Chief Nursing Officer hiring, three ways
Hire the right Chief Nursing Officer, the first time.
Your Chief Nursing Officer shapes quality, staffing and survey readiness across the whole hospital. Run the search yourself with our hiring kits, bring David on-site to run it with you, or hand us the whole search and pay only when your new CNO starts.
The problem
In a small hospital, the CNO seat is the hardest one to get wrong.
A small leadership bench
In many hospitals, and almost every critical access hospital, there is no ready internal successor. When the CNO seat opens, the CEO often covers it on top of everything else.
The CNO wears many hats
Quality, staffing, survey readiness, ED and swing-bed coverage — your CNO owns all of it. The wrong hire shows up everywhere at once.
Costly search-firm fees
Executive search fees can take a real bite out of a small hospital's budget. A structured in-house process keeps that money in patient care.
What's inside the kit
Every document you need to run the search, in Word and PDF.
CNO job description
Ready for your hospital name and pay range.
Structured interview questions
12 questions with a scoring guide so every candidate is measured the same way.
Candidate scorecard
One page to compare finalists on nursing leadership, quality, regulatory readiness and fit.
Reference-check script
Questions that get past “she was great” to how they actually led a nursing department.
Offer-call checklist
Cover pay, start date, expectations and counteroffers before you hang up.
Onboarding & retention (Complete)
30/60/90-day plan and a 90-day check-in guide to keep your new CNO.
Who it's for
Built for the people who own the CNO search.
Hospital CEOs
Running a CNO search on top of running the hospital.
Administrators & COOs
Covering nursing leadership gaps while the seat is open.
HR leaders
Who want a defensible, repeatable process for executive nursing roles.
Health systems & networks
Standardizing CNO hiring across affiliated hospitals.
Serving hospitals and health systems across the US, including critical access and rural hospitals.
Who's behind it
“A career recruiter who built hiring teams at big tech, now a critical care nurse.”
David Ricke
- Recruiting since 2003: in-house at Sierra Health Services and Oriental Trading Company, then founded Ricke Executive Search, built UX Recruiters (acquired) and consulted through Ricke and Associates
- Led talent teams at Atlassian, AWS, Facebook and Amazon
- Bar Raiser — 10,000+ interviews from every side of the table
- Critical Care Registered Nurse — ICU and critical access emergency department
Pricing
Run it yourself, with us, or hand it to us.
Do it yourself
CNO Hiring Kits
Starting at
$299one-time
Run the search with your own team, using our big-tech-style interview loop, scorecards and onboarding plan.
See the KitsDone with you
On-Site Hiring Day
Starting at
$999per day
David comes to your hospital to review the role and pay, run interviews with your panel and leave a written hiring plan.
Book an On-Site DayDone for you
Contingency CNO Search
Fee, only if you hire
20%of first-year base
Built for any hospital or health system hiring a CNO, including critical access and rural hospitals. We run the whole search, from sourcing to references, and you pay only when your new CNO starts. Retained search is also available.
Start a SearchYour next CNO search starts with a better process.
Download a kit today, bring David in, or hand us the whole search and pay only when your hire starts.