By Moira Neve

Not every nurse gets to build a hospital as part of their career, but Jeniece Roane, Ph.D., RN, NE-BC, has done just that.

The three-time graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Nursing has made a mark on improving health care for children, perhaps most visibly in the child-centered design of Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU (CHoR) where she is the vice president of operations. Last year, CHoR celebrated the opening of the Children’s Tower, a new facility that covers a whole city block dedicated to pediatric care.

“I am grateful to have played a small role in this work,” Roane said. “There are people that never get to build a new hospital as part of their career, so to be able to influence the decisions that are made and knowing that the decisions have an impact on how care is delivered today is really special.”

Recently honored by the school with the Paul A. and Veronica H. Gross Achievement in Nursing Award, Roane, who began her career in a pediatric intensive care unit, has been a dedicated member of the VCU and VCU Health communities since 1997. Roane also pursued research opportunities and completed the nursing school’s Ph.D. program over the course of 8 years.

“What I tried to remember and encourage everyone to remember is, your journey is your journey. Your work is your work. If you're going to make a meaningful impact, you have to embrace whatever the timeline is so that you can produce a quality research project. I took my time,” she added.

In reflecting on this pivotal phase of her career, she shared valuable insights into the leadership lessons and academic accomplishments in nursing.

Jeniece Roane, Ph.D., RN, NE-BC, began her career at VCU Medical Center as a registered nurse in the pediatric intensive care unit (Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU).

How did your experiences as a pediatric nurse inspire you to advocate for improvements in healthcare environments for children?

As long as I have been able to remember, I have had a love for children, and so being able to marry this care with then specializing in pediatrics very early on in my career really was the impetus for becoming a registered nurse.

I earned my bachelor's, master’s and then most recently my Ph.D. from the VCU School of Nursing. With every step, with every degree that I've gone on to pursue, my goal has been to help me develop new skills that will help me improve the health outcomes for children.

If I were to really hone in and reflect on the experiences that led me down this path to pursue both my master’s and my Ph.D., I think that it was my experience as a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) nurse. As a PICU nurse, you are put in these positions where you're working with families that, many times, didn't even know that an ICU existed, let alone finding themselves needing the services of the ICU.

Those experiences – and then a later role as a nurse manager – really helped shape my advocacy skills. On the one hand, you have to advocate as a part of the medical team. Also, as a PICU nurse you build relationships with family members at a very critical juncture in their child's life and find yourself stepping in frequently to serve as a parental advocate and support. It's those experiences in the PICU that really shaped me and changed me as a nurse.

What was it like stepping up into your role during the COVID-19 pandemic?

It was definitely challenging, but that's really where I think the support, particularly from my academic advisor Terry Jones, Ph.D., was pivotal for me. As I was contemplating whether or not I was going to accept an interim appointment as the chief nursing officer for VCU Medical Center, she and I met to talk about what it would mean for my Ph.D. journey. Together we crafted a plan for how I could still progress, while taking on this demanding role right at the height of COVID. This was before the Delta and Omicron variants; this was before we even had vaccines.

Stepping up to this interim role was challenging, but I think with the support of Dr. Jones as well as my colleagues I really felt like they gave me the space to be able to fulfill my role, but also carve out time to continue to progress within the program. I would also add, having a really special husband and supportive friends and family goes a long way as well, because without that support and grace, I don’t know if I would've been able to do it all.

What drew you to your current role as the vice president of operations for CHoR?

Well, I think that for us for those of us who have really dedicated our careers to caring for children, particularly if you've been here in the city of Richmond (I've been at VCU at the medical center since 1997), we have always felt like we needed a place that was dedicated to a space dedicated to caring for children.

To now have an entire tower that is dedicated to the care of and enhancing the well-being of children has been a game-changer, not only for the children and their families in the region, but also for our teams. We have always provided exceptional care, and now we have the environment that reflects the exceptional care that they have always provided.

What is your favorite thing about your role at CHoR?

For me, serving in this role as vice president of operations, the greatest joy that I have is getting to see and support our team members, and helping to remove barriers for them that might impede their ability to deliver their very best care every day.

Is it being able to see the joy my team gets from working in a place that is dedicated to the delivery of care for children? Yes. Are there challenges every day? Sure, there are. But for me, when you are working for a group of people that share a common mission focused around providing care for children, I don’t think there is anything better than that. It is an honor to come in and do this work every day.

How does it feel to have the new CHoR Tower?

It feels like a dream that has come true. Not every story is a happy story, but to see children and families in this environment where every detail was thought about, debated, fine-tuned, with a child and a family in mind, that brings me so much joy that it is difficult to articulate.

When you’ve dedicated your career to children, and come from an environment where you had only one level dedicated to children’s in-patient services within the adult hospital, to now three in-patient units, plus an emergency department, growing child-life programs, spaces that have been crafted so we can carry out high and specialty care like bone-marrow transplants, a dedicated trauma bay, and all our personnel that help us deliver on that promise to take care of children, it really is something special to be a part of.

What are your goals and vision for the future of CHoR, and how do you plan to achieve them?

We are actually preparing to expand services here, so I would say that is what I'm most excited about. We have seen double digit growth in almost every service – our emergency department visits, acute pediatric care volume, pediatric intensive care volume, our operating room volume – we provide since we built the tower. We knew that we were going to likely need some additional space to build out over time, and so there's plenty of shell space here in the tower. We're in the discussion and design phase right now for adding 18-20 more beds for our neonatal intensive care unit. Next, we are going to be building out a second floor of acute care pediatric services. It is very busy within the children’s space, so I am very excited that I will be working together with our teams to build those spaces out.