As Executive Vice President Patient Care Operations, System Chief Nursing Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital, Laura J. Wood, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN leads the discipline of nursing and provides system-level oversight of patient care delivery in support of the organization’s network, satellites, and expanding care delivery settings. Boston Children’s serves as the pediatric training center for Harvard Medical School, where nurses in concert with interprofessional care teams actively translate science to care delivery as part of the world’s largest pediatric research enterprise - treating more children with rare and complex conditions than any other hospital in the world.
Since joining Boston Children’s in 2013, Wood has further strengthened the hospital’s exceptional nursing practice environment through: the creation of nurse-designed care delivery strategies, the implementation of advanced practice clinician career advancement models in concert with a doubling of the APRN workforce, expansion of healthy work environment supports with positive system-wide outcomes, quality-safety-experience innovations, strategic contributions to nursing workforce diversity and inclusivity and the formation of the organization’s formal Office of Health Equity, and promotion of child-health and informatics public policy advocacy. In 2014-15, she jointly launched the organization’s high reliability organization (HRO) quality improvement initiative with the hospital’s president and other key leaders, resulting in ongoing reductions in the rate of serious safety events and numerous improvements to care quality — including national recognition of nurse-sensitive outcomes measurement performance.
Under Wood’s leadership, Boston Children’s nursing has achieved two successive ANCC Magnet® re-designations representing the most prestigious international distinction a health care organization can receive for direct care nursing excellence and achieved by only 12% of hospitals nationally. Over the past decade, she has guided the launch of Boston Children’s nurse residency program that was subsequently awarded ANCC Practice Transition Accreditation Program with Distinction designation. Additionally, she supported several pediatric specialty-focused teams to be recognized via the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses Beacon Award program in all five intensive care units and through the Emergency Nursing Association to achieve three successive Emergency Nurses Association Lantern Award designations.
Earlier in her career, Wood held progressive nursing and operational leadership roles within three leading academic health care settings: The Johns Hopkins Hospital Children's Center, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and The University of Pennsylvania Health System serving in pediatric nursing, educational, and operational leadership roles. Additionally, she served as National Vice President, Clinical Solutions, Siemens Healthcare (subsequently Cerner/Oracle Corporation), where she managed clinical and business professional services, and subsequently led clinical IT business development for the U.S.
Wood received a Bachelor of Science (BSN) degree in Nursing, Magna Cum Laude, from West Virginia University School of Nursing; a Master of Science (MS) degree from The University of Maryland, Baltimore; and a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. She is a Johns Hopkins University Deans Award recipient and Fralic Nursing Leadership Fellowship recipient. Wood is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, a Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Foundation Executive Nurse Fellow alumna, and completed the both the MGH Institute of Health Professions Health Disparities Leadership Fellowship and Harvard Medical School Macy Foundation Fellowship for Leaders in Collaborative and Humanistic Interprofessional Education.
Wood serves on a wide-range of regional and national boards, including: American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC); Boston Children’s Hospital (ex officio member); Friends of the Institute of Nursing Research (FNINR); Johns Hopkins University Nursing Advisory Board; Pediatric Physician Organization of Children’s (PPOC); PHLOW Children’s Hospital Coalition to reduce pediatric drug shortages; Risk Management Foundation for Harvard affiliated health systems (CRICO); and, the SIGMA Foundation for Nursing Scholarship.