We spent this whole week celebrating our dedicated, highly skilled, and profoundly compassionate nurses that serve our entire Mount Sinai Beth Israel community.

As a part of this celebration, we attended the Beatrice Renfield Circle of Excellence Nursing Awards Ceremony on Wednesday to honor our many outstanding nurses, and where our Chief Nursing Officer, Christine Mahoney put it best:

“At some point in our lives each of us will encounter a nurse, whether it be as a patient, or as a family member of a loved one. And that one encounter can mean the difference between suffering and peace; between chaos and order. Nurses matter.”

It is true that our more than 1000 nurses are the backbone of MSBI, and they change lives daily through their excellence, empathy, professionalism, and comradery. Thank you!

Aside from being awe-inspiring caregivers and colleagues, our nurses are talented and love to have fun. This week we celebrated with ceremony, educational events, food, music, dancing, and dogs. Click the album below to see photos of the festivities. 

Click the photo album below to see photos from the Blessing of the Hands for Nurses Week at Union Square

On Wednesday, May 8, Mount Sinai Beth Israel employees gathered to recognize nurses who show extraordinary dedication to their practice and to the Mount Sinai community. The Beatrice Renfield Circle of Excellence Awards are held each year in honor of Beatrice Renfield who advocated for the education and support of nursing in the community while serving on Mount Sinai Beth Israel’s board for more than 10 years. She believed that an excellent nursing staff is the foundation of a reputable hospital, and the innovations she supported at Beth Israel have provided new visions and models of nursing care for New York City and the nation. Her unparalleled record of philanthropic support to nursing at Beth Israel was recognized with the naming of the Department of Nursing and the Division of Nursing Education and Research in her honor.

Congratulations to our winners:
Excellence in Nursing by a Novice Nurse: Neha Parker, RN
Excellence in Nursing by a Nurse preceptor: Eileen Foster, RN
Hand Hygiene Award: 3 Dazian
Nursing Practice by a Nurse Leader: Michael Willis, RN
Excellence in Nursing by a Staff Nurse: Georgina Andrea Irvine, RN; Jagnanan Singh, RN
Friend in Nursing Award: Alicia John Rodriguez
Multidisciplinary Team: 8 Bernstein, Behavioral Health

Click the album below to see more photos from the ceremony.

 Members of the Mount Sinai nursing community also attended the Tenth Annual 1199-SEIU Nurse of Distinction Awards on April 26. The awards honor peer- nominated Registered Nurses for outstanding achievement and commitment to patient-centered care. The Mount Sinai Beth Israel nominees were:

Nurse of Distinction: Mary Cronin RN, CCRN, Interventional Cardiology- Cardiac Cath Lab (Congrats to Mary who was second runner up for New York)
Nurse Leader:  Michael Willis DNP, RN, WOCN, Wound Care
Nurse Preceptor: Eileen Foster BSN, CARN, OTP
Novice Nurse: Viandy Perez BSN, RN, Emergency Services

Below is Mary Cronin, RN, CCRN with Chief Nursing Officer Christine Mahoney, MS, RN, AGACNP-BC, NEA-BC, CCRN

Health care is an incredibly stressful industry, and we need to support you in every way possible on our journey to zero harm and exceptional patient care. To do this, we must change the way we think about human error, justice, designing safe systems, and accountability.

Over the last several months, many of us have participated in training on the Just Culture framework. This framework helps:

• Identify, prevent, and manage human error, at-risk behavior, and reckless behavior,
• Create a safe, non-punitive culture that fosters honest reporting of problems, risks, errors, and near misses, and
• Design stronger systems to keep patients and staff safe.

Here are some takeaways from a few of our leaders who have participated in these training sessions:

“Just Culture helps to remove bias and focus on the problem at hand more so than the person/ people involved.”
-Diella Mrnaci, Radiology

“Just Culture is instrumental in looking at behaviors in line with possible system failures as opposed to simply an employee’s actions….For me the take home is not simply to react but investigate.”
-Shari Weisburd, Emergency Department

“I was challenged to think differently about how we approach the many situations we handle on a daily basis.”
-Maurice Carper, Department of Surgery and Urgent Care

“Going through the Just Culture training made me realize that I have to change first to partner effectively with our employees through our transformation.”
-Boris Berlin, Respiratory Therapy

“Listen more…speak less.”
-Christine DeCapua, Case Management

Some Some of our leaders who trained in Just Culture.

Our learning and practicing of Just Culture will be an ongoing journey. I hope you will be patient with us and continue to raise any concerns you have with me or anyone that you think can help.

We rarely have the opportunity to step out of our daily tasks and take the time to reflect on our work and connect with each other. Now is the time to do just that.

You’re invited to the Mount Sinai Health System Experience where we will meet in small groups to make new friends, connect with old friends, and have honest conversations about how we can do our best work. All of us will attend a session this spring or summer. I’ve been fortunate to participate in three such sessions as this work has been rolling out across the health system, and I have learned new things each time.

Click the video below to learn more and ask your manager about signing up.

This week I received an incredible letter from a patient who highlighted what we are capable of when we work together with a common goal in mind:

“I was recently a patient at Mount Sinai Beth Israel’s Campus at 317 East 17^th Street. I have been in a number of hospitals during my life, both for myself and my family, but I have never been in one better than this one.

The emergency room was swift as well as smart; and further the two doctors I saw were unbelievably nice to me … I will never forget the words of encouragement that these doctors gave me. The nursing staff on my floor and in the emergency room as were the best I have ever seen anywhere: they not only knew their job, they were healers: i.e. nurses who were committed to seeing people get well. My two main doctors were knowledgeable and had good focus as they pointed out to me that just fixing the immediate cause of my entering the hospital wasn’t healthy in the long run; they also had respect for my views on medicine. The pharmacist was very respectful as well, and took time to research some medicine recommended by my doctors for my future health.

The cleaning crew was outstanding as were the security guards and transport workers; and I will never forget how the food service workers took all the wrong food I was eating back to the kitchen and showed me what was wrong with my diet by fixing it. Lastly, thank you for the beautiful room you gave me—with a view.”

Simply breathtaking. Imagine how proud we would feel if every patient we touched had a similar experience as this patient.

Over the next few months we will meet together in small groups to discuss how we can get there.  This next phase of our work is what we are calling the Mount Sinai Health System Experience. Look out for more information on these sessions next week.