Deborah Wesley
Deborah Wesley’s career in nursing has taken her from a Nursing Assistant at 16 to various roles in nursing and healthcare leadership. Throughout her journey, she has maintained a focus on the core mission of healthcare delivery based in evidence-based practice, ongoing development of nurse clinicians and mentoring nurse leaders to facilitate quality patient outcomes. Wesley earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Jacksonville State University, her master’s in nursing administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and completed an administrative residency at Medical Center East in Birmingham, Ala.
Wesley began her early clinical years as a critical care nurse at Regional Medical Center in Anniston, Ala., where she was later promoted to Chief Nursing Officer. She then accepted an offer from Phoenix Children’s Hospital to serve as CNO, where she subsequently was promoted to Chief Operating Officer. As CNO at Phoenix Children’s, she implemented a clinical scholars program with the Arizona State University College of Nursing and Health Innovation including a professional nursing-advancement model and a transition-to-care model targeting nursing recruitment, retention and satisfaction. As COO, she participated in the design and development of a $450 million state-of-the-art patient care tower.
In 2010, Wesley returned to Alabama in the role of Senior Vice President and CNO at Children’s of Alabama. While Children’s was in a major facilities expansion project and implementation of a system-wide electronic medical record, Wesley helped manage the patient care workflow and process design required for transition to the new Benjamin Russell Hospital for Children facility, one of the largest medical expansions in the history of Alabama. At Children’s of Alabama, Wesley developed a Clinical Scholars Program with UAB School of Nursing, funded through a major philanthropic gift; an internship program with The University of Alabama Capstone College of Nursing; a focused nurse leader training program with the Organizational Development Department at Children’s; and a robust transition to practice program for new graduate nurses. Recognizing the need to meet the demand for mental health care services, Wesley collaborated with UABSON to implement a residency program for Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners, one of the earliest in the nation for pediatric hospitals.
Her career journey reflects the vast opportunities for nursing professionals to influence healthcare delivery and resource allocation from the patient bedside to facility and program development. Wesley has often been described as the perfect combination of a nurse that is a business person or a business person that happens to be a nurse, but she has never lost sight of her passion for providing the best care for patients and their families.
Mrs. Wesley extends her gratitude to her husband, Bill Tutwiler, and her daughters, LeAnne W. Jenkins and Catharine Wesley, for their unwavering encouragement and support; to mentors and colleagues who invested their time and shared their knowledge at each stage of the journey from nursing assistant to nurse leader.