Helping our new hires get ready for their Northwell career journey
At Northwell Health, we strive to provide the best experience for our incoming team members to ensure they are fully prepared to start and experience a career well cared for.
Our pre-boarding and onboarding teams in the Talent Acquisition Department support our new hires from the moment they accept a job offer through their first day. They aim to provide a smooth transition from candidate to team member with guidance along the way.
Steps these teams help our future team members complete include:
- Health and pre-hire appointments for medical clearance and required onboarding paperwork
- A visit to security and human resources for certain requirements and an ID badge, as well as other verification processes
- Preparing for our Beginnings orientation to help our newest team members be set up for success in their new career with us.
There is a great deal of coordination to ensure everyone is ready to begin in their new role at the right time.
Meet some of our amazing team members from our pre-boarding and onboarding teams :
Deziree Brandi, Supervisor, Talent Acquisition
Deziree has grown into her career at Northwell since starting as an admin support associate with FlexStaff in 2018. As a supervisor for talent acquisition in Human Resources, she supports the talent acquisition onboarding team by providing guidance for various projects and processes, ensuring that start dates are met, and helping to integrate new technology. “I always love working hand-in-hand with the candidates to provide them with the support and understanding of what is needed to start their new positions and future with Northwell,” says Deziree.
Deziree has also been able to grow her career at Northwell. “My previous and current managers have supported my growth by providing me with the tools and guidance to take on stretch assignments, develop professionally, and to build my confidence so I was ready to move into the next stage of my career,” says Deziree.
Aaron Weeks, Associate Talent Acquisition Program Manager
As a talent acquisition associate program manager for the Advanced Clinical Practice (ACP) team, Aaron helps facilitate a smooth and efficient onboarding experience for new ACP hires by partnering with medical staff services, hiring managers, and organizational leadership. “Interacting with the new hires is my favorite part,” says Aaron “I’m passionate about the customer service I provide, and I love making a difference in someone’s life no matter how big or small.”
Aaron has also grown his career here at Northwell. “Northwell has been impactful to my growth and development in many ways,” says Aaron. “My colleagues and leaders played the biggest role in my growth and development because they challenge me to be my best daily.”
Jeniece Devita, Talent Acquisition Representative
As a talent acquisition representative, Jeniece’s role is ensuring new hires are prepared for their appointments and verifying work experience, education, and credentials. Once the new hires have completed all of their requirements, she ensures they are set up for Beginnings, which is our new hire orientation, site orientation and any additional trainings required for her new team member journey. “There are many things I enjoy about working in onboarding,” says Jeniece. “I’m someone who likes to understand how what I’m doing fits into the bigger picture. It’s one of the things I find rewarding in my role. I can see how the work we do as HR professionals enables employees and the overall organization to reach their objectives.”
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Recognizing our skilled nursing facility team members
As National Skilled Nursing Care Week is approaching, Northwell Health would like to recognize the dedicated and compassionate care of our skilled nursing care facilities. Our skilled nurses and certified nurse assistants provide the highest quality care to patients requiring both long-term and short-term care.
Meet some of our team members from the Orzac Center for Rehabilitation:
Alice Caressimo, Registered Nurse
As a registered nurse, Alice’s role is to educate her patients and their families about her patient’s health and help discuss their plan of care. “My work experience with Orzac has been very rewarding,” says Alice. “The compassion and support from the nursing managers and nursing staff I feel is what makes us a great team and contributes to the excellent care we strive to provide.”
Courtney Caldero, Registered Nurse
Working as a registered nurse at Orzac, Courtney not only takes care of rehab patients but she is also a long-term care and hospice nurse. Her daily responsibilities involve wound care, pain management, patient and family advocacy, safe medication administration, and patient safety. She is a proud nurse who loves her job and finds it very rewarding. “You are more than just a nurse,” says Courtney. “You are your patient’s and their family’s sense of comfort–their educator and ears. The profession is not easy by any means but being able to assist and support people through what is the most difficult time of their life is what’s beyond rewarding.”
Nina Bianco, Registered Nurse
As a registered nurse, Nina believes her patient’s physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing is priority. She performs an age-specific plan of care based on the individual needs of each patient. Within her first year working as a new nurse during a global pandemic, Nina was supported by her team through every step. “Working together as a team and effective communication are the essentials for providing quality health care and safety.”
Donna Douglas, Certified Nurse Assistant
As a certified nurse assistant, Donna’s role is to provide the patient with the most dignifying care, and assist with their Activities of Daily Living to help them feel strong and confident enough to return to their community. “Working in my facility is extremely rewarding because I gain new perspective on aging. I also get an opportunity to interact with patients daily during a difficult time in their lives when they are away from their family and in a new environment,” says Donna. “I try my best every day to make this tough experience as easy and rewarding for the patient as I can.”
