From left: Anne Ehrenkranz, Brendan Carr, MD, MA, MS, and Kimberly Glassman, PhD, RN, FAAN
A joyful celebration of the 120th anniversary of the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing took place on Wednesday, October 9.
The event, held at the school campus in East Harlem, was attended by senior leaders from Mount Sinai, including Brendan Carr, MD, MA, MS, Chief Executive Officer and Professor and Kenneth L. Davis, MD, Distinguished Chair, Mount Sinai Health System; Dennis Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System; David Reich, MD, Chief Clinical Officer, Mount Sinai Health System, and President, The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Queens; and Beth Oliver DNP, RN, FAAN, Chief Nurse Executive, Senior Vice President, Cardiac Services, Mount Sinai Health System. Also in attendance were faculty and alumni and several students who provided tours to the guests, highlighting classrooms, study areas, and a state-of-the-art clinical simulation center.
Kimberly Glassman, PhD, RN, FAAN, Dean, Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing, spoke eloquently about what makes the school so special.
“The Phillips School of Nursing can take enormous pride in its 120-year commitment to proactively responding to society’s urgent need for caring, knowledgeable, and skilled nursing professionals from all walks of life; to using and developing evidence-based research as the foundation for contemporary education and clinical practice; and to its leadership in nursing education,” she said. “Students graduate from our program ready to practice and willing to serve.”
Dr. Glassman added, “We are the only hospital-based nursing program in New York State that grants a bachelor’s degree. That is a very unique and important distinction. Unlike most nursing schools, which are embedded within colleges and universities, we have an integral connection as the academic partner to the entirety of the Mount Sinai Health System. This natural tie-in provides direct access to the vast resources across the Health System—all of the hospitals, all of the hundreds of community-based ambulatory clinics, all of which provide a rich, invaluable, real-world learning environment for every one of our students.”
Dr. Glassman noted the importance of the school’s location. “Because we are situated in East Harlem, a community that needs nurses, our nursing students have the chance to gain experience and practice in an underserved community, paying forward an opportunity to address persistent inequities in health care,” she said.
Dr. Glassman spoke about an exciting future for the school. “We have been approved to offer graduate programs, which means we not only will confer bachelor’s degrees, but also an opportunity for those alums to return to pursue a master’s degree as advanced practice nurses or nurse practitioners.”
The 75 guests in attendance watched a video that featured faculty, students and alumni and reflected the unique attributes noted by Dr. Glassman. A second video, featuring Janet Green, Chair of the Board and great great granddaughter of its founder, provided a brief history of the school with archival photos.
