Meet our Truly Compassionate NP Sharon Hasfal
This post is part of a blog series highlighting Northwell Health’s Advanced Clinical Providers (ACP). Each Northwell Health employee was nominated by their manager as an individual that exemplifies a central Northwell Health value. This month, we’re proud to introduce you to Sharon Hasfal DNP, ANP-BC., who is a “Truly Compassionate” member of our team. Here’s why:
It’s hard to find an Advanced Clinical Provider who provides more Truly Compassionate care than Sharon Hasfal. Sharon is a nurse practitioner (NP) in the medicine service line, where she plans and participates in many of the team building/engagement activities that help keep our team working well, together. But Sharon’s compassion goes way beyond the call of duty, and she does so with a humbling grace that shows, no matter the challenge, she’s Made for this.
Sharon was born to be an NP. Blessed with, as she claims, “the gift of gab,” she uses her skill to speak with her patients and takes time to let them know what their plan of care is for the day. She remembers a dedication that struck a chord in her career early on, “a colleague of mine on 3 DSU instilled into her nurses the importance of sitting with your patients and taking the time to speak with them and help them understand what is going on.” This lesson stuck with Sharon.
On her most rewarding day at Northwell Health, she joined the senior case manager and social worker of her hospital and medicine hospitalists to work with patients with an excessive length of stay. As a team, they took the time to speak with patients and their families to learn the ins and outs of what was affecting the patients’ hospitalizations. “I felt I was effective in helping patients make very difficult decisions like advanced directives or arrangements for a safe discharge to home. Good teamwork makes a big difference in providing good care for our patients and working with this team was great.” Speaking of volunteering, Sharon co-chairs every nurse practitioner event that takes place in her hospital. The planning is done on her own time and she usually comes in on her day off to allow herself to fully focus on the success of the celebration. Sharon says, “I enjoy being a nurse practitioner. I believe if you do not enjoy what you are doing you will not be able to be an advocate for your patients and their families.” Her goal is to celebrate nurse practitioners and ensure they have a fun, memorable time- and it’s definitely been accomplished! She’s organized a Hawaiian Luau, a Carnival, a Tea Party, a Beach Party, a Mardi Gras and many more! And that’s just her own hospital. Sharon also serves as the chairperson for the Nurse Practitioner Association of Long Island (NPALI) annual conference, a volunteer position where she organizes a full day educational conference for nurse practitioners throughout Long Island!
Sharon’s compassion is shown in how she cares for people in her workplace, in her community, and in the world. She volunteers for medical missions in underserved countries, using her vacation time and her own money to travel to the needed destination. She does not want or expect anything in return. Her reward is the knowledge that she was able to make a difference in someone’s life. It’s a job she loves. It’s a career she’s Made for. “As an NP I will continue to be true to my patients, their families, along with my peers,” said Sharon. “I will continue to keep my patients informed while they are in the hospital; take the opportunity to educate patients, their families and my colleagues both inpatient and outpatient; and my missionary work. It’s how I can make a difference as an NP.”
Are you Made for working with exceptional Advanced Clinical Providers like Sharon?
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Meet our Truly Innovative Physician Assistant Melissa Moscola!
This post is part of a blog series highlighting Northwell Health’s Advanced Clinical Providers (ACP). Each Northwell Health employee was nominated by their manager as an individual that exemplifies a central Northwell Health value. This month, we’re proud to introduce you to Melissa Moscola, PA-C, MA., who is a “Truly Innovative” member of our team. Here’s why:
Melissa is a Truly Innovative PA at Northwell Health. As a practicing PA in various capacities, Melissa was working for a private practice providing critical care coverage. But she felt she could do more for patients and families. When the Follow Your Heart program, a support service for patients and families, was revamped and developed in partnership with CT surgery and Health Solutions, she jumped at the chance to become part of this innovative medical endeavor. As the program approaches its second anniversary, let’s learn how Melissa found the position she’s Made for.
Melissa has spent most of her career working in critical care areas. This experience showed her the importance of support services, “when these patients survive and recover enough to be discharged from the hospital, their needs don’t disappear, they change.” That change means families and patients will need more support than ever. The Follow Your Heart program bridges the gap between the hospital and the patient’s home and helps ease the transition by providing increased access to care, medication optimization, and home visits.
In her position, Melissa is “able to develop relationships with both patients and providers based on trust, which becomes particularly important when dealing with the most vulnerable patients.” And she can build those relationships without sacrificing growing her own. Melissa enjoys the flexibility she’s found in her profession, a flexibility that has enabled her to get her master’s degree, get married and have children.
