Podcasts
I was honored to be interviewed along with Cone Health CFO Andrew Barrow and CNO Vi-Anne Antrum by HealthLeaders about the impact my Well-Being Coaching Initiative has had on Cone Health's nurse turnover and ROI.
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Cone Health CFO Talks Nurse Well-Being, Quality Improvement, and $4M In Savings
In this episode of HL Shorts Cone Health CFO Andy Barrow discusses how burnout and turnover impact the nursing workforce, as well as how it affects the financial well-being of the health system.
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CNO and CFO Data to Monitor Wellbeing Indicators
On this episode of HL Shorts, we hear from Vi-Anne Antrum, system-wide CNO at Cone Health, about shared data that CNOs and CFOs can both use to monitor the wellbeing of the nursing workforce.
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I was honored to be featured on Dr. Andrea Cyoyle's The Shift podcast where I explain the transformative power of prioritizing personal well-being in high-pressure healthcare work environments. I also offer practical strategies to help nurse leaders foster a culture of well-being for their teams!
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I was honored to be interviewed about my Well-Being Coaching Initiative by Renee Thompson DNP, RN, FAAN, Workplace Bullying Expert! Thank you for your enthusiasm and support for the well-being of our nurse leaders and nurses!
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Articles
AONL | January 2026
AONL named the Well-Being Coaching Initiative as a 'Best Practice Example: Sustainable Well-being Through Coaching Development.' "Program evaluators documented significant improvements in workforce wellness using pre- and post-intervention surveys. Results showed a 42% reduction in burnout, 36% reduction in stress and 18% increase in engagement sustained over one year. The health system has seen nurse turnover decrease by 30%, falling below the national average and translating to $3 million in annual savings."
G Hatfield | Healthleaders | January 14, 2026
Nurses are the backbone of the healthcare system, and prioritizing nurse mental health and wellness results in lower turnover rates and increased cost savings.
For health systems to be able to invest in nurse wellbeing, both CNOs and CFOs must work together.
Leaders must be aware of the cost of nurse turnover and weigh that cost with the investment in wellbeing programs. For CNOs and CFOs who want to invest in nurse wellbeing, CNO Vi-Anne Antrum and CFO Andy Barrow from Cone Health recommended focusing on the following tangible metrics.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Leaders must be aware of the cost of nurse turnover and weigh that cost with the investment in wellbeing programs.
- Cone Health saved more than $4 million after implementing a wellbeing initiative that helped the health system reduce turnover and improve retention.
- CNOs and CFOs should focus on employee engagement surveys, retention and turnover rates, overtime usage, contract labor expenses, and other productivity metrics when measuring wellbeing.
G Hatfield | Healthleaders | January 5, 2026
Investing in Nurse Wellbeing: An Essential C-Suite Partnership: This article describes how the CNO and CFO of Cone Health worked together to invest in nurse well-being. They did this by launching the Well-Being Coaching Initiative which saved them over $4 million by reducing turnover and improving retention. We can do this for your hospital too.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Leaders must be aware of the cost of nurse turnover and weigh that cost with the investment in wellbeing programs.
- Cone Health saved more than $4 million after implementing a wellbeing initiative that helped the health system reduce turnover and improve retention.
- CNOs and CFOs should focus on employee engagement surveys, retention and turnover rates, overtime usage, contract labor expenses, and other productivity metrics when measuring wellbeing.
How a Nurse-Well-Being Initiative Drove $4M in Savings
Marie DeFreitas | Healthleaders | December 12,2025
Cone Health’s nurse-well-being initiative demonstrates that targeted workforce investments can generate measurable labor-cost savings, improve quality-linked reimbursement, and strengthen organizational stability, all within a single fiscal year.
Takeaway for Hospital CFOs: Cone Health’s experience illustrates that nurse-well-being programs yield a direct, quantifiable financial return. Read more from the interview in Healthleaders with Cone Health's Vi-Anne Antrum about how the Well-Being Coaching Initiative improved the bottom line at Cone Health
A year after launching a systemwide nurse-well-being initiative, Cone Health reports more than $4 million in savings, driven primarily by improved retention, reduced absenteeism, and a more stable, higher-performing nursing workforce.
