Updated on Nov 3, 2022 | Featured, Nursing
From left: Joan Miravite, DNP, RN, FNP-BC, FAAN; Chief Nurse Executive Beth Oliver, DNP, RN, FAAN; and Jared M. Kutzin, DNP, MS, MPH, RN, FSSH, FAAN
Three Mount Sinai nurse leaders, including Chief Nurse Executive Beth Oliver, DNP, RN, FAAN, have been inducted as Fellows of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) in the 2022 Class of Fellows, a significant milestone for the most accomplished nurse leaders in education, management, practice, and research.
The 2022 Academy Fellows were recognized for their contributions in health care at the Academy’s annual Health Policy Conference that took place on Thursday, October 27, through Saturday, October 29. The induction ceremony was on October 29 at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Oliver; Jared M. Kutzin, DNP, MS, MPH, RN, FSSH, FAAN, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, and Medical Education, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Senior Director of the Simulation, Teaching, and Research (STAR) Center at The Mount Sinai Hospital; and Joan Miravite, DNP, RN, FNP-BC, FAAN, Assistant Professor of Neurology at Icahn Mount Sinai and an expert in movement disorders, were among 250 nurses chosen by the Academy’s Fellow Selection Committee through a competitive and thorough application process.
Fellows come from nearly 40 countries and hold a variety of roles within the nursing profession. Following their induction, fellows contribute their expertise by engaging with health leaders to improve the delivery of care, achieve health equity, and discover new innovations.
In her role as Chief Nurse Executive, Dr. Oliver is responsible for overseeing the practice of nursing and collaborating with the Health System’s senior executive team and the Chief Nursing Officers of Mount Sinai’s eight hospitals. Her top priorities include ensuring the safety and quality of care for patients, supporting and advancing the professional development of nurses, and transforming the care Mount Sinai provides around the needs of patients and communities.
From left: Christine Mahoney, DNP, RN, AGACNP-BC, NEA-BC, CCRN, Chief Nursing Officer and Senior Vice President of Mount Sinai Beth Israel and Downtown; Maria Vezina, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, Vice President and Chief of Nursing Practice, Education, Advanced Practice Nursing Credentialing, Mount Sinai Health System; Toby Bressler, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine; Joan Miravite, Beth Oliver, Fran Cartwright, PhD, RN-BC, AOCN, FAAN, Chief Nursing Officer and Senior Vice President at The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Queens; Linda M. Valentino, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, Vice President of Nursing and Patient Care Services for Women’s and Children’s Services, Mount Sinai Health System, and Chief Nursing Officer of Mount Sinai West; Stacey A. Conklin, MSN, RN-BC, MHCDS, NE-BC, is the Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at Mount Sinai South Nassau; and Jared Kutzin.
Dr. Kutzin is an experienced educator, innovator, and simulationist. He is a Fellow in the Institute for Medical Education at Mount Sinai, a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, and a Fellow of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare Academy. Dr. Kutzin serves on the Board of Directors for the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, on the New York State Emergency Medical Services Council, and on multiple curriculum revision committees for the Icahn School of Medicine.
He has developed innovative curricula, including the use of virtual reality, for Emergency Medicine, Nursing, Critical Care, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, and departments across the Health System.
Dr. Miravite has more than 21 years of experience in the evaluation, programming, and management of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, and dystonia. She has helped to build a strong DBS program at Mount Sinai by educating physicians, nurse practitioners, students, and patients about DBS. Additionally, she is on the faculty at three academic institutions in New York City, including Icahn Mount Sinai.
Dr. Miravite is the Chair-Elect of the American Academy of Neurology Consortium of Neurology Advanced Practice Providers. She also serves as core faculty for the Parkinson’s Foundation Team Training program, an international multidisciplinary training program for clinicians with the goal of improving treatment and outcomes for underserved patients with chronic neurologic conditions.
Updated on Oct 31, 2022 | Diversity and Inclusion, Featured, Stories of Excellence
Tessor Tyrell, Patient Dining Associate at Mount Sinai West
Tessor Tyrell, Patient Dining Associate at Mount Sinai West, is considered to be a shining example of how the Department of Food and Nutrition Services can make a significant impact on the patient experience.
John Gkanios, Patient Service Manager, explains: “Tessor is totally focused on the needs and preferences of her patients. Before she leaves a patient’s room, she asks if they are happy with their meal and follows up before coming back to the kitchen to set up for the next meal period. If there is a non-food issue that the patient brings to her attention, Tessor always informs the appropriate nurse to ensure the concern is addressed.”
