Cathy Stankiewicz, Chief Nursing Officer, AdventHealth Central Florida Division

Summary

Becker’s Healthcare Podcast Summary: Interview with Cathy Stankiewicz, Chief Nursing Officer at AdventHealth Central Florida Division

Release Date: July 23, 2025

The latest episode of Becker’s Healthcare Podcast, hosted by Becker's Healthcare, features an insightful conversation with Cathy Stankiewicz, the Chief Nursing Officer at AdventHealth Central Florida Division. Filmed live at the 15th annual meeting, this episode delves into key initiatives, challenges, leadership lessons, and workforce strategies within the healthcare sector.

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1. Introduction and Professional Background

The podcast opens with the host welcoming Cathy Stankiewicz and inviting her to share her background.

Cathy Stankiewicz introduces herself:

"I am Kathy Stankiewicz. I am the Chief Nursing Officer at Advent Health Central Florida Division. Advent Health is a national company with 55 hospitals in nine states. We have 100,000 employees and serve 9 million patients. In my division, I lead 10,000 nurses. I was actually born at the Quaternary facility within our health system here in Orlando and I have been a nurse for 30 years. I've been with Advent Health for 20 years and I am passionate about nursing and nursing workforce and I appreciate the opportunity to talk about it today."
(00:46)

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2. Key Initiatives: Reinstating Professional Governance

When asked about initiatives she's proud of, Cathy highlights the reinstatement of professional governance within AdventHealth.

"Since COVID our hospital campuses have reinstated professional governance where nurses come together, they work on policies and practices and ensure that they are actually driving the decisions that we make as an organization and their practice... our professional governance allows for 40 frontline nurses to come together, actually help me make decisions."
(01:39)

Impact:

• Enhanced collaboration between leadership and nursing staff.
• Empowerment of frontline nurses in decision-making processes.
• Improved policies and practices tailored by those directly involved in patient care.

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3. Addressing Healthcare Challenges: Workforce Shortages and Population Growth

Discussing the significant challenges facing healthcare, Cathy focuses on workforce shortages and the rapid population growth in Florida.

"For us in Florida specifically, our population is booming, so growth of patients, growth of the acuity of patients and the healthcare needs of those patients. And we certainly know that we are always facing clinical workforce shortages... ensuring that we have enough of the workforce, a competent workforce, in order to meet the demands of the future in Florida is definitely a challenge that we see and are embracing and creating a very specific workaround."
(02:57)

Strategies Employed:

• Proactive workforce planning to address shortages.
• Competency development to maintain high-quality care standards.
• Innovative solutions tailored to the unique demands of the Florida healthcare market.

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4. Leadership Lessons: Emphasizing Progress Over Perfection

Cathy shares a pivotal leadership lesson that has shaped her approach.

"I would say progress over perfection. I think in many cases we do a lot of planning, we do a lot of thinking forward and it is important to plan, but we really need to ensure that we're making progress every day and be willing to be flexible and agile to continue to change and develop and move forward when things aren't perfect."
(03:46)

Key Takeaway:

• Prioritizing continuous improvement and adaptability over unattainable perfection.
• Encouraging a culture of agility to respond effectively to evolving challenges.

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5. Workforce Development: Building a Robust Pipeline

Addressing ongoing workforce challenges, Cathy outlines comprehensive strategies aimed at cultivating a strong healthcare workforce.

Initiatives Include:

• Early Engagement with Students:
  Engaging grade school students through facility visits and partnerships with Junior Achievement to ignite interest in healthcare careers.

  "We bring them into our facilities. We provide hands-on demonstration and we also, in a partnership with Junior Achievement, go out into the community with the different counties and schools."
  (04:22)

• Career Pathways for High School Students:
  Establishing clear roadmaps for students transitioning to college or technical programs, supported by tuition assistance and scholarships.

  "When you get to high school, we've got career pathways that allow for high school students to have a very clear roadmap into school college, whether it's technical school or university program... we have lots of programs around tuition and scholarships, etc., that actually support these students being able to be successful in their career journey at the college level."
  (04:22)

• Academic Partnerships:
  Collaborating with educational institutions to provide clinical rotations, enhancing practical training opportunities.

  "Lots of academic partnerships to ensure that we are partnered in a way that allows for students to have clinical rotations in our Florida facilities. With Advent Health, We've offered over 15,000 clinical rotations last year."
  (04:22)

• Supporting Faculty Needs:
  Unique partnerships aimed at addressing the staffing and development needs of educational institutions.

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6. Conclusion

The podcast concludes with the host thanking Cathy for her valuable insights and contributions to the discussion on enhancing the nursing workforce and addressing critical challenges in healthcare.

