Interim nursing chief to join interim president at Ascension Joliet hospital

An interim chief nursing officer will be brought in at Ascension Saint Joseph – Joliet just weeks after an interim president was hired to run the hospital.

The changes come as Ascension tries to resolve contract talks with nurses that have entered their ninth month.

The Illinois Nurses Association, which represents union nurses who have gone on two-day strikes twice since talks began, will meet Friday with Ascension administration in the next round of bargaining.

Hospital administration is changing as the talks go on.

Jim Parobek arrived on Dec. 11 as interim president to replace Chris Shride, who resigned in November after heading the hospital for less than two years.

Now an interim chief nursing officer is coming on board to replace Margaret Carroll, who took the job shortly after contract talks began.

Carroll “has decided to step down,” Ascension spokesperson Olga Solares said in an email on Thursday. “We wish her every success moving forward.”

Janete Sheiner “has been named interim chief nursing officer and will begin prior to Carroll’s departure,” Solares said.

She did not say when or why Carroll is leaving.

According to Carroll’s LinkedIn page, she has been chief nursing officer at the hospital since June.

Contract talks started in May with the union contending the hospital is severely understaffed with the number of staff nurses down from 800 to 530. They say nurses are leaving because of working conditions and pay that has fallen behind other area hospitals.

Ascension, in what the company said was its last offer, proposed pay hikes of 19% for entry-level nurses and 17% for middle-tier nurses in a proposal that the union turned down in December.