Sep 12, 2025 | Nursing
As the largest and consistently ranked “most trusted profession” in health care, nursing can have a strong voice in education and safety on a global level, says Jared M. Kutzin, PhD, DNP, MS, MPH. As a nurse and President of the international Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH), he is working to make that vision a reality.
In January 2025, Dr. Kutzin was elected president of the SSH, a global society with 6,000 members from more than 70 countries.
“The Society for Simulation in Healthcare includes health professions, such as nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, and Emergency Medical Technicians, health educators, standardized patients, researchers, operations specialists, and many others,” he says. “It’s a collection of different groups coming together, from around the world, to improve the safety, effectiveness, and efficiency of health care services.”
The STAR Center
Closer to home, Dr. Kutzin is Senior Director of the Simulation Teaching and Research (STAR) Center at The Mount Sinai Hospital. The STAR Center opened in 2014 as part of the Department of Emergency Medicine of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Its goal is to provide a realistic training environment for students, residents, fellows, and faculty, while also offering programs for nurses, pharmacists, perfusionists, respiratory therapists, and other health professionals and community members across the Mount Sinai Health System.
“What’s unique about the STAR Center,” Dr. Kutzin says, “is that we are a safe, welcoming immersive space where interdisciplinary and multi-professional teams can learn to work with, from, and about each other. Because simulation sits at the intersection of clinical practice, education, patient safety, quality, process improvement, and administration, we are uniquely positioned to help bridge the boundaries in health care, constantly pushing and making those critical connections among different departments, divisions, units, and hospitals.”
“Simulation represents a shift in the way that we think about teaching people,” Dr. Kutzin says, “how we educate, assess, practice, hone, and study human behavior as it relates to health care. We are giving students, faculty, and staff the ability to learn real-life skills in a safe and controlled environment and to continuously improve the quality, safety, effectiveness, and efficiency of the care we deliver, both individually and collectively.”
One prime example is found in the New Graduate Nurse Fellowship Program in the Department of Emergency Medicine, which has demonstrated a 94 percent retention rate for new graduate Emergency Department (ED) nurses in their first two years of employment. The program features five sessions, with a curriculum that is continually refined. The topics covered—both clinical and nonclinical—allow new graduates to scale up their practice, become more independent, more knowledgeable, and stronger in key areas.
Dr. Kutzin attributes the program’s success to several key elements, including the selection of the right candidates, the involvement of preceptors on the unit, and the education these new nurses receive from their clinical educators.
“Everybody who comes to us is smart, intelligent, capable, with good foundational knowledge,” Dr. Kutzin says. “What we’re doing for them is putting it all together in a way that allows them to translate everything from their heads into their fingertips. I think that’s the most important aspect of what we do. They also become part of a community of practice that provides the support they need to be successful in these fast-paced, demanding environments.”
STAR Center in the Community
The STAR Center operates successful programs throughout the Health System, including training for interprofessional health teams that include physicians, advanced practice providers, residents, respiratory therapists, and nurses. The Center also recently introduced a mobile simulation vehicle that can bring simulation training to venues within the Health System and the broader community, including Brooklyn, Queens, and the US Open Tennis Championships.
“Mount Sinai is the health sponsor for the US Open, where we are responsible for caring for the players,” Dr. Kutzin says. “We know from other large sporting events that the level of response and the timeliness of that response can greatly impact outcomes. This response includes tournament officials, umpires, ball staff, security personnel, a third-party ambulance service, and additional personnel. Responding quickly, appropriately, and with the right gear requires a massive, coordinated effort. Preparation is critical, and our high-tech simulation enables us to thoroughly consider all the permutations and test the entire system. We literally drop our simulation mannequin on the court, push an activation button from the umpire’s chair, and we’re off: running a code or other emergency and learning all we can. We then debrief as a team to ensure that any lessons that are learned are translated into practice. Year after year, we are constantly refining the response process.”
The STAR Program also has a public health component, which involves outreach to the community to raise health awareness. At Public School 38, staff used simulation mannequins to conduct CPR training, a New York State requirement for high school graduation. At a local elementary school, they partnered with Mount Sinai nurses, physicians, and child life specialists to hold a Teddy Bear Clinic, demonstrating the importance of wearing a bike helmet and explaining what happens if a patient needs oxygen, gets a cast, requires sutures, or undergoes other related procedures.
Looking Ahead
Looking ahead, Dr. Kutzin sees the benefits of better integrating simulation into even more training and preparedness initiatives in health care. He and his team are exploring opportunities to conduct interprofessional education at the undergraduate level through the nursing and medical schools. During the recent renovation of the Emergency Department at The Mount Sinai Hospital, simulation played a crucial role in shaping throughput—moving patients from admission to discharge— and environmental design. And simulation plays an important role in research. A current example involves measuring stress levels of nurses using wearable devices and observing differences following critical events when individuals are exposed to different types of lights or light-filtering devices.
The unwritten mission of everything Dr. Kutzin does is to build connections and span gaps and boundaries continuously. As a nurse who is the elected president of an interprofessional health care society, Dr. Kutzin is a living example of this approach.
Read more about Jared Kutzin, PhD, DNP, MS, MPH
Jared M. Kutzin, PhD, DNP, MS, MPH, is a 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 Center (STAR) at The Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Kutzin is a registered nurse with advanced degrees in health policy and management, public health, leadership, and medical education. His advanced training includes completing the Clinical Quality Fellowship Program, offered by the Greater New York Hospital Association and the United Hospital Fund, and the Comprehensive Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship, offered by the National Patient Safety Foundation and American Hospital Association. Dr. Kutzin is certified in health care quality (CPHQ), patient safety (CPPS), simulation operations (CHSOS), and as a Nurse Executive- Advanced (NEA-BC).
