Leading with Care: Nursing Alumna Amanda Shrout ‘08 Named Chief Nursing Officer
In January 2025, YCP Alumna Amanda Shrout ‘08 was made Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Patient Care Services at Sinai Hospital and Grace Medical Center at LifeBridge Health.
After nearly 10 years working with LifeBridge Health, Amanda Shrout ‘08, DNP, RN, CCNS, CEN, EBP-C, CENP, has been named Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Patient Care at Sinai Hospital and Grace Medical Center.
Both are part of LifeBridge Health, “one of the largest and most integrated providers of health-related services” in Maryland, according to their website. Sinai Hospital has grown to be the largest community hospital in Maryland. Grace Medical Center, a free-standing medical facility, has offered a wide range of healthcare services in West Baltimore for over 100 years.
Since her appointment in January, Shrout has worked hard to adjust to her new roles while ensuring that her teams have the support they need from her. She is excited about the future and is grateful for how York College has prepared her nursing journey.
Finding a Foundation
Shrout grew up in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, a small town on the other side of Gettysburg. Her mother encouraged her to pursue nursing, seeing it as a good career option in which Shrout would surely flourish. After hearing about her cousin’s experience with the College’s nursing program, Shrout decided to come to York College.
“The bachelor’s degree program at York gave me a good foundation to build upon my nursing career,” Shrout said. “One of the things I really loved about York and the nursing program was the professors that we had. They were very invested in us.”
Shrout shared that even now, some of the habits and lessons she experienced at College have stayed with her. For example, one of her professors was always strict about what the students wore to their clinical rotations and how they showed up to work as a way to elevate professionalism. Now, Shrout has the same policy with her nurses and team.
“I think some of those experiences that I had in clinical and in simulation labs really built who I am as a nurse today and started the foundation of my leadership,” Shrout said.
Following her graduation in 2008, Shrout continued her education. She obtained a master’s degree in nursing as acute and critical care Clinical Nurse Specialist from Liberty University and a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from The Ohio State University.
After she had finished her schooling, Shrout began looking for nurse residency programs, specifically ER or critical care jobs. It wasn’t long before she became a nurse resident in a Delaware ICU step-down unit. Once she graduated from her residency program, she worked in that unit for about 18 months.
She later met her husband, Matt, and together, they relocated to Baltimore, where Shrout became an ER nurse and then an acute and critical care clinical nurse specialist.
Striving for Excellence
Shrout came to Sinai Hospital in 2016 and worked as an ED, ICU, and Psych clinical nurse specialist. After about three years, she transitioned into the Director of Clinical Excellence position then led the Emergency Departments at Sinai and Grace Medical Center. She became the interim Chief Nursing Officer in October 2024 and was later named permanent Chief Nursing Officer in January 2025.
The interview process in 2016 solidified Shrout’s decision and drive to work at LifeBridge. She shared that, though lengthy, it allowed her to meet the entire team she would be working with, including the nurses, leaders, support services, and physician teams.
“Throughout all of those interviews and meeting everybody, the one thing that was crystal clear to me is that the team members here served a very diverse and underserved population,” Shrout said. “The commitment to our community has been something that has driven me throughout my career at LifeBridge. It’s something that I really love about what we do.”
“We are committed to serving our community,” Shrout continued, “whether it’s violence prevention…maternal hypertension...[or] all of the above. And I think what we do really well is partnering to address the needs of those that we serve, whether that’s medical care or health equity work. There’s a lot of meaning behind what we do, and that’s the one thing that has connected me, driven me, and grounded me in the work that we do here at LifeBridge.”
Shrout has shared that the Chief Nursing Officer position is the most challenging job she has ever done and the most fun. She enjoys learning about departments and services where she doesn’t have expertise, like perioperative. She loves the challenge of complex tasks, meeting nurses and service lines she hadn’t served before, rounding with the teams, being out on the units, and helping frontline staff achieve remarkable outcomes.
Shrout has cited York College as preparing her to be a nurse and establishing professionalism in her character and work.
“York [College] laid a foundation for me for excellence in nursing,” Shrout said. “I think it provided me a stepping stone of being what a professional nurse looks like and how to be one…It prepared me to be a great frontline professional nurse and then look at what other opportunities there would be afforded to me throughout my career.”
When asked about the people who have helped her get to where she is now, Shrout said that her husband, Matt, has been and continues to be her number one supporter, along with her five-year-old son. Matt enabled her to work hard and still have a family life while enjoying both aspects of being a wife, mom, and chief nurse.
She also credits her mentors, including the professors at York College and Dr. Lynn Gallagher-Ford, who encouraged her to get her DNP and pushed her throughout her career to think and prepare for what’s next. And finally, her leaders at LifeBridge, including her boss, Amy Shlossman, MHA, president of Sinai Hospital and Grace Medical Center and senior vice president of LifeBridge Health, and Leslie Simmons, RN, FACHE, executive vice president and chief operating officer at LifeBridge Health.
“I’ve been really blessed with having amazing leaders around me to support my career growth,” Shrout said. “I think we all need those people in our professional lives and personal lives who motivate us but also inspire us to reach for more.”
A Need for Nurses
Shrout emphasized how impactful a nursing career is and how it changed her life in unexpected ways. Nurses are needed now more than ever, and she believes that a person who has a passion for helping others in the medical field would be a good fit for the job.
“If anybody wants to be a nurse leader, I think that passion lies in loving the people we serve,” Shrout said. “One of the things that make my day every day is being able to serve the nursing staff that serve our patients, and to be a nurse leader, we have to love being in that serving role and really support our teams and provide them the tools and resources to do their jobs well.”
“Nursing school is one of the hardest things that I think any of us that become nurses do, but it is well worth it, and you make it out on the other side a more empathetic and caring and intelligent person,” Shrout continued. “So if you want to be a nurse, please pursue nursing; we need tons of nurses who are going to serve our aging populations and meet the health challenges that we have as a nation.”
