Caring for Caregivers: A Talk With Linda Valentino, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, Interim Chief Nursing Officer, The Mount Sinai Hospital

Updated on Dec 7, 2023 | Nursing, Stories of Excellence

Linda Valentino, DNP, RN, NEA-BC

Linda Valentino, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, has a clear view of her role: to care for the people who are caring for other people—both the staff who are taking care of patients and the nurse leaders who are taking care of the staff.

“The best part of my job is supporting other nurses,” says Dr. Valentino, Interim Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) at The Mount Sinai Hospital. “Nurses are the backbone of every health care system. They’re doing meaningful, compassionate, professional work involved in supporting our patients. We have to recognize and support the patient-centered aspect of their clinical work at every opportunity.”

It is no wonder, then, that as the world began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, the cover of the American Journal of Nursing’s landmark issue, “Year of the Nurse and the Midwife,” featured portraits of Mount Sinai nurses through Dr. Valentino’s efforts. She witnessed as the Health System’s nurses worked tirelessly at the country’s pandemic epicenter, caring for patients under the most unimaginable circumstances. “I felt like there was never going to be enough recognition for the staff and what we were able to accomplish. Nurses stepped up and saved our world.”

The Mount Sinai Health System’s Executive Nurse Cabinet members are global leaders in nursing practice. A series of profiles highlights how each member is uniquely advancing the profession.

“While nurses are fully dedicated to their patients and the patient’s family,” says Dr. Valentino, “it’s critically important to remember that they are whole people who have families, and they have lives, and they have stories, and they have history, and every day they bring their whole selves to the work they do to care for others.

“Our nurses show up for the fragility of human beings, and while the work is rewarding, it’s also very demanding, and we need to be sure they focus on their own well-being in the process.”

During her recent tenure as CNO of Mount Sinai West and Vice President of Nursing and Patient Care Services for Women’s and Children’s Services for the Mount Sinai Health System, Dr. Valentino began to turn to “gratitude” as a gateway to wellness. One effort to foster this connection involved a partnership with filmmaker Louis Schwartzberg, director of “Gratitude Revealed.” In conversations with everyday people, thought leaders, and personalities, his acclaimed movie explores how to live a more meaningful life filled with gratitude as a means of connecting to the world around us and navigating life’s day-to-day challenges. Dr. Valentino held Health System viewings of the film and plans to incorporate a curriculum developed by Mr. Schwartzberg to facilitate future viewings, followed by discussions tailored specifically to nurses and their practice.

Dr. Valentino is also passionate about developing and supporting the nurse leaders who support the work of the front line. “These front-line nurse managers are the interface between the work environment, the staff, and the patient and, ultimately, how we deliver care,” she says. “They have a unique capacity to transform the work and the workplace for our clinical staff.”

To this end, Dr. Valentino and her team embraced human-centered leadership theory for nursing. This takes into account not just the individual but the environment in which the nurse works. The focus is on helping nurse leaders develop and incorporate into their leadership practice the necessary skills for cultivating people, building community, and recognizing the humanity in others. “Leaders who embrace these attributes have the ability to create and sustain cultures of excellence, trust, and caring,” says Dr. Valentino, “which leads to sustained and positive outcomes for our patients and our staff.”

“We want to support leaders to focus first on personal transformation—it starts with you—but then lead in service to others,” she says. “We encourage them to embrace the concept that effective leadership starts with you, but it’s not about you. It’s about the teams you are leading and supporting, and the patients these team members care for. It’s a theory that aligns perfectly with both our Relationship-Centered Care Model, as well as the American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet tenants.”

Creating Excellence Together

One far-reaching example of this work involves stay interviews, the subject of Dr. Valentino’s recent research. “We trained our nurse leaders to use a structured interview technique at least once a year with their incumbent staff and more frequently for new staff,” she says. The nurse manager talks one on one with a staff nurse to find out what they need to help them do their job and what will make them want to stay at their job. “When staff recognized they were being heard, and that the nature of the questions was about them, they started to get excited. Soon other staff started asking for their stay interviews.” This investment in the leaders and the staff has already had a tremendous impact. Following the first round of interviews, nursing turnover rates dropped by an impressive 30 percent.

“We continue to see clinical nurses and nursing leadership working together to make improvements in the care environment. A lot of transformation has happened using the daily management boards and via quality projects focused on patient experience. Some involve simple things, like changing the experience of moms as they are in the postpartum phase, giving them certain amenities like smoothies and more comfortable robes, providing lactation consultation, and other supports.”

