Nursing Excellence

Message from the Chief Nursing Officer

I am honored to serve as the chief nursing officer for Salinas Valley Health, where I have the privilege of supporting and working with an extraordinary, highly-skilled, and compassionate team of nurses . Our nursing mission, to Heal • Protect • Empower • Teach, describes the invaluable work we do every day. We continually strive to achieve our vision, which is to be an innovative leader in nursing excellence—a place where patients choose to come and nurses want to practice. The acronym PRIDE represents our nursing values, which our nurses embody as they care for patients, and communicate and interact with other professionals, ensuring optimal care coordination.

Our professional governance structure, led by clinical nurses, is a leadership and decision-making model that empowers clinical nurses’ oversight of clinical practice and the professional practice environment. Nurses and other professionals in these councils work collaboratively with nurse leaders, physicians, clinicians from other disciplines, and other stakeholders to support Salinas Valley Health’s strategic goals. Together, our teams continually evaluate practice and outcomes to ensure that our care is patient- and family-centered, and aligned with the most current professional standards and evidence.

Our nurses’ commitment to excellence and interprofessional collaborative practice contributes to numerous awards earned by our medical center. Our medical center’s Magnet Recognition® from the American Nurses Credentialing Center is the highest and most prestigious distinction a healthcare organization can achieve for nursing excellence. With fewer than 10% of medical centers and hospitals nationwide receiving this designation, it validates our excellent clinical and organizational outcomes. We support new graduate nurses through a new graduate residency program accredited with distinction from the ANCC Practice Transition Accreditation Program® (PTAP). Our ICU/CCU earned the silver-level Beacon Award for Excellence from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, signifying excellence in patient, work environment, and nursing workforce outcomes.

In June 2025, we will submit documentation for our second Magnet designation. At over 2000 pages, this document showcases the exceptional work of our nursing and interprofessional teams. As the only Magnet-recognized medical center in the region, we celebrate our continued growth as a center of nursing excellence, with a mature professional governance structure, support for professional development, exceptional nurse-sensitive outcomes, reward and recognition, and a growing evidence-based practice and nursing research program. We encourage and support our nurses to excel – a win for our patients and for our highly valued nursing team.

Sincerely,

Carla Spencer, MSN, RN, NEA-BC
Chief Nursing Officer