Linda Carroll, MSN, RN, RN-BC, is vice president of Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer at Saint Peter’s Healthcare System. She has been a leader and catalyst for change at Saint Peter’s University Hospital for more than 40 years. Linda embraces the concepts of shared governance and has set the foundation for exemplary professional practice by ensuring growth and development in nursing research and a professional practice council. She actively participates in nursing committee work.
Under Linda’s leadership, Saint Peter’s nurses have achieved many honors, including becoming only the fifth hospital in the world to earn Magnet® recognition for nursing excellence six times in a row from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANNC.) Saint Peter’s has received the Beacon Award for Excellence from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses for its Adult Intensive Care Unit, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (the first in New Jersey to earn the award three times), Cardiac Progressive Care Unit and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
Recognizing the opioid epidemic our community continues to face, Linda launched the Saint Peter’s Opioid Task Force, an inter-professional committee representing nursing, social services, care coordination and community education at Saint Peter’s and local law enforcement, and township resources. The committee works to present community education programs and ensure that patients who come to Saint Peter’s experience coordinated care that addresses addiction.
Linda’s leadership and advocacy has help to spearhead a school education program and a partnership with a local organization that makes it possible for recovery coaches to help patients brought to the Saint Peter’s Emergency Department. She personally has visited high schools and spoken at community events about the dangers of drug use. This program was nationally recognized by HealthTrust™ and awarded its 2018 Social Stewardship Award with Linda specifically honored for her contribution to the initiative.
Linda also played a critical role in the planning, development and construction of a multimillion-dollar simulation learning lab that supports training and education for clinical teams throughout Saint Peter's and those in the community. She updated the blueprint for clinical education to include a multimodal approach to learning with the understanding that simulation provides an immersive experience that comprehensively trains teams.
Linda spearheaded the opening of the Mary V. O’Shea Birth Center at Saint Peter’s, New Jersey’s first hospital-based, midwifery-led birth center that is accredited by the Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers and the launch of TeamBirth, a series of protocols that prioritizes person-centered care, trusting relationships, transparency, and informed decision-making – a model setting the industry-standard for high-quality communication and teamwork to reduce maternal mortality and racial disparities in birth outcomes. Saint Peter’s has since received national TeamBirth Recognition for having successfully implemented TeamBirth.
Her commitment to nursing excellence and self-governance and staunch advocacy in ensuring a healthy work environment served as a beacon, guiding Saint Peter’s through the COVID pandemic. Her workplace safety advocacy has been recognized with the national Theodore Roosevelt Workers’ Compensation and Disability Management Award, also known as the Teddy Award, for the organization’s all-encompassing workplace safety program, and the Clinical Healthy Work Environment Award from Sigma Theta Tau, an organization that empowers nursing leaders to transform global health care.