Throughout her career, Melissa has embraced innovation. The technology available today allows her team to perform virtual visits to patients at acute rehab at Glen Cove. Melissa notes, “the field of medicine is always changing and I am so happy to be an integral part of the change.”
The Follow Your Heart Program was a finalist for this year’s President’s Award where the program and team were recognized for their Truly Innovative work. Melissa recognizes how teamwork got her here, “we are a truly cohesive team that works well together for the good of the patients.”
Are you Made for working with exceptional Advanced Clinical Providers like Melissa?
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Photo: Northwell Health supervising nurse practitioner Sheila Davies (pictured center) with her Follow Your Heart team members. Deciding to transition from a registered nurse (RN) to a nurse practitioner (NP) is a big decision. The commitment to obtain the additional education and training for this prestigious designation is significant. And while it may not be for every nursing professional, those who take the step to become an NP gain many new opportunities. For Sheila Davies, a Northwell Health supervising nurse practitioner, the decision to become a nurse practitioner was made early in her nursing career. She started her career with Northwell as a surgical intensive care trauma nurse but wanted to continue her education after receiving her bachelor’s degree. “I knew I wanted more,” says Sheila. “Health care is continuously changing, and I realized that becoming an NP would open up more doors for me and better prepare me for those ongoing changes.” She enrolled in day classes at Stony Brook University while continuing to work nights at North Shore University Hospital (NSUH). She completed the NP master’s degree program in two years and immediately accepted a position in NSUH’s open heart intensive care unit. Like Sheila, Peggy McCormack also launched her healthcare career as a registered nurse. With an associate degree from Nassau Community College, Peggy continued to work full time while attending Columbia University for a dual BSN/MSN degree, and graduated as an adult NP. At the time of graduation, Peggy already was working on NSUH’s cardiothoracic service team, which was expanding. She interviewed for one of the open positions and was hired as a NP on the post operative cardiac surgery floor. For both Sheila and Peggy, mentors were very important to their career development, helping to orient them in their new roles. They knew that surrounding themselves with skilled and experienced professionals would help them achieve their own successes. “It was hard work but exciting, challenging and rewarding,” says Peggy. “I was fortunate to work with a team of dynamic practitioners who were clinically outstanding, took pride in the care they provided, had strong work ethics, and on top of all that, they were funny.” For Sheila and Peggy, their focus on education didn’t stop after they became NPs. Sheila continued her education by earning a doctorate in nursing practice. This has enabled her on her path of becoming a change agent in healthcare. She currently leads the Follow Your Heart team who were finalists for the 2018 President’s Award for Teamwork. The program is one of a kind and provides essential follow-up visits for cardiac surgery patients at their home or post-acute care location. Peggy’s pursuit for personal and professional growth led her to obtain a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Hofstra University with a subspecialty in quality management. The program helped her gain greater insights into the business side of health care. With her additional education, Peggy became a clinical liaison, helping with improvement projects. She advanced to the role of supervisor of medicine advanced clinical providers and helped to develop a structured orientation program for new hires at NSUH, which has resulted in improved employee engagement, recruitment and retention rates. For both employees, the support that Northwell provided was pivotal to their success.
Making a shift in your nursing career: How to become a nurse practitioner
Ongoing education
“I was given the flexibility I needed to pursue further education and achieve in my career,” says Sheila. “I’ve been able to constantly improve my skills and knowledge.”
Interested in joining our team of nurse practitioners? Explore our open positions.
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Meet our Truly Ambitious Pediatric NP Andrea Orbon
This post is part of a blog series highlighting Northwell Health’s ACPs – Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants. Each Northwell Health employee was nominated by their manager as an individual that exemplifies one of Northwell Health’s values. This month, we’re proud to introduce you to Andrea Orbon, who is a Truly Ambitious Nurse Practitioner. Hear her story.
Andrea Orbon CPNP has always considered herself a very ambitious person. After being a pediatric nurse, she pushed herself to become a nurse practitioner (NP) so she could do even more for her patients and their families. “As an NP, I’m here not only for the patient, but for their parents as well. I’m not only the diagnostician, but I’m their friend. I’m here to listen.”
Since starting her career with Northwell Health in 2014, Andrea has maintained valuable connections with her patients and their families as they’ve grown, even caring for her former patient’s children. Andrea empathizes with her young patients and their families. Her commitment to her work is inspiring. “It takes dedication to your profession, regardless of your position, to ensure you are still there for your patients. What’s nice about our practice is your patients become part of your family,” she says.