However, there are major quantitative and qualitative benefits to CNOs and other nurse leaders focusing on nurse wellbeing.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Nurse well-being programs can directly reduce labor expenses by lowering turnover, absenteeism, and reliance on premium labor.
- Quality improvements tied to a stable nursing workforce create additional upside in value-based contracts and federal pay-for-performance programs.
- Retention-driven cost avoidance can quickly exceed program costs, yielding a strong, fast ROI..
How CNOs Can Make the Financial Case for Nurse Wellbeing
G. Hatfield | Healthleaders | March 24, 2025
Prioritizing wellbeing requires leadership and individual commitment, says this nurse well-being thought leader.
The term "well-being" is a broad term defined in many ways today, depending on the person and their environment.
For CNOs, well-being programs and initiatives can focus on employee mental health, physical wellness, finding solutions to combat burnout, and creating healthy work environments.
For Diane Sieg, RN, CYT, CSP, the definition is simple.
"Well-being is how you feel about yourself and what you do every day," Sieg said. "Self-leadership is making the best decisions for yourself that supports your well-being."
Sieg, who is a registered nurse, author, coach, and creator of the Well-Being Coaching Initiative, explained to HealthLeaders that nurses traditionally don't always prioritize their own wellbeing, since they are so focused on patients, families, and their communities. Nurses know what to do to take care of themselves, they just don’t often do it.
However, there are major quantitative and qualitative benefits to CNOs and other nurse leaders focusing on nurse wellbeing.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The quantitative benefits of investing in well-being can be found in improving retention and the bottom line.
- CNOs can use validated assessments to determine the success of a well-being program by measuring stress burnout, engagement, and self-compassion.
- Nurse leaders can promote well-being and lead by example by practicing the skills that support self-leadership.
Well-Being Coaching Initiative published in JONA
Atrium Health took a visionary approach to improving their culture when they launched a two-year pilot of the Well-Being Coaching Program. A paper on the program published in the January 2025 edition of JONA indicated the effectiveness of the WBCP in reducing staff stress and burnout. It concluded, “…investing in comprehensive well-being programs such as the WBCP could prove instrumental in fostering a resilient and thriving workforce.” Read the press release or the Journal of Nursing Administration abstract (purchase or subscription required for full access).
JNJ Highlights the Well-Being Coaching Initiative
Johnson&Johnson
Three years after Atrium Health implemented the Well-Being Coaching Initiative, they reduced nurse turnover by an average of 30 percent and saved an estimated $3M in one year! Nurse participants sustained a 42% reduction in burnout and a 36% reduction in stress after one year. A Clinical Outcomes Leader at Atrium said, “I love the program so much that I and one of the other coaches operationalized it so it could be implemented across our facilities.” Read the Johnson & Johnson article.
Press Releases
The Well-Being Coaching Initiative Offers Promise for Reducing Nurse Turnover and Improving Hospital Profitability
The Journal of Nursing Administration Publishes Results: Visionary Leadership at Atrium Health Empowers Nurses with Pilot of the Well-Being Coaching Initiative
Denver, Colorado, January 14, 2024 – As hospitals struggle with staff turnover and rising labor costs due to nurse burnout, Atrium Health decided to take bold action. They partnered with Diane Sieg, a registered nurse and well-being expert to create the Well-Being Coaching Initiative. The results of the pilot program, published in JONA, offer a viable solution for Chief Nursing Officers and other nurse leaders who face the daunting challenge of attracting and retaining qualified staff while improving profit margins.
In a survey1 of over 5,000 nurses, an alarming 75.8% reported experiencing job burnout in 2023 and 76.9% reported they planned to change jobs in 2024. Although job satisfaction rates have slightly improved since hitting record lows during COVID, nurse executives still grapple with the critical need to attract talent, boost job satisfaction and reduce the industry’s high turnover rate.
