Thank you for your interest in our Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt Nursing Community page. My name is Gretchen K. D. McCullough, MSN, RN, NEA-BC and it is my joy to serve the Monroe Carell community as its Chief Nursing officer. I arrived at Monroe Carell in the early spring of 2023 and have found the community here to be gracious and welcoming.
Before my tenure with Monroe Carell, I have had the pleasure of contributing to the nursing care of infants, children, and families for my entire career. I began that journey as a Pediatric Hematology and Oncology nurse with special interests in palliative care and rural outreach. Pediatric nursing provides many rich career opportunities. I have certainly found that to be true! My career has allowed me to serve my communities in acute hospital environments, community health settings, home settings, and ambulatory clinical practices. I’ve done everything from bedside nursing to case management, to formal nursing leadership. This career can truly take you anywhere.
Caring for infants, children, and families, is joy-giving and important work. It is a chance to impact how a child experiences and build trust with health care systems and healthy lifestyle habits that will follow them well into adulthood. I know, personally, the difference that pediatric nurses, respiratory therapists, and child life specialists can have on the life and health of a child. As a child, adolescent, and young adult, I was privileged to journey with my youngest brother as he navigated hospital stays, clinic visits, and home health care as a child with Cystic Fibrosis. I saw firsthand how personalized, family-centered care affects the child and the whole family unit.
The Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital Difference:
Where you choose to work is a deeply personal and important choice. Monroe Carell offers nurses and other clinical staff the chance to grow in an environment designed to enrich and support personalized professional growth. Clinically, our staff receive all the benefits of working in one of the country’s top children’s hospitals according to U.S. News and World Report, including the opportunity to contribute to the most cutting-edge care for children. We provide a robust, experiential environment that opens ongoing professional development for nurses across the career continuum. Whether pursuing our competitive Clinical Ladder opportunities for bedside staff, or exploring promotion and growth as formal educators, quality leaders, nurse scientists, and operational leaders, Monroe Carell truly has it all.
Our care is grounded in a patient- and family-centered approach, recognizing that infants and children are surrounded by a social ecosystem of family and social supports. This patient- and family-centric approach allows our nurses to provide the highest quality, trauma-informed care to patients and families in their most vulnerable moments. These stories of care by our nurses and support teams show up in our Magnet evidence, as we strive to ensure our environments of care are of the highest quality. We are proud to be a four-time designated Magnet facility and proud of the standard to which we hold ourselves to make sure our environments of care are as good for our nurses as they are for our patients and families.
Whether you are a long-standing Monroe Carell nurse or a hopeful future Monroe Carell nurse, I thank you for considering us the place you’d like to grow your career. We are grateful to journey with you!
Gretchen K.D. McCullough, MSN, RN, NEA-BC
Chief Nursing Officer
Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt
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