Charles Whyde, RN, MSN, Nursing Director at Cleveland Clinic Akron General Hospital, describes his career arc as “non-traditional.” In college, Charles was a mechanical engineering major, but soon realized that that wasn’t where his interests truly were. As his family has a long history of military service, Charles joined the Army and worked as a medic.
“When I got out of the Army, I was deciding between becoming a physician assistant and a nurse and decided on the nursing track,” he says. “It just ended up being more desirable for me.”
Transition to Cleveland Clinic
Charles has spent his entire healthcare career at Akron General, where he started in 2005 as a patient transporter. From there, he became a nursing assistant, and then became a Med/Surg nurse, moved to an assistant nurse manager role in the Emergency Department, before becoming a nurse manager, and then nursing director.
One of the things Charles appreciated when Akron General joined the Cleveland Clinic system in 2015 was the tuition reimbursement program. “The assistance from the student loan repayment program was substantial,” he says. “It was great to be able to take advantage of that.” This perk continued when Charles pursued his master’s degree in nursing administration.
A leading role in research
At Akron General, Charles has especially enjoyed the increased responsibilities and leadership among the nursing staff, especially in the area of research. He notes several research projects in particular.
“We just finished a nursing-led interdisciplinary research project on hip fractures and nerve block in the hip that prevents pain,” he says. “So, we don’t have to give patients as much opiate medication, and our nurses don’t have to go in and medicate these patients every hour. We’ve been able to present at two national conferences, and we were just published in Geriatrics Nursing Journal.”
Another project, which is ongoing, also focuses on the elderly. “We’re doing a surgery verification project, where we’re looking at elderly patients and vulnerabilities before they have surgery, in order to optimize their post-surgery care. And nursing is highly involved in that, as well.”
Like a family
Charles stresses that, despite Akron General Hospital’s size, his team feels like family and enjoys a strong sense of teamwork. “We have a community feel,” he says. “Our team loves to support each other. They work really well together. There’s no competition amongst peers. It’s a supportive environment. And they’ll tell you that they feel very well supported by their leadership teams.”
This support extends to new nursing caregivers, as well, starting with helping new nurses become familiar with the hospital, Charles says.
“We go out and actively recruit nursing students. Whenever they’re in clinicals at our hospital, we engage them, we talk to them. We offer them positions and bring them on board. And that helps them get comfortable not only with the team that they’re going to be working with, but also with our facility. And we know that if you don’t have to worry about finding things or what the workday looks like, you can just focus on being a nurse once you graduate.”
Leading with an active mind
Being a leader is not about being passive, Charles says. He notes the importance of always striving for improvement. “I want to figure out what needs to be better and make it better. And our team is very receptive of that.
“For the managers that report to me, we focus on journal articles every month, specifically toward leadership. I assign readings to them to make sure that we do everything within our ability to get better as leaders,” he says.
“It’s great to focus on specific patient experience outcomes and goals. But as a leader, I need to also focus on that caregiver, because if I don’t, they can’t focus on that patient experience.”
