Ethan Collins named chief nursing officer at Smyth County Community Hospital

Praised as both an excellent bedside nurse and an insightful leader, Ethan Collins has been appointed as Smyth County Community Hospital’s chief nursing officer.

He will also serve as chief nursing officer at Francis Marion Manor Health & Rehabilitation and Smyth County Home Health.

In this new role, Collins will oversee the nursing staff and ensure delivery of high-quality, patient-focused care. He also will join the hospital’s administrative team.

“We are looking forward to Ethan starting,” said James Tyler, chief executive officer of Smyth County Community Hospital. “Ethan is energetic and is excited by the opportunity to serve here. He brings a very data-driven approach from Norton Community Hospital, which will help us shape our quality improvement initiatives. This is important because better data leads to better patient outcomes.”

During the seven years he’s served at Norton Community Hospital, Collins worked as a critical care nurse in the intensive care unit where he excelled as a registered nurse.

“Because of his demonstration of such high performance, Ethan was selected to be director of critical care, which we later combined with medical-surgical nursing,” said Mark Leonard, chief executive officer of Norton Community Hospital.

In 2016, Collins was promoted to director of the intensive care, telemetry and float pool nursing departments. Just a year later, he was named director of patient care services. Collins is noted for being able to translate data into performance expectations.

“Ethan is exceptional at team member communications and engagement, as well as working with physicians,” said Leonard. “He is also terrific at identifying best practices and then implementing them into the workplace.”

Collins is a member of the University of Virginia’s College at Wise nursing program advisory board. He earned his bachelor’s degree in nursing from UVA Wise and a master’s degree in executive nursing at Chamberlain University in Downers Grove, Ill.

Collins replaces Linda Shepherd, who was recently appointed as Johnston Memorial Hospital’s chief nursing officer.