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40 Under 40 Nurse Leader Chosen

Tina KennedyAugust 10, 2021

Community Hospital nurse, Tina Kennedy, RN, BSN, Director of Quality and Risk Management, was nominated and recently received the honor of the Nebraska Action Coalition’s bi-annual award for emerging nurse leaders, 40 Under 40.

The award provides needed recognition of young nurses across the state for their unique contributions to leadership within the nursing profession through clinical practice, education and teaching, administrative leadership, research, writing/publishing, policy involvement/self-governance, mentoring, and/or healthcare innovation.

“Tina is a natural leader,” her nomination reads. “She is motivated to work on projects and is very active within our organization. Her role as Director of Quality and Risk Management allows her to work with all different aspects of nursing. She brings with her a great knowledge of nursing processes from her other places of employment. She specifically has developed and implemented the current process improvement 90-day project platform. She is an integral part of each project and assists staff in achieving success. She openly embraces and encourages process changes for our facility which improves efficiency, patient satisfaction, and outcomes. The staff welcomes her encouraging, innovative, and team approach in working with them.

Tina is involved in national and state organizations, such as the National Association for Healthcare Quality, American Society for Quality, American Society for Healthcare Risk Management, and Nebraska Association for Healthcare Quality Risk & Safety, and regularly volunteers at Community Hospital and with her local church. She participates in many hospital committees including the Falls team, Sharps team, Steering committee, Disaster team, and Quality Seed. She leads the process-based management/process improvement committee. Tina also participates in a committee that reviews and develops policies for Community Hospital while also monitoring accreditation activities, and leads directors as they create corrective action plans based on possible non-conformities from survey visits. She recently became certified in Just Culture.

“I developed a passion for nursing during high school, when I obtained my certified nursing assistant license and worked in a local nursing home with the knowledge that someday I would be a nurse leader,” Kennedy said. “I wanted to work at an entry-level of nursing so as I continued in my career I would understand and remember what front line staff endures. Today as Director of Quality, I see myself as an individual who leads through collaborative partnerships with staff at all levels in our organization. I enjoy creating relationships with the staff. By having an individual approach with each staff member, I can lead them in a more meaningful way, allowing them to perform to their highest potential,” she added.