Vincent Thompson, RN, was inspired to pursue a nursing career by his Aunt Katie, who was a nurse and the family diagnostician.  

“We always went to Aunt Katie for everything,” he says. “So, if we got injured and my mom didn’t know if she wanted to go to the hospital, we would go to Aunt Katie first, and she would triage it. That’s what motivated me — that I could be that person for my family.”  

Vincent also had another, more practical reason. “I wanted a job where I knew I’d have a stable income and know the job security was always going to be there.” 

A winding road to Cleveland Clinic 

Vincent went into the Marine Corps right out of high school and spent six years in the service, during which time he was deployed to Iraq in 2005. “I made the decision while I was in Iraq to go into nursing when I got home,” he says. “So, after my deployment, I used the GI Bill to attend community college for nursing.” 

Today, Vincent is a Nurse Manager for the Neurology Telemetry unit as well as the Observation unit at Marymount Hospital. He took an indirect route to get there. While working at another hospital system in Cleveland, he met his wife, who was a medical student. When she got a fellowship in Boston, Vincent left his job in Cleveland and started working as a travel nurse at hospitals in Boston.   

“I did travel nursing for about a year and a half, while she did her fellowship,” he says. “And then she matched her residency in Akron, so we moved back here. My first job at Cleveland Clinic was a travel position at Marymount as a perioperative nurse.” 

Working at Marymount sealed the deal for Vincent and his career. “I worked about six months in the operating room here and got to know the staff, and we got along so well,” he says. “I made friendships immediately when I came here.”  

The road to leadership   

Along with these friendships, the other factor that helped Vincent decide to make the move from travel nurse to full-time caregiver was his wish to take on a leadership role.   

“I had known for years when I was working in the OR that I wanted to get into leadership,” he says. “Being a travel nurse, you’re just doing a job, and I didn’t want to just do a job. I wanted to have a career. I wanted to have roots in a system, and there’s not really a better system than the Cleveland Clinic, especially since I grew up around here.” 

Teamwork sets the tone 

Vincent has brought his military training to his role as nurse manager. “The teamwork here is special, and I’d like to think that I contribute to it because of my military background,” he says. “We always believe the patients to be first, but we can’t forget about those people who are to our right and to our left. And I think that’s the culture that I’ve brought to this department. It is ultimately so important that the person you work with every day sets the tone for your entire shift.” 

So many opportunities to advance 

In his five years at Marymount, Vincent has worked in several areas, including the OR and Med/Surg floors. When discussing his time at Cleveland Clinic, Vincent emphasizes the ways his career has progressed — not just vertically, but within the hospital itself — and the advantages of being a full-time caregiver. 

“You can work for so many different areas within Cleveland Clinic and have all these opportunities and satisfy your curiosities for different types of nursing and medicine, without having to go anywhere else,” he says. “You have a lot more influence when you work for that hospital or health system, rather than as a travel nurse.”