Before a celebratory audience of colleagues, family, and friends, 19 Mount Sinai nurses were recognized as standard-bearers of compassion, innovation, and education at The Mount Sinai Boards of Trustees 32nd Annual Awards for Excellence in Nursing Practice on Wednesday, May 1, in Stern Auditorium.
“Forty-one nurses were nominated for these awards, and I consider every one of them a winner, as well,” said Carol Porter, DNP, RN, FAAN, The Edgar M. Cullman, Sr. Chair of the Department of Nursing, Chief Nursing Officer, and Associate Dean of Nursing and Research.
David Reich, MD, the Horace W. Goldsmith Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology, and Interim President and Chief Operating Officer, The Mount Sinai Hospital, congratulated honorees: “This is a superb Nursing Department, one of the best in the city, the state, the country, and the world. You are the face of Mount Sinai, the champions for patient safety and satisfaction.”
Participating in the ceremony were two members of the Boards of Trustees: Susan R. Cullman and Patricia S. Levinson, who is the Department of Nursing representative on the Board’s Patient Care and Quality Assurance Committee. Ms. Cullman and her brother, Edgar M. Cullman, Jr., represent similar interests and concerns of their father, the late Edgar M. Cullman, Sr., who served on the Boards of Trustees for more than 50 years, and was a long-time supporter of excellence in nursing and patient care at Mount Sinai.
Agnieszka Mieczkowska, BSN, RN, was recognized with the overall Department of Nursing Clinical Excellence Award for the extraordinary care she provides patients in the departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery. The 18 other recipients were: Mercedita Abadies, BSN, RN, CCRN, Mount Sinai Queens; Rubita Concepcion, BSN, RN; Melody Cubas, BSN, RN; Dianne Delapenha, BSN, RN; Jennifer Galluzzo, BSN, RN, CCRN; Margaret Grogan, MPA, BSN, RN; Kathy Hoffstadter-Thal, CPNP, MSCR, RN; Carolina Y. Lopez, BSN, RN, CPAN, the Pat Liang Post-Anesthesia Care Unit Nursing Practice Award; Stefania Mancia, MSN, RN, OCN; Leah McLaughlin, BSN, RN; Morgan Meinel, BSN, RN; Cynthia Mendez, BSN, RN; Victor Murgolo, BSN, RN, CCRN; Elsa Nieves, BSN, RN, BC; Marilyn Pomposo, BSN, RN, the Mary Mendes Award; Jena Simon, MS, FNP-BC, RN-BC; Jamie Theriault, BSN, RN, OCN; and Francelia Thomas, BSN, RN, Mount Sinai Queens.
