South Eastman Health is on the hunt for a Vice President. When John Stinson took on the position of Chief Executive Officer six months ago, his previous role as VP of Acute Care and Planning became vacant. It remains vacant today.
   
Stinson says they're now looking to fill that position, though the job description has changed. It will now be a VP of Acute Care and Chief Nursing Officer. Stinson says "the planning function, the construction projects and that will slide over to our Corporate VP Ron Janzen. And now we'll have a VP position that is truly clinical leadership on the nursing side."  Stinson is very excited to announce this will be the first time the Regional Health Authority will have a Chief Nursing Officer. "It's something we heard from Accreditation Canada to put a little heavier focus on our clinical management side and oversight side to provide nurses that support so they can be on the floor with patients doing what they need to do."

As mentioned, it's been six months since that VP position became vacant. Stinson says since then they've provided opportunity for management leadership to "try on the big boy pants" and sit at the executive table. Jan Gunness, Quality and Risk Manager sat in that position for three months and Patti Fries, Facility Manager at Bethesda Hospital also assumed that role for three months. "It's a great opportunity for folks to sit at the executive management table, for us to bring some new blood into that table to help with the discussions and really gives them a chance to go wow, what do I think about this and am I going to apply for that job permanently," says Stinson.

Applications for the new position close January 16. "My approach is let's find the best candidate," says Stinson. "I think that there's some really strong internal candidates that will be applying. We're very excited about that. I also think we'll get some great candidates from elsewhere in Manitoba and perhaps even elsewhere across Canada." Stinson guesses it will likely be April 1st before the new VP is working in that position.