“The obstetrics teams came up with some fantastic projects,” she says. “They looked at every aspect of communication, for example, how the nurses in Labor and Delivery gave reports to the nurses in Postpartum. They met and talked to each other, and then they were no longer just the voice at the end of the phone. The result is a renewed sense of community and teamwork.”

Likewise, Dr. Valentino appreciates the importance of shared governance. “We’re seeing our unit-based councils and our staff play active roles in decisions that impact their practice,” says Dr. Valentino. “They have a say in how we make decisions. This approach is moving in parallel with the leadership and the unit staff as they embark on important work that they’ll be focusing on together.”

Pathway to Leadership

Dr. Valentino’s vision and values developed at an early age. In her words: “It’s a boring story. I just always wanted to be a nurse.” In high school, she volunteered as a candy-striper in her local hospital, where she logged among the highest number of volunteer hours, receiving a commendation from the mayor’s office. “I loved being with the people, the patients, and the nurses,” says Dr. Valentino. “I really want to be with people all the time and care for them in that way. That’s always been the case and still today drives what I do. It brings me joy to know that we serve here with purpose. We do it with professionalism and we do it with compassion and understanding, and I think it’s really as close to the human experience as you can get in a job.”

This approach has served her well throughout her career. A creative problem-solver, Dr. Valentino is often on the vanguard of change, advancing nursing professional practice through innovation and interprofessional collaboration, organizational transformation, quality improvement, and research. Before joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Valentino held leadership roles at Rockefeller University, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, and NYU Langone. In 2017, she became the Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President for Nursing and Patient Care Services at Mount Sinai Brooklyn. From 2019 to 2020, Dr. Valentino served as Vice President of Nursing Operations at The Mount Sinai Hospital, where she led fiscal, operational, and clinical oversight of multiple service lines, including women’s, ambulatory, oncology, and pediatric services. She also played a key leadership role during the initial COVID-19 pandemic surge when New York City emerged as the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States. In 2020, Dr. Valentino was named CNO of Mount Sinai West and Vice President of Nursing and Patient Care Services for Women’s and Children’s Services for the Mount Sinai Health System. In 2023, she returned to The Mount Sinai Hospital as Interim CNO.

Dr. Valentino holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice from the MGH Institute of Health Professions, and a Master of Science in Nursing Administration from Hunter College of The City University of New York. She is board certified as a Nurse Executive, Advanced, and is a member of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership and the American Nurses Association.

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A Nurse at NYEE Offers “Comfort and Connection”

Updated on Nov 9, 2023 | Nursing, Stories of Excellence

Inna Tsekhan, RN, works in the Comprehensive Eye Clinic at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai. Min Jeon, RN, CRON, MBA, nurse manager at NYEE, says that when Inna interacts with patients, “her empathy and compassion come through each time. Inna always greets her patients with a smile, and she does her best to make sure they feel at ease.”

One day at the Comprehensive Eye Clinic is a case in point: “One of Inna’s patients was highly nervous because of a recent, sudden vision loss,” Ms. Jeon recalls. “Inna explained to the patient that she would guide her through the clinic visit, and even walked the patient to different testing areas. The patient later asked to speak to me about the excellent service she received and how Inna went out of her way to help her. The patient explained that Inna spoke to her in such a caring manner, it calmed her anxiety, as she was extremely nervous about her eye condition. The patient was so appreciative that each time she came for her follow-up visit, she asked for Inna.”

Ms. Jeon continues, “I have worked with Inna for eight years, and she continues to be highly dedicated to her work. She is an integral part of Mount Sinai, adored by her patients, and respected by her colleagues.”

Inna says her approach to the patient experience is quite simple. “I treat all patients as members of my family. I am committed to creating a great environment for their care where there is comfort and connection.”

 

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Environmental Services Aide Is “Sign of Hope” for Patients and Families

Updated on Nov 9, 2023 | Stories of Excellence

Hopie Brown, Environmental Services Aide, Mount Sinai South Nassau, was recently recognized for offering hope to a patient’s family during his “darkest hour.”

When the patient’s fever kept climbing, his daughter knew things “weren’t looking good,” she recently wrote in a heartfelt letter of appreciation for Hopie. So she “dropped everything” and flew to New York to be with him, and got special permission to spend the night with him as his fever spiked to more than 104 degrees.

She writes: “In the morning the most warm and cheerful woman came into the room mopping the floor. Her name was Hopie, and I felt in that moment that she truly was a sign of hope. The next day, she asked someone to bring me a recliner, which was so much more comfortable than the hard chair, to catch a few winks. There were many days of uncertainty, but each day I would see Hopie, and she would offer encouragement and a kind word. I was grateful for her uplifting attitude and how she blessed my dad and me with hope during his darkest hour.”

