NEW YORK NURSE: May 2009
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurses at the Jack D. Weiler Hospital of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx were honored as runners-up in Advance for Nursing magazine’s 2009 Best Nursing Team Challenge in the “Teamwork” category. Every member of the large team received acknowledgment for providing the best possible care to infants and their families. They were recognized by the judges for sharing knowledge through comprehensive in-house continuing education programs, off-site conferences, weekly staff meetings, nursing committee meetings, and interdisciplinary rounds.
Team member Meril Schulman said, “There’s an extraordinary level of professional collaboration in our NICU. No nurse ever feels alone.” The nurses even teamed together to create the “Covered with Love” program, in which they knit and crochet blankets for babies in NICU and at home. The unit’s high retention rate reinforces teamwork — turnover has been less than 1% over the past five years. “As we work together, we constantly find innovative and resourceful ways to meet the challenges of patient and family care needs, while evolving and expanding our nursing role to be the best nursing team we can be,” Schulman said.