursing programs in the area.

You worked under Dr. Susan L. Davis, RN, one of the namesakes of SHU’s College of Nursing, who was President & CEO of St. Vincent’s. How did that relationship affect your career and your leadership aspirations?

The pivotal moment for me at St. Vincent’s was when Susan Davis arrived. Susan, who  is an incredible leader, was my mentor for many years. She saw things in me that I didn’t see, convinced me that I could be the leader “of all things nursing”, and promoted me to Chief Nursing Officer. She set some pretty lofty goals for me that I’ve continued to try to live up to.

Describe the scope of St. Vincent’s Medical Center’s relationship with DHCON and any future expansion opportunities you foresee.

We’ve been close clinical partners with Sacred Heart for several years. Just as SHU has had significant growth in its student enrollment, we’ve had growth in the number of available clinical placement slots. Clinical placements are a big challenge for the local nursing schools. Fortunately, at Sacred Heart you’ve been very flexible by allowing weekend clinical rotations and pursuing other collaborative approaches, enabling us to increase the number of students we can host. Furthermore, the transition underway at St. Vincent’s College will result in additional clinical placement opportunities for SHU’s nursing students. As a result, we expect to see even more SHU students doing clinicals here in the future.

I’m really excited about Dr. Daley’s arrival. She’s very innovative and has a lot of great ideas. I’ve enjoyed a longstanding great partnership with prior deans as well, but I think that Dean Daley has a fresh and innovative perspective. In addition to possible changes in the traditional clinical “model”, we are discussing how to inspire and support my clinical leaders to pursue graduate degrees by creating possible cohorts for DNP and Master’s degrees at SHU. We are also looking at creating more opportunities for our staff to serve as clinical faculty at SHU.

What are the key ingredients for an effective clinical relationship with an undergraduate nursing program?

The key ingredient is open, honest, two-way communications to ensure that expectations are clear so we understand the students’ needs and they understand ours. Being agile and open to change is also important. There are a lot of exciting expansion activities underway at St. Vincent’s and the healthcare environment is also changing rapidly. It’s important that our academic partners understand these dynamics and work collaboratively with us.

I think SHU has a phenomenal nursing program, as reflected by its extraordinary high NCLEX pass rates.  You are producing very high-caliber nursing graduates who are very well prepared clinically and in their ”readiness” to practice affiliations and at the time of graduation prepared to practice.

Many SHU nursing graduates hail from around the country. How does that affect your hiring, as you said you have a need this year for 50 to 70 new graduates.

In the old days the minute we knew we could get a job, we locked it in. Now, especially considering the serious nursing shortage, nursing grads know that it’s a “sellers” market and there are many more opportunities where they can practice, not just in hospitals.  They’re going to look for the best deals.

One of the benefits of St. Vincent’s joining Hartford HealthCare is that we are now part of a major healthcare network. As a result. nurses can get experience in a wide variety of functional areas and practice locations, including many more inpatient and outpatient sites. For example, you can do behavioral health or if you want to do transplant, you can go to Hartford to the transplant unit. You can also stay within the state and have opportunities to work within seven different hospitals. There’s a lot of value that’s been added to our capabilities and career opportunities as part of Hartford HealthCare.

Tell us about your “career ladder” program.

It’s a written portfolio of career progressive steps that nurses have to define, assemble, get approved by a committee, and execute. Points are awarded for continuing education, for completing a degree, for getting various certifications, for serving as a charge nurse, chairing a committee, etc. As their points rack up that makes our nurses eligible for higher level positions and they are also rewarded financially for their self-improvement progress. It’s a great way to promote professional development for nurses. It’s also a valuable succession-planning tool.  I’m a big fan of developing leaders and that’s always been a high priority to me!

COVID-19 forced many hospitals, including St. Vincent’s, to pause student nurse programs. What are you doing to orient new nurses?

We instituted a skills lab for new hires to make sure they were comfortable—and competent-- performing tasks they may not have been able to practice as much during the pandemic. We also have a relatively new formal nurse residency program for student nurses who are hired as new graduates. They enter the program in a cohort of their peers. Every month they come together for lectures and inter-active group work. It’s also a support network which provides facilitated conversations about how it’s really going. How are you doing with your preceptor? What skills are you struggling with? Do you need help with time management, conflict resolution? They’re getting valuable individual support throughout their whole first year. In the past you’d only do orientation for three months and then you were on your own. This is a way of keeping people together and supporting them and as a result we’ve had phenomenal retention of our new nurses. It was an expensive model, but it’s been worth every bit of investment.

What career advice would you give to our students to help them become successful nurses?

Nursing is a profession of people caring for people. Nurses must be respectful, caring, and passionate about their role. Compassion is essential. Listen to your patients and be their advocate. In addition, the increasing complexity of the healthcare environment requires strong critical thinking skills. The role of the nurse is continuing to expand and the profession has never been more respected. Last but not least, be open to new opportunities and use your voice--and your personal  example--to enhance the profession.

Dale recently announced her planned retirement on July 1. During her distinguished 41-year career she has had a profound impact on the organizational development and success of St. Vincent’s Medical Center. She is widely respected for her leadership skills, her passion for nursing excellence, and for the wonderful professional example she set in her role as Chief Nursing Officer. In addition, she has been a valued partner with DHCON as an advocate for the college, a mentor to many of our students, and in her role as a member of both our Board of Visitors and Advisory Board. Please join us in wishing Dale a healthy and happy retirement and best wishes in whatever endeavors she may choose to pursue in the future!