Mercy’s Nicki Gamet on Supporting Nurses and Leading with Compassion

Nicki Gamet is the chief nursing officer for the Mercy Springfield Communities, overseeing nursing practice across all Springfield facilities as well as regional locations. Her role is to support nurses wherever they serve, ensuring high-quality care and professional development throughout the organization. She shares what the role means, how she advocates for nurses and the advice she offers to future leaders.

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Biz 417: What does it mean to serve as chief nursing officer? 
Nicki Gamet: Serving as the chief nursing officer is really about how to support our nurses as they care for our patients. It’s making sure that our nurses have a voice in their nursing practice. They have the support that they need and the resources that they need. That has been my focus, and I feel like that's the most important role of the chief nurse—to be their voice at the highest level of the organization. 

Biz: How do you support and advocate for nurses across such a large health system? 
N.G.: The most important thing for me, as I just completed my first 100 days in this role, is listening and being available and being visible. I've spent a lot of time being out with the nursing staff, meeting them where they are and learning what they need, what they’re experiencing, what has worked in the past, what isn't working and how we want to move forward as a nursing workforce. What I’m finding is to be a Mercy nurse is to be that servant leader when it comes to patient care, and it’s being at the bedside and providing compassion with excellent care and having that be hand in hand. 

Biz: What advice would you give to people considering a career in nursing or health care leadership? 
N.G.: The biggest advice that I have that I tend to give people who are thinking about going into nursing or nursing leadership or any role is to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. And what I mean by that is you have to put yourself in uncomfortable situations to grow. If you're a bedside nurse, whether that is performing a procedure with a physician that you've never done before, you really have to put yourself in those uncomfortable situations to grow. That's the same in leadership. When you're a leader, you have to go into uncomfortable situations and be bold. But yet give yourself grace too, because there are times that you’re going to make the wrong decision or take a risk, but that's what you have to do to grow. Even through failures, we learn more about ourselves and we learn from those mistakes. And so you become a stronger person and a stronger leader. I also tell leaders not to be afraid, but to be bold, and give themselves grace.

Biz: Nursing can be demanding—how do you take care of yourself so you can take care of others?
N.G.: Everybody talks about work-life balance. And in my role, what I can say is nursing and being a CNO is really a lifestyle. And it really isn't a shift-based role; it is really a role that is part of your fabric of life. Being able to find the laughter in your day, the joy in your day and having caregivers around you that lift you up and you lift them up—having that team is going to bring that needed relief when there are stressful situations, you have to lean on each other. Of course, we all try to have work-life balance, but sometimes you have to find the joy in whatever you're doing, even during those hard times.