Not every nurse gets to build a hospital as part of their career, but Jeniece Roane, Ph.D., RN, NE-BC, (B.S. ‘93, M.S. ‘07, Ph.D. ‘24), has done just that. The three-time alumna has made a mark on improving health care for children, perhaps most visibly in the child-centered design of the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU (CHoR) where she is the vice president of operations.

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 healthcare community since 1997. In reflecting on this pivotal phase of her career, she shared valuable insights into the leadership lessons and academic accomplishments in nursing.

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.

Your dissertation focused on "Nurse-Led Home Visitation and Parental Reasoning About Child Discipline." Could you share what initially sparked your interest in this topic and how it influences your work at the Children's Hospital?

As a PICU nurse, I saw, and frankly had the misfortune of having to care for, children who were abused. My Ph.D. work focuses on trying to understand what interventions might be most effective at reducing the incidence of child maltreatment. Those PICU years were formative not only in who I became as a bedside nurse, but in creating the foundation for who I am today and what I hoped that I would accomplish by pursuing my Ph.D.

What was it like to transition in your career from being in nursing school, to working as a pediatric nurse, to finishing the Ph.D. program, and now to step into such an important leadership role within the VCU Health System?

When I started the program, I was the nursing director for Women’s and Children’s Health. As I moved through the program, along the way I was promoted to associate vice president for Women’s and Children’s Health. Then, during COVID, I was asked to step up to an interim position while I was still in the program as the chief nursing officer (CNO) for the medical center. Once we found a permanent CNO, I went back to my role as vice president of operations for the Children’s Hospital.

The support I received from the faculty of the School of Nursing has just been incredible. Honestly, reflecting on navigating the undergraduate program, the graduate program and then my Ph.D. program, I have had incredible support from my advisors and the faculty, and from the dean at the time. Dean Jean Giddens served as dean for most of my Ph.D. program, and provided amazing support throughout the time of my entire academic pursuits. 

One way was that they were incredibly flexible: my dissertation topic was not a typical subject area that a nursing student might pursue, but my committee and advisors worked very closely with me to ensure that I was able to focus on an area that I wanted, while still meeting expectations, completing the rigorous coursework required of me, moving into the dissertation phase, and completing my dissertation. Without a doubt, I feel that I was very supported by the VCU Nursing School community.

What advice would you give to current students in the VCU Nursing School?

It took me eight years to complete my Ph.D. I think this is important for other students who are in this program to understand and know because it is easy to watch other people who are on this journey. Some people move pretty quickly and others move slowly. 

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. 

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.

Yes, are there challenges everyday? Sure there are. But for me, when you are working for a group of people that share a common mission–and for us that is being organized and focused around providing care for children–I don’t think there is anything better than that. It is an honor to get to come in and do this work everyday. 

Jeniece Roane, Ph.D.

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 is your favorite space in the tower?

That’s a hard question, but I think it's probably going to be a space that hasn't come online yet, but is in the works. The new Child Life Zone is expected to open in late summer 2024, and this zone will be one of 15 child life zones across the country that is supported through a partnership with Garth Brooks Foundation, called Teammates for Kids. We are able to bring the space to fruition through a philanthropy. We've got a donor from the community that has pledged two million dollars to help bring the space online. This Child Life Zone helps us try to “normalize” the experience of a child that is in the hospital. There's nothing normal about that, but spaces like these help us distract the child and the family from what they are going through. These Child Life Zones are filled with all kinds of places for children to be engaged, to be creative, and to step away from the stressors of the bedside in order to just be a child, even just for a few short minutes. The work that our Child Life team has done to think through all the details, and work to make this zone unique and special to VCU and to CHoR has brought this space to life.

I am grateful to have played a small role in this work. 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. 

Jeniece Roane, Ph.D.

The other space is the Ronald McDonald House Charity Space. We have the first house in a hospital, the first of its kind in the Commonwealth of Virginia. We have partnered with Ronald McDonald Charities to build out a four bed suite where parents can come down and find some time to lay down, step away from the bedside, and get some rest. There is also a kitchenette that enables parents to get some food, there's an outdoor terrace on it so there's space for parents to step outside without having to physically leaving the building, there’s laundry for parents to utilize, and the house is staffed and manned by a Ronald McDonald House Charities staff. That level of support and care our families can receive with a trusted partner like the team at Ronald McDonald House Charities makes this one of my favorite aspects of the space. This space also sets our building and the care that we're delivering apart from what we were able to do previously, and sets us apart from other places that deliver children’s care.

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.