Chief Nursing Officer
System and facility-level CNO coverage through transition, turnaround, or an unexpected departure.
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Leadership coverage before the vacancy becomes a spiral
A unit without a manager loses staff faster than a unit without staff. Interim CNOs, DONs, directors, and managers matched to the unit, with the start date and handover agreed with you up front — experienced operators who stabilize the department while the permanent search runs properly instead of desperately.
AgreedStart date and overlap set with you
FlexibleEngagement length, set by you
WeeklyWritten stabilization reporting
SearchRuns in parallel, not after
Why speed matters here
The vacancy costs more than the salary
When a nurse manager leaves, the clock on their staff starts. Schedules slip, requests go unanswered, escalations reach the CNO, and the unit begins bleeding the people who were holding it together. Six months of vacancy routinely costs more in turnover and premium labor than three years of the salary you saved.
- Someone owns the schedule again — the single change that stops the immediate bleed.
- Open requisitions get worked rather than sitting in a queue nobody is accountable for.
- Staff have an escalation point who is present, which is most of what retention looks like day to day.
- The permanent search stops being urgent, so you hire the right leader rather than the available one.
How an interim engagement runs
01VacancyA leader resigns or steps away
02ProfilesInterim candidates matched to the unit
03Interim startsOverlapping the outgoing leader where possible
04Stabilization planSchedule, open reqs, and staff 1:1s
05Permanent searchRetained search runs without pressure
06HandoverOverlap with the permanent hire
Roles we cover
Bedside to boardroom
Director of Nursing
Acute and post-acute DON coverage, including facilities working through survey findings or a plan of correction.
Service line directors
Perioperative, emergency, women and infants, critical care, and behavioral health leadership.
Nurse managers
Unit-level management, the most common and most time-critical interim placement we make.
Clinical educators
Onboarding, competency, and residency program coverage so new hires do not stall.
Quality & infection prevention
Accreditation readiness, survey response, and infection prevention leadership.
Case management
Utilization review and discharge planning leadership where length of stay is drifting.
Perioperative business
OR business managers and sterile processing leadership for block and throughput issues.
How we work it
An interim is accountable, not a placeholder
A body in the chair is not the point. Our interims arrive with a stabilization brief and report against it weekly — to you, in writing, whether or not the news is good.
- Week one brief — schedule integrity, open requisitions, staff sentiment, and the three things most likely to break next.
- Weekly written reporting against that brief, sent to you rather than filed in a drawer.
- Overlap at both ends where the timeline allows — with the outgoing leader and with the permanent hire.
- Handover document produced as a deliverable, so the permanent leader does not start from zero.
- No quiet extension creep. If the engagement should end, we say so.
Client FAQ
Before you engage an interim
Cost, duration, authority, and how it pairs with the permanent search.
Per week, yes — meaningfully. Against the true cost of a six-month leadership vacancy, usually not. The comparison that matters is the interim rate versus the turnover, premium labor, and unworked requisitions the vacancy produces. We will help you build that comparison honestly, including the case where it does not favor us.
Whatever you grant, but the engagement works far better with real decision rights over schedule, hiring, and performance conversations. An interim who has to escalate every decision stabilizes nothing. We agree the authority boundaries in writing at kickoff.
Sometimes, and it is a good outcome when the fit is real. Conversion terms are agreed up front as a declining fee. We will not push a conversion to end an engagement early, and we will tell you if we think the fit is wrong.
Almost always. The interim buys you the ability to run a proper search instead of a desperate one — that is most of the value. We can run both, or interim only if your talent acquisition team is handling the search.
Tell us in the first two weeks and we replace them at our cost. Leadership fit is more personal than clinical placement and we price that risk in rather than arguing about it.
Call before the notice period ends, not after
The best interim placements start while the outgoing leader is still there to hand over. If you know a resignation is coming, that is the moment to call.