About Nursing at NYHQ

Phone: (718) 670-1208

Nurses are the foundation of every great hospital, and here at NYHQ, they are the bedrock. The nursing team delivers compassionate, safe and professional care to patients. The hospital fosters a nursing culture that emphasizes nurses in leadership roles,and allows a degree of autonomy as well as opportunities for career development.

One of the hospital’s unique characteristics is that the nurses contribute substantially to organizational policies and are empowered to take ownership of their practices by being part of the decision-making process. This governance structure helps nurses make decisions closest to the point-of-care, resulting in positive patient, staff and system outcomes.

For instance, the rapid response coordinators have contributed greatly to the organizational implementation of the Rapid Response Team. Nurses have also developed and implemented a nurse-driven protocol that has greatly reduced the development of urinary tract infections in our patients. The nursing staff at NYHQ has one of the highest rates of national certifications in all nursing specialties, confirming that our nurses are experts in their areas of practice.

Meet the Chief Nursing Officer 

Nursing Governance Structure

The nursing governance structure at NYHQ is a decision-making and communication model based on the belief that decisions made closest to the point-of-care delivery will result in positive patient, staff and system outcomes. Nursing staff are members of nursing councils and committees, as well as hospital-wide interdisciplinary committees. Nursing staff and team members are empowered when they have authority, responsibility, and accountability for both making patient care decisions and recommending changes in unit management.

Nursing Research

New York Hospital Queens has an active Nursing Research program that many nurses have utilized in the past to present research they conduct throughout the year. The structure of the program has undergone some changes recently to make it more streamlined and “user friendly” for all staff. Now, any staff member in any job category can propose a study and submit a proposal to the Nursing Research Council. The Council reviews the proposal, and if it can be approved, they guide the researcher through the research process from project initiation to results presentation. Resources and mentors are assigned as needed.

The Nursing Research Council was created to set the standards for nursing research within the hospital. Council members are drawn from nursing administration, education, and the Lang Center for Research and Education. There are many great nursing research projects underway.

From "Novice" to "Expert"

Our "Professional Practice Model" provides the theoretical framework and structure for achieving positive patient and staff outcomes. Benner's Theoretical Model is the basis for the Department of Nursing Education and Research in providing orientation and educational support to all levels of registered professional nurses on our staff.

Several distinguishing programs illustrate our commitment to recruiting, educating and guiding the new nurse in his or her journey from novice to expert:

The Nurse Preceptor Program

Designed to assist the orientee's integration into the work setting by providing a unit-based preceptor. The preceptor will function primarily as a clinical role model and facilitate the orientee's social integration into the unit. The Nurse Preceptor program recognizes individual nurses for their clinical expertise and promotes a supportive peer network. Preceptor candidates are identified by the unit nurse manager and participate in educational programs that are designed to assist the “expert” nurse in dealing positively and effectively with the “novice.” The preceptors participate in the evaluation process of the orientee and provide feedback on the clinical orientation to the nurse manager and nurse educator.

The Clinical Internship Program

Proposes hiring new graduate nurses into vacant critical care and emergency department R.N. positions. Because of the nature of the responsibilities in these areas, the hospital has always required some level of medical-surgical or critical care experience. However, due to special circumstances, New York Hospital Queens is now considering less experienced nurses for these areas. The hospital intends to provide these nurses with a special and intensive internship program. This will include a 12-week precepted orientation on one of the medical-surgical units to focus on perfecting such things as basic nursing assessment, and organization skills, critical thinking and patient/family education. The new nurse will be expected to participate, complete and pass all aspects of the medical-surgical orientation.

At the end of a successful medical-surgical orientation, new nurses will then begin an intensive critical care or emergency department internship. The new nurses will be required to participate in all aspects of the Critical Care program and be expected to meet all usual requirements for those areas. They will be required to attend BCLS, ACLS and other unit-based competencies. They will continue with an additional 12-16 week clinical internship in the critical care area in order to focus on perfecting critical care skills and assessments, organizational skills, critical thinking and decision-making.

The Clinical Assistant Program

This program provides the opportunity for a matriculated nursing student to provide (non-invasive) basic patient care activities under the direction of a registered professional nurse. The clinical assistant is paired with a senior staff nurse and is able to assist in completing a patient care assignment as well as observe the nursing process in a realistic setting. In addition, weekly educational "Lunch and Learn" sessions provide the opportunity for the presentation of timely and interesting topics as well as a chance to network with each other. The ultimate goal is to provide a positive experience, which will result in the student choosing New York Hospital Queens for his or her postgraduate career.

Onsite BSN/MSN Programs

Sixty registered nurses participate in the onsite nursing degree programs. University classes are provided in the hospital; the nurses’ schedules are flexed and tuition reimbursement is provided to assist staff nurses in pursuing their degrees.

Transcultural Care in a Multi-Cultural Community

The community served by New York Hospital Queens is one of the most densely populated in the New York area. Recent studies show the immediate area surrounding the main campus (Flushing, New York) is home to people of more than 96 different countries speaking over 59 different languages. The nursing staff of New York Hospital Queens is innovative in providing care to patients, their families and the community. The hospital's nurses are both culturally sensitive and able to illicit compliance with a plan of care that will lead to a positive outcome.

Several innovative programs employed by the Department of Patient Care Services include:

Cultural Diversity in Nursing Lecture Series:

Programs presented by nurses of other cultures and ethnicities explaining the variations in care, illness and expectations of their communities.

Language Services:

The Patient Care Services staff at New York Hospital Queens is a multicultural group reflecting the ethnic makeup of our community. All nursing staff who speak more than one language participate in the hospital-wide language bank and are able to translate when called upon to do so. In addition, all staff are familiar with the utilization of the telephone language line.

Community Outreach:

The nursing staff participates in a wide range of community outreach programs and health fairs targeted at health information and wellness preservation for the community.

Recognition of Diversity:

In recognition of the multicultural composition of our staff, the Department of Patient Care Services published a cookbook for National Nurses Week in 2003 incorporating recipes of many ethnic origins.