Tessor recently received the following praise from a patient in a letter addressed to Kenneth Davis, MD, Chief Executive Officer, Mount Sinai Health System: “Ms. Tyrell demonstrates a passion for her job and people. Always with a smile and a wonderful positive attitude, Ms. Tyrell makes a patient feel comfortable in an atmosphere of uncertainty and stress. It certainly takes a team to address the physical issues and the mental conditions as well. Health care professionals will work to keep the body healthy. It is the other team members, from housekeeping to food and nutrition, that are essential to keeping the mind as positive and healthy as the body. Ms. Tyrell has exceeded in all of these categories, and I would appreciate your acknowledging Ms. Tyrell as a professional, caring, and outstanding employee and member of your team.”
Tessor is clearly dedicated to her patients.
“I love my job,” she says. “I like taking care of people and giving patients the care and attention they need. If they want to tell me their stories, once all my rounds are completed, I am happy to listen. Patients have even given me their numbers so I can follow up with them after they are discharged.”
Not only does Tessor serve her patients with care, she also is appreciated for her skills in the kitchen.
“Lucky for us,” John says, “Tessor is also a great cook! She volunteered and prepared a dish for the Juneteenth Celebration, which was enjoyed by the entire hospital.”
Oct 19, 2022 | Diversity and Inclusion, Featured, School
Dozens of members of the 2022 PhD and MD/PhD matriculating class of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences were presented with lab coats in a celebratory event held Monday, September 19, amid the cheers and applause from the audience—which included faculty, mentors, and the students’ families and friends. Wearing their coats, the students would later take a vow, together, “to uphold the highest levels of integrity, professionalism, scholarship, and honor,” as they embarked on new scientific paths.
Marta Filizola, PhD
“We hold this ceremony to mark the start of our students’ journey in academic research and training,” said Marta Filizola, PhD, the Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and the Sharon & Frederick A. Klingenstein-Nathan G. Kase, MD Professor. “The lab coats we present to them are a symbol of the professionalism and authority that trainees develop and foster during their time in our programs,” added Dr. Filizola, who is also Professor of Pharmacological Sciences, Neuroscience, and Artificial Intelligence and Human Health. Mount Sinai offers PhD degrees in biomedical sciences, neuroscience, and clinical research, and a dual MD/PhD medical scientist training program degree, in addition to nine master’s program degrees.
Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD
Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Dean for Academic Affairs at Icahn Mount Sinai, and Chief Scientific Officer for the Mount Sinai Health System told the students: “Getting a PhD is hard work. There is no way around that. It’s hard work because PhDs—unlike all professional degrees, for example, an MD or law degree—require each of us to create a body of knowledge that is new to the world.” Still, he encouraged each not only to “work hard—but play hard,” adding, “Life must go on. No one should defer having a social life during their PhD studies.” Dr. Nestler is also Director of The Friedman Brain Institute and Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience.
A rousing keynote speech was presented by Xiaosi Gu, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, and Neuroscience, and Founding Director of the Center for Computational Psychiatry. Dr. Gu, a foremost researcher in the area of computational psychiatry, received her PhD degree in Neuroscience at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Gu shared her thoughts on curiosity, which she described as the one “secret Ingredient” capable of helping the students face the PhD journey, while making it enjoyable—and successful.
Xiaosi Gu, PhD
“Curiosity is the fundamental reason why you are still sitting here today instead of already working in a tech company, or Wall Street,” she began. “What should we be curious about? Be curious about science, be curious about people, and be curious about life.
“First, be curious about your work … you must love what you do,” she urged. “Be curious about people. A huge reason I feel pumped every morning going into the office is the people I work with. Face-to-face meetings, small talks in the hallway, grabbing lunch together, these are the daily doses of happiness that keep a day going.
“Finally, be curious about life. This, I believe, is the holy grail of curiosity … We, as scientists, have an obligation to stay curious about the real world and pursue work that can meet human needs … Staying curious about humanity and its issues might be the only way to unlock your intellectual potential and find your path.”
This was followed by a lively presentation of the lab coats, an effort sponsored by the Mount Sinai Alumni Association, and finally, the reading of the PhD Oath. “I will conduct my research and professional endeavors with honesty and objectivity,” they said in unison, while wearing their crisp white lab coats, and reciting a pledge to uphold a set of guiding principles as they launched their science training at Mount Sinai.
What makes this class special? This is who they are:
Oct 19, 2022 | Featured, Your Health
Colonoscopy is one of those important, routine medical procedures that most people would rather avoid. But experts say the test is a highly effective tool for both preventing colorectal cancer and diagnosing it at an early stage. Colonoscopy is also helpful in diagnosing and treating a variety of gastrointestinal (GI) disorders.
