Cardiac Nursing at The Children's Hospital at Montefiore

At The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM), our nurses’ mission is to heal, to teach, to discover and to advance the health of the communities we serve. The nurses are an integral part of CHAM’s multidisciplinary team to ensure that each patient receives effective, compassionate and family-centered care.

For the past three consecutive years, CHAM has been ranked among the nation’s leading hospitals by U.S. News & World Report’s annual “America’s Best Children’s Hospitals.” In 2011, CHAM was ranked in all 10 pediatric specialties for the first time. CHAM is renowned for its use of innovative technology and its compassionate, highly skilled staff. CHAM’s pediatric cardiac nurses are a dedicated group of individuals focused on the care of infants, children, young adults and adults with congenital heart disease. We provide care to a diverse population of patients with congenital heart defects, including neonates with complex conditions.

Pediatric Critical Care Unit

The PCCU is a 16-bed unit staffed by pediatric nurses who have been specially trained to provide care to critically ill children. Our nurses routinely care for children who require  artificial heart and lung mechanical support devices, who have undergone hybrid procedures and heart transplantation, or who have pulmonary and chest wall defects. We also care for children with nonsurgical cardiac conditions such as arrhythmias, myocarditis and heart failure. We are committed to patient satisfaction and the development of best practices based on evidence-supported research. Education and experience are top priorities for our staff. We have nurses who hold advanced degrees, including nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists and nurse educators. We currently have an organized and structured Professional Practice council in which policies and practices are routinely updated to ensure that our patients receive optimum care.

Cardiology Unit

The CHAM 8 Cardiology Unit is a 36-bed telemetry/medical-surgical unit providing family-centered care with a focus on encouraging parents to participate in the care of their children. This floor cares for all cardiology and pediatric medical-surgical patients. Our nurses are specially trained in the care of infants and children with congenital and acquired heart disease. Building on this experience, we continue to develop and expand our cardiac care team with training in assessment and identification of pediatric arrhythmias.

Pediatric Cardiothoracic Nurse Practitioners

CHAM has three pediatric cardiothoracic nurse practitioners. Their roles are to provide comprehensive and seamless care to patients and families coping with cardiothoracic conditions. Nurse practitioners enhance communication among team members, provide continuity of care and facilitate inpatient throughput. They also carry out therapeutic procedures such as removal of pacing wires, intracardiac lines, chest tubes and sutures, and they monitor, maintain and report progress of patients to the supervising physician. On the floors, they initiate transfers and discharges, place orders, and evaluate new consultations with the supervising physician. 

The nurse practitioners lecture for the Pediatric Cardiac Core Curriculum, which provides professional leadership and mentoring to advanced practice nursing students from varying nursing programs throughout New York City.

The nurse practitioners rotate their inpatient care responsibilities to gain experience in a variety of areas such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), ventricular assist device (VAD), research, clinical databases, the Gift of Life program and development of clinical practice guidelines.

Outpatient Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Surgery Clinic

The outpatient clinic accepts referrals for all patients with congenital cardiac and thoracic diseases, as well as regular follow-up visits. Families are seen for surgical and catheterization pre- and post-procedure evaluation and invasive cardiac testing, such as stress testing, echocardiograms, tilt table test and Holter monitoring. Nurses facilitate the family’s journey throughout the outpatient process, offering expert care and compassion during stressful visits. The nurse practitioner in the outpatient clinic coordinates care with the Center for CardioGenetics to provide a multidisciplinary approach to families that have been referred for the evaluation of a channelopathy.

Training and Education

Nursing orientation at the Pediatric Heart Center begins with an in-depth Pediatric Nursing Curriculum, which includes both didactic and skills-based classroom settings. This curriculum is a 35-hour class series taught by more than a dozen clinical staff, including advanced practice nurses, staff nurses, clinical nutritionists and pharmacists. The nursing orientation experience is 11 weeks. Weekly objectives serve as guidelines for the preceptors and those attending the orientation. These objectives provide a basis for evaluation of progress to more complex patient acuity as well as for nurses to develop their skills, communication and education. 

The pediatric critical care nursing orientation expands on this foundation with additional offerings to meet the complex demands of the critical care nurse. Orientees receive four additional weeks of training to master the skills required in the high-intensity critical care unit, supported by ongoing communication with clinical educators, unit managers and preceptors.

Additional educational opportunities include:

• Electronic learning (developed by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses) specific to pediatric critical care nursing
• Critical thinking group discussions
• Project presentations to peers at the completion of the orientation 

Nursing Leadership Team

Director of Nursing, Pediatrics
Linda Zieman, MN, RN

Director, Clinical Services for Pediatric Ambulatory
Subspecialty Services
Catherine Cahill, MS, RN-C

PCCU Administrative Nurse Manager
Lyann Lind, MS, RN-C

PCCU Clinical Nurse Education
Elena Bertolino, MSN, RN, CCRN

PCCU Clinical Nurse Specialist
Loraine Delrish, MSN, FNP, RN

Pediatric Cardiology Unit Administrative Nurse Manager
Marcia Lutz, MSN,  RN, CPN

Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery Nurse Practitioners
Martine Bouzi, MS, PNP-BC, RN, CCRN
Kristy Cook, MS, FNP-BC, RN
Melissa Duffy, MS, CPNP, RN

Pediatric Catheterization Lab Associate Administrative Nurse Manager
Imelissa Blancas, BSN, RN

Pediatric Catheterization Lab Staff
Betsy Tirado, BSN, RN
Michelle Cullinane, BSN, RN, CCRN
Rebecca Eisenman, BSN, RN, CCRN
Wilson Valerio, RT

Pediatric Outpatient Cardiology Nurses
Esma Paljevic, CPNP, MSN, RN
Janice Migniuolo, RN

Research Nurse Coordinator
Darlene Fountain, RN

Pediatric Electrophysiology Lab
Lynn Napo, RN

Pediatric Heart Transplant Coordinator
Jenny C. Nova, BSN, RN, CCTC