went back to school at Edinboro University. Originally pursuing a degree in special education, she decided to change majors to nursing after her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Gardner, who earned her degree in 2012, now works three, 12-hour shifts, so she can juggle career and family and spend more time with her children. “I think that when you love your job, it makes it easier to separate yourself from your family,” Gardner says. “Besides being a good mom, this is something else that I’m really good at and it’s serving a purpose.” Gardner says the flexibility also has helped to improve her work performance and given a better continuity of care to her patients. These patients, from ages 18 to 64, are struggling with anything from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and anxiety, to post-traumatic stress disorders, often staying at the hospital for extended periods. “They get to know how you operate, and you know how they operate, and they feel comfortable coming to you and talking to you and I think that’s a really good thing,” she says. “Here, we are so much about protecting each other and having to be safe and protecting the patient, as well.”
Divya Jain, M.D., Saint Vincent Edinboro Family Practice
Divya Jain, M.D., the newest primary care physician at Saint Vincent Edinboro Family Practice, also has found a balance of caring for patients and her family. Jain graduated from Saint Vincent Family Medicine Residency Program after completing medical school in India. Her husband Nishant Koradia, M.D., is an interventional cardiologist at Saint Vincent, and the couple has a 21-month-old son, so Jain balances the family’s busy schedule by seeing patients on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“I wanted to be available for my family and choose a lifestyle I wanted. Family medicine gives me that opportunity,” she says. “Here, I work with four seasoned docs who have been in practice for awhile. I learned a lot from them just seeing them and shadowing them. One of the reasons I selected Edinboro is because they’ve all been very supportive.”
Educational Support
At Saint Vincent, support in the workplace extends to continuing education and professional certifications, as well as a tuition reimbursement program, which incents qualified associates. Saint Vincent also supports a Career Ladder program, which allows promotion for employees who do advance their education and certification.
Baby unit. She later cross trained to Labor and Delivery, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and Pediatrics. In 2006, Althof gave birth to her daughter at 28 weeks, spending 50 days in the NICU — once again validating her passion for her profession. She also was doing forensic nursing on the side and was training with a local CRNP when she realized that she wanted to do more, so she went to graduate school part time for her master’s degree while working full time. “Women’s health was always my thing,” says Althof. “Women, children, that’s what I wanted to do. That’s when I said, ‘I really want to go back. I want to do more.’ My goal was to be done with school by the time my daughter started school.” After graduating with her MSN as a certified nurse practitioner in 2012, Althof was approached by an administrator at Saint Vincent about a new position working for Maternal Fetal Medicine specialists and the hospital’s Oncology Gynecologists. These specialists care for some of the hospital’s most high-risk obstetric patients, as well as those battling cervical, ovarian and uterine cancers. Althof also works with breast cancer patients who see breast cancer survivor and surgeon Kathleen Erb, M.D. “I’m a navigator, support person and always here for my patients. I am a secretary and scheduler. I’m everything to these patients. A phone call comes in, and it comes to me, so I get to know the patients very well,” Althof says. “Just getting to know them and follow them; it’s rewarding. I’m very grateful that Saint Vincent thought of me with this opportunity.” Maureen C. Chadwick, RN, MSN, NE-BC, senior vice president of Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer at Saint Vincent, understands the critical role that the nursing staff plays in patient outcomes. Chadwick, who has juggled career and family, is in her 29th year at Saint Vincent. It is a career that has included positions such as assistant nurse manager, director of inpatient cardiology and cardiology catheterization labs and director of periOperative services (operating room). She also served as an adjunct faculty member at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, where she has taught nursing research, management and capstone courses, and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in organizational leadership at Gannon University. Chadwick is not only a leader in every aspect of Saint Vincent’s nursing staff — at the Erie hospital and Westfield Memorial Hospital in New York — but also a champion of elevating the level of education for nurses throughout the hospital system. She cites the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) report on the Future of Nursing, which points out >
“We have a lot of cross training and promotional opportunities for our employees here who demonstrate an interest in career advancement and career promotion, states Atkinson. “That’s worked not only to the benefit of our associates, but certainly to the benefit of this institution. We find that the more we invest in our employees, the more they invest in the organization, and it becomes a win-win for everyone involved, particularly our patients.” Kristi Althof, a registered nurse certified (RNC) and certified registered nurse practitioner (CRNP), has experienced the support and encouragement from advancing her education and participating in the Career Ladder program. Althof, who has been at Saint Vincent for 14 years, started out as a physical therapy major, then working as a patient transporter in the hospital’s physical therapy department. But, after seeing the nurses caring for patients, decided to pursue her nursing degree instead. Althof graduated in 2004 from Gannon with her bachelor’s degree in nursing and continued working at Saint Vincent in the Mother and
Kristi Althof, RNC, CRNP, has continued her education and advanced her nursing career during her 14 years at Saint Vincent. She currently works for the Maternal Fetal Medicine specialists, GYN Surgical Oncology and Breast Cancer Specialists.
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