May 6, 2021
St. Mary’s Celebrates Nurses Week!
During Nurses Week at St. Mary’s Healthcare System for Children, we are highlighting the nurses who are members of the following teams:
- Informatics Team
- Admissions Team
- MDS Team
- Discharge Team
- Nursing Administration Team
- Floor 3 Children Unit
- Float Team
Informatics Team
Our Informatics Team nurses – Janet Fellini and Nancy Day – have been with St. Mary’s for more than five years and have worked tirelessly to implement the Patient Touch Application using the Patient Safe Solution. This platform is being used by all of our nursing and ancillary departments as a means of communicating by either text or phone. All the alarms or alerts from our patient monitoring systems and lab results are transmitted to a shared iPhone device. Janet and Nancy partnered with the St. Mary’s MIS Department to ensure the program was successfully implemented to more than 500 in-patient employees at St. Mary’s.
Admissions Team
Our Admissions Team nurses – Joanne Bodden, Lori Freudman, Linda Marin, and Nanette Costello – have been with St. Mary’s for more than twenty years. With their guidance and support, they continually ensure that each incoming resident is admitted to the appropriate skilled bed, while maintaining census. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged them with the addition of 5 surge beds, which this team remarkably continues to keep full. Our Admissions Team is the front facing team of St. Mary’s. They support nearby Intensive Care Units in their discharges to St. Mary’s, and they receive referrals and expand our network to reach even more children and their families greatly in need of St. Mary’s services.
MDS Team
Our MDS Team nurses – Rita Gorman and Debbie Ariola Weiner – have been with St. Mary’s for more than twenty-five years. They are responsible, especially now with the newly added surge beds, for keeping St. Mary’s compliant with our regulatory submissions or resident assessments.
Discharge Team
Dina Spierer, is the Clinical Care Coordinator, or Discharge Nurse Planner, and coordinates St. Mary’s Hospital for Children Parent Education Program to prepare families and residents for discharge. She ensures continuity of care and a safe transition following discharge into the community or to another facility. Dina initiates and manages all clinical aspects of transition care to ensure the health and safety of residents. She works in partnership with medical staff to ensure appropriate and necessary documentation for transition to the community and coordinates appropriate home care services to meet the resident’s needs once in the community including ensuring all needed durable medical equipment is in the home as well as collaborating with St. Mary’s community programs to ensure a smooth transition to the community.
The St. Mary’s Hospital for Children Parent Education Program Team consists of ten Registered Nurses who have more than 15 years of experience together and commit to assisting with training and education during their free time. The nurses educate caregivers on all skilled needs of their child to successfully transition their child from an inpatient setting to the community. Initial trainings take place in the Nursing Skills Lab and when possible multiple families/groups are able to train together which provides additional camaraderie and educational opportunities. Dina Spierer works as the Parent Education Coordinator and our Parent Education Program Team is composed of the following nurses:
Jennifer Stevenson
Thu Nguyen
Robin Garcia
Julian Matthew
Angela Fitzpatrick
Keila Figueroa
Alex Mirasol
Huiwen Wang
Lekha Persaud-France
Nursing Administration Team
Our Nursing Administration Team is composed of Assistant Directors of Nursing (Eileen, Sharon, Benedetta, Heather and Michelle, pictured above), the Staffing and Payroll Coordinator (Jenn Allen), Nursing Supervisors (Penny, Riley, KC, Casey, Sherley, Vicky, Abby and Carlene), and the Nurse Educator (Sharon Dejoya). This dream team is responsible for round-the-clock operations of the hospital, which includes safe staffing and oversight of our skilled nursing care. Each team member has been with St. Mary’s in various positions for more than ten years.
Sheena Coley, RN
Sheena Coley, RN, has been with St. Mary’s for more than nine years. She began as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), then became a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). While working as an LPN in St. Mary’s homecare program and as an inpatient CNA, Sheena attended nursing school and became a Registered Nurse in 2018. She is a member of the Toddler nursing team while she is attending school for her Bachelors in Nursing (BSN).
Sheena is knowledgeable and professional and provides excellent care to all of the children in her unit. She stands out as kind and compassionate, caring for our children as if they are her own. As a parent, Sheena ensures that parents’ concerns are addressed. This became particularly evident when parents were unable to visit during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She understood the parents’ anxiety and made it a point to communicate with them and update them about their children.
Ancy Thomas, RN
Ancy Thomas, RN, has been with St. Mary’s for twelve years. She is one of the most senior nurses and works the night shift on 3CU. She is a preceptor, charge nurse, clinical resource, and has performed at all capacities and in all clinical situations. She is also a mentor for our new nurses on the night shift and serves as a lead for Patient Advocacy. Her compassion has been instrumental when caring for dying patients, ensuring that all details surrounding the patient’s peaceful dying plan are taken into consideration.
Kiera Fitzpatrick, RN
Kiera Fitzpatrick, RN, is a member of St. Mary’s Float Team. Her clinical assessment skills help her to establish an accurate clinical and situational awareness in each of the units she is floated to. She is exceptional in communicating with patients and their families and has shown calm and focus in emergent situations.
Kiera is a recipient of the “High 5” program. When caring for a dying patient in one of the units, she took into consideration the details that surrounded the patient’s peaceful dying plan. She included the relevant disciplines in order to facilitate the process with peace, respecting both the child and their family.