Dr. Kutzin is a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Nursing, and was an inaugural fellow in the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) Simulation Academy. He has served as a Health Resources and Services Administration reviewer and on the Baldrige Board of Examiners. Dr. Kutzin served as Chair for the SSH Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator Committee and is currently a member of the Society’s Board of Directors and an Accreditation Committee site reviewer. He assumed the role of President of SSH, the international simulation society, in January 2025.
A master educator in the Mount Sinai Institute for Medical Education, Dr. Kutzin serves on several curriculum revision committees at the Icahn School of Medicine. In addition, he is a member of the New York State Board of Nursing and the state Emergency Medical Services Council. Dr. Kutzin was previously the Deputy Editor for Simulation for MedEdPORTAL, the journal of teaching and learning resources of the Association of American Medical Colleges, and is currently on the Executive Editorial Board for the Journal of Emergency Nursing. His research interests include educational methodologies, patient safety and quality, and how the built environment affects care. In 2025, Dr. Kutzin was recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review as a “Great Leader in Healthcare” and as one of “132 Patient Safety Experts to Know.”
Updated on Aug 20, 2025 | Nursing, Stories of Excellence, Uncategorized
From left: Beth Oliver, DNP, RN, FAAN; Melissa James, BSN; Claudia Garcenot, MSN, MHA, RN; and Nicole Jones, BSN
Melissa James, RN, began her career in health care as a patient care associate (PCA) at Mount Sinai Brooklyn in 2015, but nursing school was always in her plan. It was also in the family, as Melissa’s mother began her own health care career as a certified nursing assistant, eventually becoming a licensed practical nurse.
In fact, Melissa’s mother encouraged her to become a PCA in order for her to test the waters and make sure nursing was the right path. Melissa quickly decided it was, and began saving for her nursing education. She attended Long Island University part-time during the day for five years, while continuing to work at Mount Sinai Brooklyn, at times covering both evening and morning shifts, in addition to scribing for a local medical office.
”It was challenging,“ she says, “but doable. My family and work colleagues were tremendously supportive. And after 16-hour days while I was a student, my current 12-hour shift is a breeze.”
Melissa says her experience as a PCA was invaluable training for a career in nursing.
“It was like having clinical rotations before even starting nursing school. As a PCA, I spent a lot of time at the bedside, which really helped me develop strong patient communication skills, something that might have taken longer had I gone straight into nursing,” she says. “While I’m still very much involved with patients as an RN, the nature of my role has changed. There are certain hands-on tasks I no longer perform as often, but I now have the opportunity to apply critical thinking and collaborate with fellow nurses and the medical team to develop treatment plans.”
Melissa is on the same unit, 2 East, as she was as a PCA. “My unit is special. If you stick your head out the door asking for assistance, people come running,” she says. “We are all committed to helping one another. 2 East works as a team! And, we are a fun, friendly group.”
Nicole Jones, BSN, began her health care journey as a patient care associate at Mount Sinai Brooklyn in 2020. Like Melissa, she always knew she wanted to become a nurse. And she previously majored in Science as an undergraduate. In 2023, she took the next step by enrolling in the accelerated BSN program at the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing.
“Balancing part-time work with the intensity of a 15-month program was challenging, but the support at PSON made all the difference,” she says. “The faculty truly wanted us to succeed—tutoring was accessible, and the close-knit environment made it easy to build strong relationships with both faculty and classmates.”
After graduating in 2024, Nicole started her nursing career in February 2025 at Mount Sinai Brooklyn’s Stepdown Progressive Care Unit, where she cares for patients transitioning from surgery or the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
“I absolutely love being a nurse and having the autonomy to make decisions in patient care,” she says. “Working as a PCA really shaped me—it not only taught me to prioritize safety and strengthened my appreciation for bedside care, but also prepared me for the demands of nursing school by enhancing my clinical awareness and time-management skills.”
Nicole, like Melissa, is focused on the present but remains open to what the future holds. “I’m considering the ICU as a potential next step to grow clinically, but I’m also interested in pursuing wound care—both areas really speak to different parts of my nursing passion,” she says. “It feels good to be in a place where there are so many meaningful directions to explore.”
Jul 16, 2025 | Nursing, Stories of Excellence
Grace Tesoriero, NP
A patient recently shared their experience with Grace Tesoriero, NP, Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Care, Mount Sinai Morningside. They said, “I came in experiencing a great deal of pain and was angry at everyone I encountered because I just couldn’t manage it anymore. But Grace treated me as if she could feel exactly what I was going through. Her presence was calming, and just being with her made me feel better. I was truly blessed to have seen her that day.”
Romelin Bonilla, Practice Manager, Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Care Medicine, says Grace’s commitment to patients is truly outstanding. “This patient encounter is one of many that speak to Grace’s ability to bring comfort and connection during moments of deep vulnerability. Grace approaches each patient with genuine empathy, clinical excellence, and unwavering dedication. She does not just treat symptoms; she connects with people on a human level. Grace is the kind of provider every patient hopes for: attentive, kind, thorough, and deeply committed to making a difference.”
Grace explains what the patient experience means to her: “A patient’s experience to me is how a patient feels appreciated, accepted, and understood by the provider with their medical concerns, and sometimes with their emotional and personal issues. My goal as a provider is to provide high-quality and effective care while having patients feel comfortable, heard, and acknowledged, with all their issues entrusted to me.”
Rivkah Eisner, RN
Will Novini, BSN, RN
Beth Lungaro, BSN, RN
Grace Tesoriero, NP
Uzoma Nwaekpe, RN
Tristen Castillo, BSN, RN and Shirley Liu, RN
John Schwartz, RN