Though she’s been in the field for years, Andrea continues to push for new ways to connect with her patients. She’s helped orchestrate visits with local offices to develop a personal connection with doctors. This opens direct lines of communication, builds relationships with other doctors and, eventually, leads to referrals. Andrea goes above and beyond when building relationships with doctors and patients, and she frequently visits the hospital nursery during her rounds, on weekends, and on her days off to provide care to newborns and their parents before they officially become her patients. Andrea says, “I’m proud of this office because most pediatricians don’t take the time to go to the nursery, but we take efforts to be there at that first moment to deliver continuity of care.”
Andrea feels that the way she makes a difference as an NP is to fight for services that children need today. These services include early intervention, anxiety management, and working with schools and psychologists that serve as the liaison between behavioral and psychological care. “As an NP, we do more because we are the connecting piece between all the care delivered. We’re nurses first, and then NPs. We’re there for the patient and the family, which helps us treat the whole picture and not just the specific case. Continuing our personalized care and taking the extra step or making the extra call that’s needed to provide the patient with what they need, especially with kids who need early intervention or have school issues, makes a big difference in their daily lives.”
Being Truly Ambitious inside a large health system means going beyond delivering quality care. It means focus on personalized care that’s more than a quick check-up, and it’s dedicated service that accounts for patients’ whole selves, now and in the future. Andrea’s work is the definition of Truly Ambitious, and we are proud to call her a member of our Northwell Health family.
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An Appointment With: Dr. Lewis Teperman and Northwell’s New Liver Transplant Program
Being Truly Innovative is in our blood at Northwell Health, and Dr. Teperman is leading the way in our liver transplant services at North Shore University Hospital. From the start of his Northwell career in 2016, Lewis Teperman, MD, FACS, was helping to lay the foundation for Long Island’s first adult liver transplant program. Housed at NSUH, this program will provide convenient care not only for NSUH’s liver patients but to all patients with liver disease who are currently commuting into Manhattan throughout their long liver transplant process. We sat down with Dr. Teperman in this edition of Appointment With…. to learn more about his career and the new liver transplant program.
What is your career history and why did you decide to continue your career with Northwell Health?
I have been involved in transplant for my entire professional life. While in medical school my roommate’s mother needed a liver transplant and the technology was considered experimental. She was not afforded care and she expired. I have spent the last 35 years of my life helping to make organ transplant access easier for all populations. I was Chief of Transplant at another hospital for the last quarter of a century. It became clear after Hurricane Sandy that their patients were going to remain on Long Island. 45% of the transplant list in the State of New York comes to Northwell’s catchment area so they wanted to start a world class comprehensive Transplant Program. It was a perfect fit for my move.
Can you talk about the new adult liver transplant program being developed at North Shore University Hospital?
Northwell has always needed a Liver Transplant Program and as they say, timing is everything. The state approved our CON application and we have hired world class faculty and support staff. We are building a brand-new state of the art Transplant Intensive Care Unit and intend to open one of the most competitive and innovate programs on the Northeast coast in the first quarter of 2019.
Will this new program offer new career opportunities with Northwell Health?
The foundation of any successful transplant program is Acute Care Practitioners. We are hiring nurses, NPs, PAs, and Social Workers to complement our already outstanding and robust staff. We are looking for SICU registered nurses, inpatient, as well as outpatient, Transplant Coordinators with Transplant and liver experience. We are lucky to have Donna Campbell, NP as our AVP of Transplant who helps supervise our team members. She has been a legend in the Transplant Community and came to Northwell with me from my previous job.
Why should an NPs and PAs be excited to join this program?
We have a culture of innovation, education and warmth. All of our ACPs are afforded the opportunity for a rigorous orientation program and continuous education. New and innovative technologies and care measures are constantly brought to the forefront. The environment is rigorous, collaborative and friendly. They are an integral part of the Transplant Team.
Can you talk about the new state-of-the-art Intensive Care Unit that will be housing the new Adult Transplant Service?
The 8 Tower state-of-the-art transplant ICU is housed at North Shore University Hospital. It has the newest technologies including eICU capability. No expense has been spared, however it is only as good as the outstanding people who work in it.