Andrea McDonald, Certified Nurse Assistant
Working as a certified nurse assistant, Andrea provides compassionate care to her patients. Her responsibilities include direct patient care and putting a smile on their face! Her favorite thing about her job is her team who go the extra mile for their patients. “I find working at my facility rewarding because my team is pleasant and competent and I have professional, caring managers,” says Donna.
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Get to know our team members behind the scenes during Medical Laboratory Professionals Week
This week Northwell Health is celebrating Medical Laboratory Professionals Week! Our Medical Laboratory professionals play a vital role within our organization by providing crucial information for detecting, diagnosing, treating, and monitoring a patient’s disease. They are our healthcare heroes behind the scenes!
Meet some of our team members:
Ryan Brenkret, Lead Cytology Technologist, Anatomic Pathology Services, Division of Cytology
Working as a lead cytology technologist, Ryan’s primary role is to screen and diagnose cytology cases using a light microscope to look mainly for cancer, infectious diseases, as well as other inflammatory conditions which people may suffer from. “My favorite thing about my career is trying to figure out what the patient has and provide a quality diagnosis, says Ryan. “We as cytologists really have the power to help the patients by providing accurate diagnoses or also by detecting a patient’s cancer in the early stage. Then they can receive the proper, life-saving treatments.”
Daisey Williams, Pathology Histology Technician, Staten Island University Hospital North
As a histology technician Daisey plays a crucial role in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, by turning tissue samples into microscopic slides. Leadership has been a constant role model and support system for Daisey where she can voice her opinions and ideas. “My favorite part of this field is knowing that my work can provide our patients with a diagnosis and aide in their treatment and their next steps to recovery,” says Daisey.
Sean Houston, Clinical Lab Technologist, Automated Lab
As a lab technologist, Sean is responsible for running general immunoassay chemistry and drugs of abuse testing on the state-of-the-art, automated Roche line. Sean is within his first year at Northwell and he is looking forward to continuous growth within the organization and laboratory field. His favorite thing about working as a lab technologist? “I enjoy working alongside my diverse and well-skilled team!”
Christina Mikell, Medical Laboratory Technologist, Histology, Plainview Hospital
In Christina’s role, she aides in the processing of surgical tissue specimens. This is where they would chemically preserve the tissue so that they can then embed, cut, and stain representative sections on microscope slides. Within her role, she also performs specialty stains on slides that can help identify certain diseases and/or infections. As a new graduate, Christina has learned many skills within the pathology lab that will help her grow in her career. “My favorite thing about working as a lab tech in the histology department is the hands-on creative work that we get to perform every day,” says Christina. “I am able to take my technical knowledge and create something that can really be seen as beautiful.”
Michael Desimone, Histology Pathology Assistant, North Shore University Hospital
Working as a pathologist assistant, Michael partakes in high-quality patient care primarily through macroscopic evaluation, examination, and dissection of all surgical pathological specimens that come through the lab. Apart of being a pathologist assistant, Michael has enjoyed growing as an educator for pathology residents, pathologist assistant students, and medical technologist students. “We’re able to bring a pathologic process that a student once learned in a classroom and connect it with a real-life patient and specimen, with real implications for care,” says Michael. “I take a particular pride in teaching students and residents important details in macroscopic examination that make a large difference for cancer staging.”
Alexa Duque, Anatomical, Pathology Assistant, Lenox Hill Hospital
As a pathologist assistant, Alexa facilitates the diagnostic process by providing a comprehensive macroscopic examination and evaluation of all surgical pathological specimens. Alexa started her Northwell career journey two years ago and has grown into her role by supporting the lab in different areas. One example includes assisting her supervisor with process improvements which allowed her to gain new skills and insight. “I love that it is primarily hands on and that I get to appreciate the fascinating anatomy of the human body while being able to help patients behind the scenes,” says Alexa.
Roby P. Raju, Supervisor, Clinical Laboratory Operations, Center for Advanced Medicine
As a supervisor in his role, Roby oversees the day-to-day laboratory operations for his team. He ensures the laboratory maintains and follows compliance standards and regulations set by both accrediting and government agencies. “My favorite thing about being a laboratory technologist is that I am proud of the results we provide to the physicians and nurses from our laboratory,” says Roby.
Became a Health Raiser and discover a career well cared for, explore clinical laboratory careers. Apply today!
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South Shore University Hospital to open new operating rooms in new Women’s Health Pavilion
Working in an operating room means being on the forefront of innovation and technology to deliver exceptional care to patients in their most vulnerable times. That’s why South Shore University Hospital (SSUH) is expanding its operating rooms and opening new areas, such as a Women’s Health Pavilion, to support patients before, during and after their surgery. It’s an exciting time to join their OR team and take advantage of new opportunities for registered nurses and surgical technologists with OR or OB/GYN experience.