Stefanie Bradley, Supervisor of Environmental Services, Mount Sinai South Nassau, is familiar with Hopie’s ability to spread hope. “I am grateful for the compassion and human connection Hopie provides for patients and families,” she says.

Hopie says she begins each day determined to spread optimism to every patient she meets.

“I want to help patients by bringing a ray of light into the darkness that can surround them when they are a patient,” she says. “I want to see them smile.”

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Social Worker Shows “Extraordinary Compassion” in a Patient’s Taxi Ride Home

Nov 1, 2023 | Stories of Excellence

Ebony Williams, LMSW

Ebony Williams, LMSW, a social worker at the Mount Sinai Morningside inpatient adult psychiatric unit, was commended recently for going above and beyond in caring for a discharged patient. The patient, who has had multiple psychiatric admissions over the past year, had no one to assist her in returning home from the hospital.

Given the patient’s fear of riding in a taxi alone and her history of returning to the Emergency Department, Ebony personally escorted the patient home in a taxi, chatting with her throughout the ride, and ensured that she returned safely to her family. Elisandro De La Cruz, LCSW, Director of Social Work, Acute Psychiatry Services, Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai Morningside, says, “I am so proud of Ebony’s extraordinary compassion and excellent patient care, especially in this patient’s time of need.”

Ebony joined Mount Sinai in 2022. “Working here has been a long-time goal, as I was raised in the Harlem community,” she says. “I want to change the narrative surrounding social work. We are not just people who take away from communities—we contribute to them as well.”

Ebony is also committed to total patient care. “I believe in wrap-around care,” she says. “Even after discharge, patients continue to be our patients, and it is important that we set them up for success. Social work is lifelong and worldwide.”

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Patient Recovers From Two Brain Surgeries With Help From “Wonderful” Mount Sinai Team

Updated on Oct 24, 2023 | Featured, Stories of Excellence

Shannon Hickey, patient, right, with her occupational therapist, Aura Weltman

Shannon Hickey, 29, never imagined a case of double vision shortly before Valentine’s Day in February would lead to an Emergency Department visit, two brain surgeries, and months of rehabilitation therapy. It has been a long journey, made easier by her medical team, and on one memorable day, by an unexpected word of kindness and cheer.

Shannon had always been very healthy, and only a week before her symptoms began, she was sightseeing in Paris with her best friend. At most, Shannon thought her symptoms might simply be due to a vitamin deficiency. Imaging revealed that was not the case. She had a brainstem brain tumor, and on February 14, Shannon underwent surgery to remove the tumor at The Mount Sinai Hospital, performed by a team headed by Isabelle Germano, MD, MBA, Director of the Mount Sinai Comprehensive Brain Tumor Center. When she awoke, her double-blind vision was much improved but she developed a new difficulty with her peripheral vision on the right. She also had difficulty recalling words and moving the right side of her body, as consequence of a small stroke that occurred during surgery. After a few days in the Intensive Care Unit, Shannon spent two weeks as an inpatient in the Rehabilitation Unit at the hospital.

Shannon describes herself as extraordinarily positive, and says she never felt the severity of all she was going through. “A right-sided deficit was fortunate,” she says. “I am left -handed.” And she gives a lot of credit to her “wonderful” team of therapists. Shannon praises Emily Teitelbaum, MS, OTD, Senior Occupational Therapy Rehabilitation Specialist, “Emily was my inpatient OT. She had been a professional ballet dancer before becoming an OT, and I was a volunteer dance instructor, so Emily designed my exercises based on ballet moves, which clearly were personalized for me. It was just so nice.”

“My physical therapist, Will Long PT, DPT, was such a happy and positive person,” Shannon continues. “He made everything fun. I had to learn all the basics, basically how to walk again, but it never felt like work.”

“It was an amazing meeting, to have all of these professionals, in one room, in person and virtually, supporting me in this way.”

Shannon returned home in late March, but needed to continue physical and speech rehabilitation therapy. She still required a brace to walk and had challenges reading. As the spring progressed, Shannon was eager to return to work despite her limitations, as she had taken a three-month leave and wanted to meet her self-imposed deadline. At that point, my wonderful outpatient occupational therapist, Aura Weltman, MS, Senior Occupational Therapy Rehabilitation Specialist was instrumental in my emotional recovery as well as my progress physically. Shannon says. “She set up an interdisciplinary meeting with my team, including my therapists, social worker, and Aveniel Klein, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Rehabilitation and Human Performance. They helped me understand that I was doing all the work I needed to do to recover, but there was no timeline I could measure myself against. I needed to be patient. It was an amazing meeting, to have all of these professionals, in one room, in person and virtually, supporting me in this way.”