Getting to North Shore University Hospital and our brand new unit is easy. We are right off the LIE and Northern State Parkway by car and we are easily accessible by train to the Great Neck or Lake Success train stations. From there we offer a free Northwell inter-campus shuttle for our employees. We are also accessible by bus and there’s a stop right at our entrance.
How is this new program helping deliver better care to transplant patients?
The new transplant program relies heavily on coordinators and ACPs. The Transplant Coordinators will be afforded the ability to keep in touch with their patients through our telemedicine initiative. A dedicated outpatient transplant facility was completed in 2017 and houses the transplant clinic.
What’s one fun thing you did this summer?
I held a party for 100 of our employees and their family members in East Marion, NY. The highlight was taking our staff’s kids out on the banana boat!
Join this exciting new transplant team! Explore our open positions here.
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How I became Made for this™
Written by: Laura Wood, MSN, RN, AGNP-C, Palliative Care, Southside Hospital
While all the other girls in my high school were stressed preparing for their sweet 16, I was handling the stress of preparing for an admission to the hospital. To say living with chronic illness isn’t a struggle would be a lie, but you learn how to adapt when you have no other choice. It was around Thanksgiving in 2005 when I was diagnosed with Lupus (SLE) and Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP). Multiple admissions to and from Cohen Children’s Medical Center along with weekly home infusions would cause any 16-year-old to feel angry and hopeless.
The details of my hospital stay are hard to recall but until this day I have never forgotten how the nurses made me feel. The feeling of vulnerability as a patient is difficult to explain until you have personally experienced it. Lonesome, angry, and hopeless; all words to describe the vulnerability overwhelming my emotions.
During my time of despair, I had encountered a nurse who I will never forget. This nurse didn’t know it, but she had changed my life forever. Maybe it was the way she listened to me, made me feel like I wasn’t alone, gave me support, and hope. She made me laugh, made me forget I was sick, and made me remember that despite my situation, I was still a 16-year-old girl who deserved to have fun and celebrate my sweet 16 like every other girl at school.
There was one thing I knew for sure leaving that hospital: I wanted to make others feel how this nurse made me feel during the hardest time in my life. I wanted to be just like her; it was in this moment that I realized my calling: I’m a Nurse and nothing will hold me back.
Fast forward to 2 years later I started my first position at Northwell’s Plainview Hospital as a patient representative in the admitting and discharge office. I spent 4 years in this position while enrolled at Molloy College for my Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing. After graduation I continued to work at Plainview as a Registered Nurse for 7 years while simultaneously achieving my Masters Degree as an Adult and Geriatric Nurse Practitioner from Molloy College.
Today as I look back I’m proud to say I have come a long way since I was in that dark, anger filled, hopeless place from 14 years ago. My current role as a Nurse Practitioner is in Palliative Care and I have never felt so much fulfillment in my life.
Being diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses, most of which are considered invisible disease, has forced me to push and work harder in order to achieve the same accomplishments as a healthy individual. I always remember back to when I was 16 and how vulnerable I felt – if I have the power to make just one person feel less vulnerable, advocate for them, decrease their pain, and increase their comfort then I have no other option but to continue my calling. Palliative Care is exactly where I belong because I am able to help those who are like myself. In each and every patient I see a reflection of my 16-year-old self staring back at me.
At the end of the day before I lay my head down to sleep I can say with full confidence that what I do with my life isn’t a job, but a calling. Jobs are made with tasks for people to complete, but callings are for people whose task is never complete. The experience of the care is ongoing and is carried with both the nurses and patient for the rest of their lives. Nursing is my calling. I was Made for this.
Are you Made for this like Laura? Explore Nurse Practitioner opportunities today!
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Calling all NPs and PAs: Meet our ACP Leadership!
We’re excited to introduce our Advanced Clinical Providers (ACP) initiative at Northwell Health! With the appointment of a new leadership team, innovative structural changes, and an updated approach that joins Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants, we’re excited to share the changes that will bring ACP’s to the next level of employee engagement and patient care. Those new changes start with our leadership, Assistant Vice Presidents Jason McGrade, PA and Jennifer Laffey, NP.
The exciting new ACP initiative includes an updated strategy and structure that brings NPs and PAs together. “Both Jason and I came from the same arena where NPs and PAs work together and there was no differentiation as we all shared the goal of providing quality care,” Jennifer explained. Jason elaborated, “We really are aligned in our goal to recruit and develop the talent and qualities of Advanced Clinical Providers. Understanding their individual passion, drive, quality, and acumen.” Senior leadership has appointed ACP physician leaders to each service line to help support and foster growth and alignment amongst our NPs and PAs.
