A graduation ceremony was held in the hospital’s auditorium, attended by hospital leaders, staff members, the graduates and their families.
The following apprentices graduated from the program: Bianca Acuna, J’ana Aikman, Michelle Campos, Shaina Hernandez and Mark Soriano from White Plains; Mildres Aguirre and Jose Saire from Port Chester; Luiza Andrade and Amanda Ferraro from West Harrison; Lauren Boutross from Yorktown; Sarah DeLeno from Harrison; Emily Frantzen from Blauvelt; Ashley Johnson from Mount Vernon; Ronald Lawyer from Newburgh; Kayla Leslie and Laura Power from New Rochelle; Kristina Martorello and Catherine Petitti from Eastchester; Bradley Moody from Poughkeepsie; Vera Peraj from Yonkers; Abigail Regan from Rye, Brianna Zappi from Katonah.
Representatives from the offices of both U.S Rep. Nita Lowey, who is a longtime supporter of the program, and Country Executive Rob Astorino were also in attendance.
During the rigorous full-time, five days per week program schedule, the apprentices experience working in clinical areas in the Hospital including pediatrics, the emergency department, endoscopy, post-anesthesia care unit, ICU step-down, labor and delivery, maternal-child, medical-surgical, oncology and neonatal intensive care.
They also perform supervised tasks such as answering call bells, taking vital signs, assisting patients with meals, assisting nurses as needed and sitting with patients, reading to them and keeping them company. They further receive instruction from members of the nursing staff on a range of topics such as patient safety, infection control and general patient care.
“One of the greatest rewards of working with these aspiring nurses each summer is that we get to see them grow and in more cases than none, we end up seeing them later on working the floors of White Plains Hospital as registered nurses,” said Monica Purdy, nursing liaison for students.