Our Nursing Staff

The nursing serrvices at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) draws on the compassion and expertise of more than 200 highly-educated nurses with specialized knowledge in areas from juvenile diabetes to epilepsy and sleep disorders. We are committed to providing family-centered care and taking the time to offer the small but crucial comforts that help both inpatients and ambulatory patients to enjoy the highest quality of life possible.

At CHAM, our nurses and nurse practitioners are valuable members of the skilled multidisciplinary teams that staff the following in-patient units:

• Infant/Toddler
• Children
• Adolescent
• Hematology-Oncology
• Neuroscience, which specializes in sleep study and epilepsy
• Pediatric critical care unit (PCCU)

Comprehensive, family-centered care

Most children enter the hospital through our Children's Emergency Department, which along with the other emergency departments at Montefiore, is the seventh busiest emergency services program in the country. From their first contact with our nurses specialized in emergency services, children are made that much more comfortable during their time at CHAM, thanks to our staff's empathetic, around-the-clock attention.

Like our patients, members of our nursing staff come from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. We are particularly sensitive to working with families who hold a variety of beliefs and parenting approaches. We understand that every family is unique, and we aim to provide care that allows each child to live a life that is as normal as possible, while receiving cutting edge, quality treatment. Members of our nursing staff have been known to prepare special meals that will make a child feel more at home, or to run out to find a treat for a long-term patient who needs a break from hospital food.

Emotional support for the entire family

We also provide much needed emotional support to children and their parents and caregivers in dozens of small ways, as we tend to them each day. Our weekly and bi-weekly support groups offer those parents with infants in the Newborn ICU (NICU) a place to share their fears and concerns during their babies' often stressful hospitalization, and as they prepare for discharge. We also offer a bereavement program for those parents who have lost a child, including support groups. Providing compassionate, family focused and developmentally supported care to children and their families is the essence of our practice.

Perhaps, most importantly, we are aware that play and laughter are important in the lives of all children, especially those who are ill. Our nursing staff maintains the spirits of our inpatients with frequent parties and costume days. Our greatest strength as a hospital is the close and caring relationships that members of our interdisciplinary team develop with the children we treat and their extended care network. We strive to make the hospital feel as warm and comforting as we can while children are receiving the treatment they need.

Thomas A. Moulton, MD