We couldn’t have better individuals leading this change! After graduating as valedictorian from PA school, Jason spent ten years at Lenox Hill Hospital before becoming Chief PA at Manhasset in 2011, where he eventually became Director of his service line. After Jason started his MBA in 2017, he knew he wanted to become involved in creating the design architecture for an ACP community. He’ll get that opportunity in his new role as Assistant Vice President for the ACP’s.
Jennifer started in health care as an ICU nurse before she got her Master’s degree, after which she moved to North Shore University Hospital. There, she found many opportunities to develop her career such as preceptorship, mentorship, leadership and program development. Before moving to Health Solutions where she assumed a leadership position. Jennifer helped develop a team of four ACPs into a multi-disciplinary team of 50 spanning Long Island and began teaching for the Hofstra Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies NP program. Now, she’s the NP, Assistant Vice President.
When it comes to joining our team of ACPs, there couldn’t be a better time than now!
“This is a great time for growth and opportunity. We are the most supported we’ve ever been and we’re continuing to develop and grow our programs and our staff,” Jennifer said. With a system as vast as Northwell Health, ACPs can achieve career advancement, explore different areas of expertise, work on exciting projects, and enjoy a true work/life balance.
Both Jason and Jennifer see the new ACP strategy as a continuation of Northwell Health’s commitment to the future of health care. “Health care is evolving and health care delivery, access to patient care, and access to service has changed over the years and certainly it’s been identified that PAs and NPs are the best vectors of that high-quality health care delivery,” Jason said. Both professions have experienced tremendous growth with the support from Northwell Health. According to Jennifer, ACP’s are answering a need in the health care community, “The real goal is elevation within the roles and that impacts overall health care delivery. Especially as health care changes and the landscape changes, we fill the gap to deliver the highest quality of care.”
The new ACP vision and initiatives are an exciting new addition to Northwell Health and will have support from the largest health system in New York State (that’s us!). Creating an innovative program like this is a challenge that we’re Made for. Jennifer puts it best, “We are a leader in providing transformational care and management to patients. There are a lot of opportunities to advance.”
Are you Made for redefining how we deliver care? Check back soon for some more exciting announcements about our new ACP initiative.
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Photo: Our Advanced Practice Leadership Council being truly together at a holiday celebration last year Our Nurse Practitioner leaders are continuously pushing the boundaries to find unique ways to keep our Advanced Practice Nurses engaged. And with over 900 advanced practice nurses in over 17 specializations, they need to. As we rolled out our internal employee promise earlier this year, our leaders came together at the 4th annual Director’s Development Day where they focused on their accomplishments over the year, reflecting on the good and the not so good, as well as goal setting for the System Advanced Practice Leadership Council and workforce for 2018, making sure it’s aligned with our new promise. Throughout the day they went through different exercises to connect our refreshed values to the work they do every day. As they reflected on how our employees are Truly Compassionate, Truly Ambitious, Truly Innovative, Truly Together and Truly Ourselves, they came up with different ways to recognize our employees who go the extra mile for their colleagues, patients and patient families. “It is a system wide mission to get over 90% engagement scores by 2020 and we want to be leading the way. This day is just one example of how we are bringing our leaders together to think about how we can keep our employees engaged and happy by connecting them to our employee promise which embodies who we are as an organization and what we want to achieve.” Carol Patrick, Corporate Director of Advanced Practice Nurses Our leaders focused on strengthening the communication and dissemination strategies within our organization and the groups dialogued about ways to recruit and retain our advanced practice workforce, becoming the employer of choice for Advanced Clinical Providers. Autonomy, team collaboration, value, and recognition were key areas that echoed the sentiments of the advanced practice members in creating action items for successful, and sustainable implementation. Embedding our culture of care and diversity into optimizing accessible, efficient, safe patient centered experiences were unanimously threaded throughout all groups in exploring how we as Advanced Practice Nurses at Northwell Health are truly Made for this.
Our NP Leaders – Leading the way for Advanced Practice Nursing
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It is Northwell Health’s policy to provide equal employment opportunity and treat all applicants and employees equally regardless of their age, race, creed/religion, color, national origin, immigration status or citizenship status, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, sex/gender, gender identity, gender expression, disability, pregnancy, genetic information or genetic predisposition or carrier status, marital or familial status, partnership status, victim of domestic violence, sexual or other reproductive health decisions, or other characteristics protected by applicable law.
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