Unfortunately, the tumor had formed another cyst in her thalamus, so a second surgery was scheduled for June. Shannon admits she was nervous this time. “I had so many changes after the first surgery, I was scared.” But she says, she felt incredibly supported by the Mount Sinai team she had come to consider family. She recounts a small, but meaningful gesture by Dr. Germano. “I gave Dr. Germano a valentine on the day of my first surgery. For the second surgery, she was wearing a Snoopy surgical cap and told me she knew I liked Snoopy. I was confused, but a few minutes later, I recalled I had given her a Peanuts valentine featuring Snoopy. It was incredibly sweet of her.”

During this surgery, a biopsy confirmed that Shannon had pilocytic astrocytoma, a type of brain tumor that originates from glial (brain) cells called astrocytes and seen primarily in children. Most cases are benign, as was Shannon’s. Shannon says the day she was informed of her diagnosis was “the best day of my life.” She explains, “It was my lucky day to learn this tumor does not multiply. Literally, I can thank my stars, because these glial cells are star-shaped.”

Shannon is taking oral targeted-therapy specific for her tumor’s molecular signature and may have long-term decreased peripheral vision on the right side. But she remains upbeat and unfazed. “I have adapted to my vision deficit. I no longer need speech therapy and will cut back on OT soon,” she says. “And, I am so lucky, the hospital is near my home so I get to practice walking on my way to PT.”

Shannon with Prince Allah, parking attendant

Shannon is grateful to another special Mount Sinai staff member: On her walks back home along Fifth Avenue after therapy, she says she had to be hyper-focused to avoid falling. “I could not really pay attention to my surroundings or people.” But one day, she heard someone say to her: “Oh, progress.” The voice was that of Prince Allah, a parking attendant at 1176 Fifth Avenue. Shannon introduced herself, and thanked Prince for his interest and support. Prince says he had seen Shannon walk by for months, first on crutches, and then on her own, and noted how she worked at her gait, but still had her smile.

“I could not hold back, I had to tell her she was so impressive,” he says. “And when she came up and introduced herself, it made my day.” Mount Sinai is his first hospital work experience. “I love working at The Mount Sinai Hospital,” he says, “helping people in any way I can.”

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Mount Sinai West Obstetrics Team Gives Patient the Wedding of Her Dreams

Updated on Oct 13, 2023 | Nursing, Stories of Excellence

Kehana Bonagura, patient, center, at her wedding organized by the Mount Sinai West antepartum team at the hospital chapel.

Kehana Bonagura had planned to combine her baby shower with a surprise wedding in late September 2023, about a month before her planned delivery date. However, a week before the event, Kehana was diagnosed with vasa previa, a rare pregnancy complication that can cause a fetus to lose a significant amount of blood. As a result, Kehana would need to stay at Mount Sinai West until giving birth so she could be closely monitored. She and her fiancé were devastated and hoped it would be possible, at the very least, to have a bedside wedding.

The Mount Sinai West 11A antepartum team wanted to do something more, specifically, plan a wedding for the couple in the hospital chapel. Niesha Canselo, Nurse Manager of 11A, knew this might be a challenge due to logistics and the patient’s condition, but she was determined to make it happen if at all possible. Once she received the go-ahead from senior leadership, she enlisted her team to give Kehana a magazine-worthy ceremony and reception. Niesha is humble when talking about her role in coordinating the details. “My team rose to the occasion,” she says. “We all came together knowing how much this celebration would mean to Kehana and her fiancé.”

Friends, family, and staff walked into a transformed chapel. A wedding aisle was covered with rose petals, leading to a flowered canopy for the ceremony. The staff wrote a special wedding song and set a beautiful dinner table for two in her room, complete with sparkling apple cider and wedding cake. Guests received personalized chocolate favors, and a keepsake photo for the couple was signed by the 11A staff.

Kehana called her wedding day, September 23, “the most magical day of my life.” She says that many of her family members described it as the most intimate and special wedding they had ever been to. “I cannot thank Niesha and everyone else who contributed to our special day enough,” she says.

But Kehana’s thanks go beyond the special wedding. She delivered a healthy baby girl on September 28. “The care I received for the past two weeks has helped me remain positive during a challenging time. I can’t wait to tell my daughter the story of how the nurses and doctors at Mount Sinai not only made sure she arrived safely into the world, but also gave her mommy and daddy the wedding of their dreams. Thank you, Mount Sinai! You are all now forever a part of our growing family.”

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