Dr. Jonna Jenkins: Transforming Nursing Leadership for a Better Tomorrow

Overview :

“The Best Nurses Aren’t Just Made—They’re Led”

Dr. Jonna Jenkins, founder of Sano Leadership, knows what it’s like to work the night shift, juggling textbooks and patient charts, learning firsthand that great nursing isn’t just about skill—it’s about leadership. She started at the bedside, caring for patients one-on-one. However, over time, she recognized a bigger problem: too few nurses in leadership roles, and too many decisions made without their voice in the room.

That’s why she founded Sano Leadership—to change that.

Hospitals struggle with nurse shortages. Retention is a growing crisis. And too often, the best clinicians are thrown into management without the tools to lead. Jonna’s mission is simple: develop strong nurse leaders who can step into executive roles and drive real change. Through coaching, consulting, and hands-on leadership training, she’s preparing the next generation to take their seat at the table.

She’s been there—facing challenges, making tough calls, leading teams through crises. From bringing a hospital back to Magnet status to building programs that put patients first, she knows what works. And through the Sano Leadership Podcast, she’s making sure others know it, too.

Read on to discover the key initiatives, the challenges overcome, and the vision that drives Jonna Jenkins and her mission to transform healthcare from the inside out.

A Calling That Began in Childhood

Jenkins’ passion for healthcare took root early. As a child, she was drawn to the idea of helping others, but it wasn’t until middle school that she began to see nursing as her path. She joined the Medical Explorers Club with her best friend, an experience that opened her eyes to the critical role nurses play—not just in patient care, but in patient advocacy.

This idea of advocacy—standing up for patients, ensuring their voices were heard, and providing compassionate care—stuck with her. It became the foundation of her career. However, the journey from a young girl fascinated by healthcare to a leader reshaping the profession was not immediate. It was built through hard work, late nights, and an unshakable belief in the power of nursing leadership.

A Career Built from the Ground Up

Jenkins officially stepped into healthcare at age 28 when she became a patient care technologist on the night shift while putting herself through nursing school. She worked long hours, often juggling school, work, and personal responsibilities. But the experience gave her a deep appreciation for the challenges nurses face at every level.

She quickly learned that nursing wasn’t just about clinical skills—it was about problem-solving, decision-making, and leadership. Even at the bedside, nurses were making crucial choices that affected patient outcomes. Yet, when it came to hospital leadership, nurses were rarely in decision-making roles.

As she advanced in her career, Jenkins became determined to change that.

The Birth of Sano Leadership: Empowering Nurses for Leadership Roles

Throughout her career in patient care and hospital administration, Jonna Jenkins noticed a striking and persistent gap in healthcare leadership: nurses, despite being the backbone of patient care, were rarely represented in the highest levels of decision-making. In countless meetings, strategy sessions, and executive discussions, she observed that leadership decisions impacting patient care were often made by individuals who had never worked at the bedside. While doctors and administrators played essential roles, the absence of nurse executives meant that the perspectives of those who spent the most time with patients—the nurses—were frequently overlooked.

Jenkins knew that had to change.

She believed that healthcare leadership needed more nurse-driven voices, and she was determined to create a solution that would bridge the gap. That determination led to the founding of Sano Leadership, an organization dedicated to developing, mentoring, and equipping nurses to step into leadership roles with confidence. The idea wasn’t just about filling executive positions with nurses—it was about redefining leadership in healthcare. By preparing nurses to become executives, decision-makers, and strategists, Jenkins aimed to create a healthcare system where those who understood patient care firsthand had a direct role in shaping policies, improving processes, and driving innovation.

At its core, Sano Leadership is about transformation—not only for individual nurses but for the entire healthcare industry. Jenkins designed the organization’s programs to focus on the key areas of leadership development that hospitals and healthcare systems need most. Her approach ensures that nurses don’t just step into leadership positions; they excel in them.

One of the fundamental pillars of Sano Leadership is Nursing Leadership Development. This initiative is designed to help hospitals and healthcare organizations identify, nurture, and retain their nursing workforce by creating a structured leadership pipeline. Many nurses are promoted into leadership positions based solely on their clinical expertise, without formal training in management, strategy, or operations. Through structured mentorship, coaching, and targeted leadership development programs, Sano Leadership ensures that nurses are fully prepared to thrive in leadership roles—not just survive them.

Another critical component of Sano Leadership is Executive Coaching. Whether a nurse is new to an executive role or preparing to transition into one, Jenkins provides tailored coaching to build confidence, enhance decision-making skills, and develop strategic thinking. Leadership can be overwhelming, particularly in a fast-paced and high-stakes field like healthcare. Sano Leadership’s coaching model helps new executives navigate challenges, avoid common pitfalls, and step into their roles with clarity and purpose. The coaching approach is also beneficial for seasoned healthcare leaders looking for fresh perspectives or new strategies to tackle difficult issues within their organizations.