The American Cancer Society recommends that people with an average risk for colorectal cancer start regular screening for that cancer at age 45. There are several choices for colorectal cancer screening; colonoscopy is one of those options and has the advantage of being a one-step test, where precancerous polyps can be identified and removed if they are there at the same time.
For those in good health who have a colonoscopy—a procedure that enables a physician (usually a gastroenterologist) to directly image and examine the entire colon—it does not need to be repeated for ten years.
Those looking for an excuse to put off a colonoscopy might now point to a large study conducted in Europe and published in September 2022 in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that appeared to question the benefits of colonoscopies.
But many experts caution that the results of the NordICC study are being misinterpreted. They say colonoscopies remain “the gold standard” to detect and prevent colon cancer, and that this study should not cause you to change your behavior, no matter how much patients might wish otherwise.
“People should continue to rely on high-quality colonoscopy for polyp detection and removal, which will lead to prevention in most cases of colorectal cancer,” says David Greenwald, MD, Director of Clinical Gastroenterology and Endoscopy at The Mount Sinai Hospital.
David Greenwald, MD
In this Q&A, Dr. Greenwald, Immediate Past-President of the American College of Gastroenterology, and Co-Chair of New York’s Citywide Colorectal Cancer Control Coalition (C5), discusses the recent study and why the value of colonoscopies remains unchanged.
He adds, “The bottom line: This study, along with prior studies, shows that colonoscopy decreases your chances of getting and dying from colorectal cancer. Getting sick and dying from colorectal cancer—especially due to delayed screening—is real. Screening with colonoscopy saves lives.”
Why is a colonoscopy important?
Colonoscopy is effective in the diagnosis and/or evaluation of various GI disorders, such as colon polyps, colon cancer, diverticulosis, inflammatory bowel disease, bleeding, change in bowel habits, abdominal pain, obstruction and abnormal X-rays or CT scans. It is also used for therapy, such as the removal of polyps or control of bleeding. A colonoscopy is also used for screening for colon cancer. A key advantage of this technique is that it allows both identification of abnormal findings and also therapy or removal of these lesions during the same examination. This procedure is particularly helpful for identification and removal of precancerous polyps.
Does this recent study change how we view colonoscopies and how doctors in the United States will recommend colonoscopy screening?
No. The results of this study must be understood in context, and the accompanying editorial in the same issue of the NEJM spelled out significant details about the strengths and limitations of this study. The bottom line is that colonoscopy is still the gold standard to detect and prevent colorectal cancer, especially for high-risk individuals. Most importantly, in the section of the study that analyzed people who actually had a colonoscopy, the risk of developing colorectal cancer decreased by 31 percent and the risk of dying from colorectal cancer decreased by 50 percent, which is huge.
What is one of the most significant issues with this study?
One drawback of the study is that participants were randomly invited to have a colonoscopy, and many people who should have gotten a colonoscopy chose not to. In fact, less than half (42 percent) of those invited to have a colonoscopy actually had one. This remains an issue in the United States as well. Screening for colorectal cancer remains an enormous public health goal. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death, but fully one-third of the eligible U.S. population remains unscreened.
Are there other issues with the study?
The benefits of colonoscopies take time to be realized. Colon polyps typically take many years (ten or more in most cases) to advance from small polyps to large polyps to cancer, and so the benefits of taking out small polyps or even large precancerous polyps is not seen as leading to a reduction in colorectal cancer for many years, maybe even decades. Other studies that have looked at the effect of removing polyps have shown greater reductions in colorectal cancer incidence and mortality when they looked at outcomes over a longer period of time than was reported in the NordICC study. The NordICC study, short for Northern-European Initiative on Colon Cancer, included more 84,000 men and women ages 55 to 64 from Poland, Norway and Sweden, and covered a period of 10 years, which included a period before these countries began widespread screenings.
Should people still rely on their routine colonoscopy screenings to prevent colorectal cancer?
Yes. People should rely on high-quality colonoscopy for polyp detection and removal, which in most situations will lead to prevention of colorectal cancer. The National Polyp Study demonstrated a substantial decrease in expected colon cancer incidence and mortality related to removing colorectal polyps, and was published in the NEJM years ago. High-quality colonoscopy is key. Nearly 30 percent of the endoscopists who were included in the NordICC trial did not meet a key quality measure. The adenoma detection rate (ADR) measures the percentage of patients who have one or more precancerous polyps detected. The NordICC study did not meet the 25 percent rate that is recommended in the United States; the ADR average in the United States is rising and now approaches approximately 40 percent in many studies.