The costs of staff turnover have a major impact on hospital profitability, and nursing leaders must find innovative ways to control labor costs and maintain quality patient care. According to the 2024 NSI National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report, 2 hospitals lost an average of $4.82 million each in 2023 due to costs associated with the turnover of bedside RNs. The report offers this conclusion to nursing leadership: “The value hospitals place in their people will have a direct correlation to their commitment, confidence and engagement. Enhancing culture and building programs to reinforce these values is critical to driving retention. Focus on strategies that enhance culture and eliminate those that do not.”
Atrium Health’s leadership chose a visionary approach to valuing its staff and enhancing workplace culture by investing in the Well-Being Coaching Initiative. The two-year pilot program was designed to increase staff engagement, reduce stress and burnout, and create and support a culture of well-being. After three years of implementation, Atrium Health reported that their internal expansion of the program resulted in an average 30 percent reduction in turnover, saving an estimated $3 million after one year.
Rob Rose, Market Chief Nurse Executive at Atrium Health, stated, “Our partnership with Diane Sieg to develop this program has enriched our culture by profoundly improving the lives of many staff members. We care deeply about our nurses, and are excited about the positive impact of this program, in addition to the estimated cost savings of $3 million in one year.”
Programs that increase staff retention, such as the Well-Being Coaching Initiative, have the potential to yield millions of dollars in long-term cost savings for hospitals. Each percent increase in nurse turnover costs the average hospital $262,500 per year, 2 which could be saved.
A study published about the successful pilot program in the January 2025 Journal of Nursing Administration (subscription or purchase required to access full article), concluded this about the Well-Being Coaching Initiative (WBCI): "The integration of self-leadership principles and the CPR framework offered a holistic approach that extended beyond traditional self-care strategies. As healthcare organizations grapple with the ongoing challenges posed by the healthcare environment, investing in comprehensive well-being programs such as the WBCP could prove instrumental in fostering a resilient and thriving workforce.”
Unlike conventional company wellness or self-care programs, the Well-Being Coaching Initiative is transformative due to its unique ability to foster self-leadership, which goes deeper than transactional self-care tactics. Self-leadership empowers individuals to improve the relationship they have with themselves to make better decisions that enhance their overall well-being. Program participants are taught to take charge of their own behaviors, actions and decisions in order to attain their personal and professional goals. The outcome is less stress and more contentment as nurses learn to feel good about themselves every day, leading to a culture of well-being.
The program’s highly scalable train-the-trainer model produces internal coaches and champions who are then responsible for expanding the program within the organization. When implemented within a large hospital organization over four years, the Well-Being Coaching Initiative can produce nearly 6,000 staff members who are directly trained to coach and champion their colleagues in order to create and sustain a culture of well-being at both the unit and organizational levels.
Diane Sieg, founder of the Well Being Coaching Initiative, stated, “As a nurse myself, my lifelong passion is to help nurses and hospitals thrive by empowering individuals to feel good about themselves and what they do every day. I’m so proud of what the Atrium Health team has accomplished in this program, and I expect that the results will help to sustain their culture of well-being far into the future.”
About the Well-Being Coaching Initiative (WBCI)
The WBCI helps hospitals and healthcare organizations create a culture of well-being, which attracts and retains high-performing staff while improving profit margins by reducing the costs associated with turnover. Internal coaches and champions are trained to empower staff at the unit and organizational level. After one year, the program was proven to reduce staff turnover by 30% and decrease burnout by 42%. The WBCI was developed by Diane Sieg, registered nurse, speaker, coach, author, and well-being expert. Learn more about the WBCI and founder Diane Sieg at DianeSieg.com.
The Well-Being Coaching Initiative
The WBCI helps healthcare organizations create a Culture of Well-Being, which attracts and retains high-performing staff. Internal Coaches and Champions are trained to empower staff at the unit and organizational level and is proven to improve Well-Being and Turnover up to 30%.
© 2026 Diane Sieg
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