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This episode of Becker’s Healthcare Podcast offers a comprehensive look into the strategic initiatives and leadership philosophies driving AdventHealth Central Florida Division under Cathy Stankiewicz’s guidance. Her emphasis on professional governance, proactive workforce development, and adaptable leadership serves as a blueprint for healthcare organizations navigating the complexities of today’s medical landscape.

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For those interested in the full conversation, consider tuning into the episode released on July 23, 2025, for an in-depth understanding of these pivotal topics.

Transcript

[A]

At Insight Global Health, we are dedicated to helping you and improving healthcare for everyone. That means building stronger teams and delivering sustainable solutions that truly make a difference. We offer a full spectrum of talent and technical services and deliver cross industry expertise to bring you innovative best practices to solve the problems that we face in healthcare. We're not just promising you results, we are delivering them. Visit [e-mail] this is Grace Lynn Keller.

[B]

With the Beckers Healthcare podcast and we are recording live at the 15th annual meeting. I'm excited to be joined by Kathy Stankiewicz, who's the Chief Nursing Officer at Advent Health Central Florida Division. Kathy, thanks for being here. Let's start off by having you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit more about your background in healthcare and your organization.

[A]

Sure.

[C]

I am Kathy Stankiewicz. I am the Chief Nursing Officer at Advent Health Central Florida Division. Advent Health is a national company with 55 hospitals in nine states. We have 100,000 employees and serve 9 million patients. In my division, I lead 10,000 nurses. I was actually born at the Quaternary facility within our health system here in Orlando and I have been a nurse for 30 years. I've been with Advent Health for 20 years and I am passionate about nursing and nursing workforce and I appreciate the opportunity to talk about it today.

[B]

Wonderful. And let's start off with in the last 12 months or so, what's an initiative you've taken on that you're particularly proud of and how has this impacted your organization?

[C]

Since COVID our hospital campuses have reinstated professional governance where nurses come together, they work on policies and practices and and ensure that they are actually driving the decisions that we make as an organization and their practice. In the last 12 months we've developed a professional governance at our division level. We have 10,000 nurses that are represented within our division and our professional governance allows for 40 frontline nurses to come together, actually help me make decisions. I get to meet with them, talk to them, talk about our challenges, practice opportunities, what they need in order to be able to come to work and serve our patients the best way possible every day. And this professional governance is a great opportunity to do that. And I'm very proud of the work that we're doing in order to ensure that as we make decisions that our nurses are actually the ones that with the voice making the decisions.

[B]

And on the flip side of that, what do you see as the most significant challenge currently facing healthcare and how are you working to address it?

[C]

For us in Florida specifically, our population is booming, so growth of patients, growth of the acuity of patients and the healthcare needs of those patients. And we certainly know that we are always facing clinical workforce shortages. Nursing is not alone. There are other clinical workforce areas that we also experience. So truly workforce, making sure that we have enough of the workforce, a competent workforce, in order to meet the demands of the future in Florida is definitely a challenge that we see and are embracing and creating a very specific workaround.

[B]

And as a leader, I'd love to know what your biggest leadership lesson that you've learned recently is.

[C]

I would say progress over perfection. I think in many cases we do a lot of planning, we do a lot of thinking forward and it is important to plan, but we really need to ensure that we're making progress every day and be willing to be flexible and agile to continue to change and develop and move forward when things aren't perfect.

[B]

And then finally, I'd love to touch on workforce since this is an ongoing priority for healthcare organizations. So how are you addressing workforce challenges within your organization?

[C]

We have very specific strategies and planning around workforce. We are looking at pipeline development and ensuring that we are actually connecting with grade school students at this point in time. To ensure that our grade school students understand what healthcare careers are out there, we bring them into our facilities. We provide hands on demonstration and we also, in a partnership with Junior Achievement, go out into the community with the different counties and schools. We actually have a mirror that allows for children to stand in front of it and the image back to them is showing them in a lab coat or some other uniform. So it really ensures that grade school students are able to see themselves in healthcare careers. When you get to high school, we've got career pathways that allow for high school students to have a very clear roadmap into school college, whether it's technical school or university program, in order to be able to then be our future workforce. We support tuition for those students. We have lots of programs around tuition and scholarships, et cetera, that actually support these students being able to be successful in their career journey at the college level. Lots of academic partnerships to ensure that we are partnered in a way that allows for students to have clinical rotations in our Florida facilities. With Advent Health, We've offered over 15,000 clinical rotations last year. We also do some unique partnerships in order to ensure that we are supporting our schools with their faculty needs.

[B]

Wonderful. Well Kathy, thanks so much for joining me today on the Beckers Healthcare Podcast to share these insights. And again we are recording at the 15th annual meeting.

[C]

Thank you.