With the opening of the Women’s Health Pavilion comes two new operating rooms at SSUH that will host all our OB/GYN surgeries, including robotic surgery and women’s health related surgeries such as breast surgery and plastic reconstructions. These services are supplementing the already exceptional surgical care our OR team delivers in bariatric surgery, colorectal surgery, surgical oncology and more.
The constant innovation of our surgical services also means continued growth for the OR team members at SSUH. Team members have the opportunity to take advantage of career resources from Northwell Health, such as training at our Center for Learning & Innovation or tuition reimbursement for those looking to expand their education. With support from Northwell, our OR team has the potential to do amazing things, and Nicholl Gonzalez, manager of patient care in the operating room at SSUH, is a shining example of what’s possible at Northwell.
Nicholl started her career as a certified surgical technologist at LIJ Valley Stream before becoming a registered nurse and entering our Perioperative Nurse Fellowship Program. “Northwell Health gave me the best opportunity by accepting me into the Perioperative Fellowship Program,” says Nicholl. “Even though I worked in the OR as a surgical tech prior to becoming a registered nurse, my fellowship gave me the confidence I needed as a new grad. I also love the team I work with at South Shore. The entire perioperative team always take care of each other and really know the true meaning of teamwork”
From there, Nicholl’s OR career continued to grow, being promoted to nurse manager at SSUH where she is leading the operating room team through this exciting expansion.
In addition to operating rooms, the brand-new Women’s Health Pavilion will include a new lobby entrance into our Labor & Delivery unit, new labor and postpartum rooms, and a state-of-the-art NICU.
Take a look at what these exciting new areas will look like at SSUH:
Discover a career well cared for in an organization committed to the growth and innovation of our team members and facilities. Apply to South Shore University Hospital’s OR team today!
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Students explore health care careers virtually at the 2021 Spark! Challenge
Northwell Health’s Spark! Challenge: Healthcare Heroes, COVID Edition, has offered high school students an inside glimpse into health care careers each year since 2014 and this year was no different — except it was held virtually. The 2021 Spark! Challenge: Healthcare Heroes, COVID Edition, had 1,500 students from 48 schools across the tri-state area participate. The students interacted directly with Northwell team members for online educational career exploration sessions before attending a live virtual awards ceremony on April 15.
Students had the opportunity to participate in engaging, online educational sessions for 20 different healthcare career fields. One educational session, which profiled a career in Family Medicine, had students follow along with three case studies, taking patient vitals online and gaining an understanding of what goes into a strep test, as well as a COVID test. Some departments showed the proper way to put on and take off PPE.
And while fully transitioning this student event to be online, the Workforce Readiness team that hosts the Spark! Challenge saw an opportunity to make it even more impactful for students. “This year has been completely reinvented,” says Kathryn Graves, talent acquisition project manager on the Workforce Readiness team. “The word we used when planning for this year was flexibility. Whereas in the past students were limited to the one field trip they were matched to, this year students had 20 healthcare fields to choose from and learned about more than five careers each on average.”
After learning about these clinical and non-clinical professions, students chose one role to highlight, creating a poster and/or a video to celebrate the career, as well as to display what they’ve learned. Projects were then reviewed by Northwell judges and the winners were awarded a prize during the virtual awards ceremony.
During the virtual ceremony, students were able to view welcome messages from Northwell’s executive leadership, view and vote for their peers’ videos and posters, and attend a careers exhibit. This exhibit allowed students to learn about areas such as family medicine, the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, surgical careers, the Institute for Nursing, and Northwell’s Center for Learning and Innovation. Students even had the opportunity to meet our therapy dog Hazel over video.
After a full morning of interactive events, it was time for the highlight of the day: announcing the winners! Congratulations to the winners below and be sure to check out their amazing posters from this year’s event.
2021 Spark! Challenge Winners:
- Overall Poster Award – First Place: Valley Stream North High School
- Overall Poster Award – Second Place: John Bowne High School
- Overall Poster Award – Third Place: Hampton Bays High School
- Overall Video Award – First Place: Baldwin High School
- Overall Video Award – Second Place: Valley Stream North High School
- Overall Video Award – Third Place: William Floyd High School
- Overall Video Award – Honorable Mention: Sacred Heart Academy
- Rookie Award: East Rockaway High School
- Behind the Scene Heroes – Poster Award: Thomas A. Edison CTE High School
- Clinical & Non-Clinical Professional Heroes – Poster Award: Baldwin High School
- Frontline Heroes – NP, PA, & Family Medicine – Poster Award: Lindenhurst Sr. High School
- Frontline Heroes – Emergency Medicine – Poster Award: Thomas A. Edison CTE High School
- Employee/Facebook Favorite: Herricks High School & Kellenberg High School
- Student Favorite: Video: Tottenville High School & Poster: Lindenhurst High School
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