BIDMC Honors First Nursing Pipeline Program Graduates
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has honored the first three graduates of a medical center-supported program that enables staff to earn an associate’s degree in nursing while continuing to work.
Date: 1/1/0001
BIDMC Contact: Jerry Berger
Phone: 617-667-7308
Email: jberger@bidmc.harvard.edu
BOSTON – Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has honored the first three graduates of a medical center-supported program that enables staff to earn an associate’s degree in nursing while continuing to work.
Honored as the first graduates of Nursing Pipeline Program of BIDMC/Massachusetts Bay Community College were Brian Portnoy of Waltham, formerly a lead technician in BIDMC’s Emergency Department; William “Zeke” Summit of Peabody, a combination surgical and histology technologist in dermatology; and Genevieve Thomas of Roxbury, a surgical technologist.
The event marked the culmination of more than two years of classroom and clinical training. BIDMC picks up the cost of the program and participants agree to work at BIDMC upon graduation. Also on hand for the celebration were Carole Berotte Joseph, PhD, President of Massachusetts Bay Community College, the educational partner with BIDMC and New England Baptist Hospital, which graduated surgical technologist Melissa Williams of Dorchester.
“It took us as students to do this, but we wouldn’t have been able to do it without the support of all the people around us,” said Thomas.
“I speak from the heart when I tell you I know what you have accomplished and I know how special you are,” said Lois Silverman, Chair of the BIDMC Board of Directors , who related her own story of receiving a $300 scholarship from the BI School of Nursing, which led to a career as a nurse at BIDMC and eventually her success as a business woman.
Silverman said she asks two things of the graduates: to continue to grow and to “give back” through mentoring and helping others. “I know you will make a difference in the lives of those you touch,” she concluded.
The program is one of four pipeline programs offered by BIDMC aimed at helping employees qualify for jobs as a nurse, surgical technologist, research administrator or medical lab technician. BIDMC’s wide range of Workforce Development programs has grown in the past three years from eight employees in the first pipeline program to nearly 200 current program enrollees.
“Our goal,” said Levy, “is to find the best people, create ways for them to grow personally and professionally and help them fulfill their dreams.”
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and consistently ranks among the top four in National Institutes of Health funding among independent hospitals nationwide. BIDMC is clinically affiliated with the Joslin Diabetes Center and is a research partner of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. For more information, visit www.bidmc.harvard.edu.