Beyond leadership development, Sano Leadership also provides consulting services focused on operational efficiency, compliance, and patient care quality. Healthcare is a complex and highly regulated industry, and hospitals often struggle with maintaining efficiency while delivering high-quality patient care. Jenkins and her team work directly with healthcare organizations to identify inefficiencies, streamline processes, and ensure compliance with clinical and operational standards. By improving these areas, hospitals and healthcare facilities can enhance patient care while creating a more sustainable and effective work environment for nurses and medical staff.

Recognizing that leadership transitions can be challenging, Sano Leadership also offers Fractional Leadership and Project-Based Leadership services. In cases where healthcare organizations need temporary leadership support, Jenkins and her team provide interim Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) leadership. This allows organizations to maintain stability while they search for the right long-term executive. Additionally, the project-based leadership service helps hospitals implement new initiatives, improve governance structures, and build stronger leadership teams.

The Nursing Process as a Leadership Framework

Leadership in healthcare can often feel overwhelming, particularly for nurses who step into executive roles without formal business or management training. Traditional leadership development programs focus on corporate strategies, financial planning, and organizational theory—but Jenkins believes that nurses already have an incredibly powerful leadership tool at their disposal: the nursing process.

For years, nurses have been trained to approach patient care using a structured, step-by-step method that allows them to assess situations, diagnose issues, create care plans, implement changes, and evaluate outcomes. This approach, designed to ensure that patients receive thoughtful, individualized, and effective care, can be just as powerful when applied to leadership and organizational decision-making.

At Sano Leadership, Jenkins teaches nurses how to translate the nursing process into a leadership framework, making their transition into executive roles more intuitive and impactful. She breaks it down into five critical steps:

Assessment – Identifying challenges in operations, staffing, or patient care.
Diagnosis – Understanding the root causes of issues.
Planning – Developing strategies to address challenges and improve outcomes.
Implementation – Executing changes in a way that is sustainable and effective.
Evaluation – Measuring results and making necessary adjustments.

By thinking like nurses, future healthcare leaders can create practical, patient-centered solutions rather than top-down mandates that don’t work in real-world settings.

Transforming Healthcare: A Legacy of Impact

Jenkins’ leadership approach has already led to significant transformations in the organizations she has worked with. In her most recent role at Hutchinson Regional Medical Center, she oversaw not just traditional nursing departments but also key operational areas such as surgery, rehab, radiology, laboratory services, respiratory therapy, pharmacy, and more.

Her ability to bridge clinical and operational leadership set her apart. Under her guidance, the Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin achieved Magnet status, a prestigious recognition for nursing excellence. Standing on the stage with her nursing team, celebrating the return of that honor, remains one of the proudest moments of her career.

Beyond hospital leadership, Jenkins has also led initiatives to support healthcare professionals at every level. She helped create a scholarship program for nursing and allied health departments, making education more accessible to future healthcare leaders. She also helped launch a Veteran’s Recognition Program, ensuring that both patients and team members who served in the military were honored for their contributions.

Her leadership is about more than achieving professional milestones—it’s about creating meaningful, lasting change.

A Voice for Healthcare Leadership: The Sano Leadership Podcast

Beyond direct coaching and consulting, Jenkins is expanding her impact through the Sano Leadership Podcast. The show brings together industry experts to discuss the most pressing issues in healthcare leadership, from workforce retention to emerging technologies like AI. Her goal is to share knowledge, stimulate conversations, and inspire the next generation of nurse leaders.

Looking to the Future: AI, Leadership, and Work-Life Balance

Jenkins is excited about the future of healthcare, particularly the role artificial intelligence (AI) can play in reducing the burden on nurses. She sees AI as a tool that can ease documentation demands, improve workflow efficiency, and even personalize patient education. Sano Leadership is already exploring partnerships in AI and executive development, aiming to bring innovative solutions to healthcare organizations.

But even as she looks ahead, she remains deeply committed to one key principle: putting patients and their families at the center of every decision.

This mindset has shaped her leadership from the beginning. She often reflects on a patient she cared for early in her career—someone who told her that while she was an excellent bedside nurse, she made an even greater impact as a leader because she instilled those same values in her team. That conversation continues to guide her decisions to this day.

Jenkins also understands the importance of work-life balance—not just for herself, but for all healthcare professionals. She encourages leaders to slow down, set clear priorities, and protect their personal time.

Her advice?